Following up on last week's class

Last week in class we covered Structure and Framework. We discussed various types of media ownership (state owned, privately owned) and the impact this can have on content.

This week you can read a profile of Saad Mohseni, described as Afghanistan's first media mogul.

You can listen to the NPR interview with the author, Ken Auletta, here.

You can find the full story here:Saad Mohseni, Afghanistan’s first media mogul: newyorker.com

And a link to Tolo TV's website here.

What are the implications of controlling such a large percentage of the television market-share in a country that has a literacy rate between 20-30%?

What pros and cons do you see to the funding structure of Mohseni's television shows? Specifically the U.S.A.I.D. produced reality show described in the piece?

This article likens the difficulty of "cracking down" on programming that is being accused of negatively impacting Islamic values to the same difficulty faced by the Chinese government when attempting to oust Avatar (which we discussed in class). What commonalities do you see between the two situations? What differences do you see?

What are your thoughts on the idea that "old media systems" are still working in countries like Afghanistan?

NBC & Leno - what is the point of towing the line?

Ever since NBC made the decision to move Leno to prime time the world of media professionals has been waiting with bated breath to see what the experiment would yield.

New York Times 12/08 - Where is Leno Going? To Prime Time on NBC
Advertising Age 09/09 - Whatever the Ratings, Leno's Show is the Future of Broadcast.
(note that in order to access the Advertising Age article you will need to sign in to the University Library Article Database using your 7 digit student ID)

While The Jay Leno Show was significantly cheaper to produce than an hour long drama that would typically air in the same time slot, it's doesn't appear to be very clear to anyone outside NBC why they would continue to ride such low ratings for such a long period.
Jay Leno in primetime review: newyorker.com

CBS has publicly recognized that they and other networks have reaped the viewership that NBC hemorrhaged during this experiment: CBS Chief: Failed Leno/NBC experiment boosted CBS.

Advertising Age's John Rash offers some reasons as to why Leno was not working at his new time slot and what a blank canvas might mean: The Rash Report Peacock Network Appears to Call and Audible on Day of Big Game.

With a failed experiment on their hands that, according to the LA Times, some TV veterans estimate to be close to a $200 million dollar mistake. How Zucker's Leno quick fix got NBC into a quagmire - latimes.com

Possible discussion points:

What long term and short term effects to you see this having on NBC and its' affiliate stations?

Did the failure of Leno's show negatively impact NBC's affiliate stations? How large of an impact do you think this ultimately had on O'Brien in The Tonight Show seat? Be sure to support your opinion.

Is this a sign that "reality television" programming (which is often much less expensive to produce) will be unable to replace the scripted show? Or was this experiment just a bad example? What adjustments could have been made?

Why does NBC continue to maintain that this has not been a failure?

How do you see this relating to GM's recent sale of NBC to Comcast?

Your own discussion topics / questions.