According to some people the world will come to an end in 2012. Probably not, but even if it is, there is at least one good reason to look forward to Christmas next year. Nine years after the Lord of the Rings trilogy finished with The Return of the King, we can once more immerse ourselves in Middle Earth as the first installment of The Hobbit will appear in theaters worldwide in December 2012. Based … Continue reading
Dit is het tweede en laatste deel van mijn interview met Anton Jongstra en Aldo Paape, makers van het populaire AVRO televisieprogramma Wie is de Mol? In het eerste deel van het interview, dat hier te vinden is, vertelden de heren onder andere hoe het programma wordt voorbereid. In dit tweede deel van het interview gaan Jongstra en Paape verder in op het 2010 seizoen dat zich afspeelde in het land van de rijzende zon, … Continue reading
Al jarenlang is Wie is de Mol? één van de populairste en meest bekeken programma’s op de Nederlandse televisie. Elk seizoen kijken er weer miljoenen Nederlanders in een poging om te ontrafelen wie van de kandidaten de grote saboteur, de Mol, is. In 2001 won het programma een Gouden Beeld toen het werd verkozen als beste amusementsprogramma. In 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010 en 2011 werd Wie is de Mol? bovendien genomineerd voor de prestigieuze Gouden … Continue reading
Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997) was the most influential Japanese actor of his time and achieved more fame than any of his Japanese colleagues in the twentieth century. With his vivid portrayals of powerful warlords, rugged samurai, noble peasants and disillusioned modern men, Mifune ruled Japanese cinema for many years. Especially under the wing of acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa, Mifune gave electrifying performances in numerous films (such as Rashomon and Seven Samurai) now regarded as classic cinematic … Continue reading
In september 2007 zond RTL5 het programma Lost in Tokyo uit, een reality serie waarin twaalf onervaren reizigers werden gedropt in Tokio en zich moesten zien te redden zonder hulp van buitenaf. De kandidaten, zes mannen en zes vrouwen, allen onbekend met de Japanse taal en cultuur, moesten samenwerken en tegelijk de strijd met elkaar aangaan middels allerlei opdrachten. Het doel: kijken wie het best bestand bleek tegen de cultuurschok en zich zodoende in Tokio … Continue reading
The World Wide Web has long been hailed as the medium that would revive the civil society and the public sphere, by means of providing digital spaces for political deliberation, discussion and – with the introduction of ‘Web 2.0’ – other forms of interactive participation. Media and communication scholars have been writing about the potential of e-democracy for about twenty years, ever since the Internet became widely available in the ‘developed world’ in the 1990s. … Continue reading
Coverage of international news in print media has been declining significantly over the last decade. A recent report about international news called ‘Shrinking World’ showed for example that there has been a drop of approximately forty percent in international news coverage across UK national newspapers such as the Guardian, Telegraph, Mail and Mirror. International news now only makes up eleven percent of the news, in comparison to twenty percent in 1979 (Moore, 2010). American Journalism … Continue reading
In 2003 Frank Warren – the founder of PostSecret.com – visited Paris for the first time in his life. Upon arrival he bought three postcards which then appeared at night in a lucid dream Warren had. In his dream the postcards had been altered, written upon. After waking up Warren recreated the postcards as he had seen them in his dream, which meant the start of the ‘reluctant oracle’ project what would eventually become the … Continue reading