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Posts Tagged ‘Sarah Palin’

A TV show that gets new media Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

One of the big talking points of the US presidential election campaign, even in far-flung Australia, has been comedian Tina Fey’s razor-sharp portrayal of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the venerable NBC television show Saturday Night Live. Due to the wonders of YouTube, etc. people all over the world have been able to see the same things that are making them laugh in the US.

What’s now emerging is that this new media availability is just as important in SNL’s home market. I read today that only one-third of people in the US first watched those skit on the TV show itself. Instead of trying to limit the clips as most TV networks have been doing, NBC is happily pasting video links all over the Internet in a bid to get more people to watch the show.

And it’s working. When Sarah Palin herself appeared on the show over the weekend, SNL had its highest ratings in 14 years as people warmed to the thought of duelling Palins on the screen. As an expatriate American (from Joe the Plumber’s hometown) who, like most people living outside the US, is backing Obama, I have to admit Palin did a good job on the show. And how do I know this? Because the clips have been posted online.


Porn loses its lustre online Thursday, September 18th, 2008

I have found a new favourite technology writer - Robert X Cringely at Infoworld. His recent article “Is Sarah Palin more popular than porn? Search me“, is a hoot. He cites a new book by Hitwise general manager Bill Tancer, which shows that searching for social media is now more popular than searching for porn online. As Cringely (yes, that’s his real name, not a pseudonym) writes, “‘As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased,’ said Tancer, [who] indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn.

“I’m guessing Tancer has not visited many social networks, or that all his Facebook friends are old farts. Because when you’re age 18 to 24, social networks ARE pornography. In fact, they’re better. Have you seen some of those profiles? Two words: humena humena.”

I never knew how ‘humena humena’ was spelled before - you learn something new every day!

He goes on to write about something (or someone) else who has gone on to become more popular than porn on the Internet: Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

“Hitwise also measures the most popular searches for political terms. You can guess which lipstick-wearing pitbull of a hockey mom tops the charts there. Per the Washington Post: ‘… in her first two days in the national spotlight, US Internet searches on all things Palin outnumbered any other politician in the past three years…. In many cases, her name was searched alongside the word ‘hot.’ I’m guessing that also includes searches for Palin’s head photo-shopped onto various nude or bikini clad models. 

“Does that qualify as porn? If so, I think Tancer needs to revisit his conclusions about social nets.”

A geek with a sharp sense of humour - got to love it.