Online TV
Days in my life tend to have themes. Today's theme seems to be online television. I started the day by finally watching the English version of Al-Jazeera. Contrary to my expectations it wasn't free to watch the broadband version, but you can catch the 56K version for free. The streaming is fast, and the quality isn't bad. My only gripe with the 56K is the side bar the producers have inserted and the fact that it stops every 15-minutes. The SideBar is the biggest gripe as it makes it impossible to be running the 56K version in the background while you're working.
As for the news content itself, very impressive. Flashy graphics et al. Funnily enough, the station reminds me more of FOXNews than BBC(and that's not because of bias!). Mainly because it's more entertaining than conventional news stations, though that could be just the novelty value talking. I am still struggling to see any bias in coverage, the closest instance was one report where a reporter placed stress on the words US-led (in the context of the Iraqi invasion) 15 times in one report, but other than that the reporting was pretty neutral I thought.
One problem is that after a while it does seem to a little bit like Middle East overload. One can only handle so many shots and reports from sand-laden locations be they as different Gaza, Iraq, and Syria! But I guess Middle East overload is kind of the point of Al-Jazeera.
Anywhere here's a sampling of some of the TV URLs I've come across today:
Al-Jazeera Television
Enough said already!
Shit TV
Literally
UbuWeb: archives of out-of-print/rare/groundbreaking cinema
Not theoretically television, but I think if you played all these movies back-to-back on one channel for a day you'd suffer from brain overload.
Not exactly comprehensive but then again I said today was my online television-themed day, I never said anything about dedicating my life to it!
As for the news content itself, very impressive. Flashy graphics et al. Funnily enough, the station reminds me more of FOXNews than BBC(and that's not because of bias!). Mainly because it's more entertaining than conventional news stations, though that could be just the novelty value talking. I am still struggling to see any bias in coverage, the closest instance was one report where a reporter placed stress on the words US-led (in the context of the Iraqi invasion) 15 times in one report, but other than that the reporting was pretty neutral I thought.
One problem is that after a while it does seem to a little bit like Middle East overload. One can only handle so many shots and reports from sand-laden locations be they as different Gaza, Iraq, and Syria! But I guess Middle East overload is kind of the point of Al-Jazeera.
Anywhere here's a sampling of some of the TV URLs I've come across today:
Al-Jazeera Television
Enough said already!
Shit TV
Literally
UbuWeb: archives of out-of-print/rare/groundbreaking cinema
Not theoretically television, but I think if you played all these movies back-to-back on one channel for a day you'd suffer from brain overload.
Not exactly comprehensive but then again I said today was my online television-themed day, I never said anything about dedicating my life to it!