Wow! "Black mirror" by Charlie Brooker (2011)! Can't wait to see "The national anthem", "15 million merits" & "The entire history of you". (That third episode was written by Jesse Armstrong, not by Charlie Brooker.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/01/charlie-brooker-dark-side-gadget-addiction-black-mirror
http://www.rektoverso.be/artikel/het-verzet-van-binnenuit-over-de-miniserie-black-mirror
http://www.endemoluk.com/news/black-mirror-a-new-drama-from-charlie-brooker
http://sargasso.nl/archief/2012/01/11/welkom-in-uw-toekomst/
http://www.tuppencemagazine.co.uk/black-mirror-dvd.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror_(TV_series)
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charliebrooker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Armstrong
+ bonus http://guru.bafta.org/  ;-)

Adam Curtis - click the tag for more on him - has just blogged "a brief history of the appearance of ghosts and poltergeists and other spirits on television. Not fictional ghosts - but real ones, or the reports of their appearances, that you find in various news and documentary programmes. But as so often when one looks at material in the archives, it turns out that it tells you less about the subjects of the programmes - the ghosts - than about the strange medium that possesses modern society - television.

In 1992 the BBC transmitted a drama that was based on a number of the factual reports I am going to show. The underlying aim of the makers of the drama was not just to frighten, but to demonstrate in a vivid way what had happened to the very idea of reality in television. It was called Ghostwatch, and it caused a national sensation because thousands of viewers believed it was real. And, at the time, the BBC promised never to show it again.

I want to tell the story of the rise of the suburban poltergeist in factual tv from the 1970s onwards, how those reports inspired Ghostwatch, and how the extraordinary reaction on the night Ghostwatch was transmitted in 1992 showed clearly where the real ghosts of our society had now gone to live. They are inside television itself  - a strange nether world of PR driven half truths, synthetic personalities, and waves of apocalyptic fear."

For what comes next, open http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/12/the_ghosts_in_the_living_room.html + for more on "Ghostwatch", see also:
http://www.noisetosignal.org/tv/2006/10/everybody-loves-raymondtunstall.php
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/715896/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch
http://www.ghostwatchbtc.com/

Marc Holthof on potlatch vs the prisoner's dilemma, and re: the VRT's foolish econologic decision to end "Music for Life" …

"It is the "prisoner's dilemma" in the early 1950's by the mathematician AW Tucker was formulated and a classic of game theory. […] Focusing less on the economic implications of this situation. There is currently no serious economics textbook in which the prisoner's dilemma is not mentioned. It is an economic response to another parable: Adam Smiths 'Invisible Hand of God'. According to this principle on a magical way contributes to the overall good (thanks to the hand of God) if everyone pursues his own interest. Tucker makes the prisoner's dilemma, however, firewood for the neoliberals sacred principle that everyone is better competition by demonstrating mathematically that everyone is worse. […] It is the dominant mechanism behind the so-called global economy, the engine driving the financial markets dominate the world. The dilemma of the prisoner by capitalism with very great success on the competition between different national and local economies. Even the once mighty Europe - a principle based on trust and solidarity - is because of the crisis of the victim. The European Union has now become 'a dysfunctional organization of fanatical right-wing governments and negligent Social Democrats who unprecedented savings, unemployment and poverty to the people impose', or to impose, because they are trapped in a very tough fiscal competition with each other. […] There is no competition staged this play, not in competition with groups together and against each other - which according to the prisoner's dilemma inevitably results in a downward, dialectical spiral. From that downward spiral can only escape if you choose to trust and solidarity. Music for Life is based precisely on solidarity, with beneficiaries in Africa, but much more among the participants who constitute a community of benefactors. A non-exhaustive society of donors, where everyone can participate. […] This is remarkable, because only highly exceptionally escapes something to the game of give and take in our over-economic society. Music for Life is a bit of that, a harbinger of a community that is averse to competition, which escapes the fatal dilemma The prisoner, who does not see the community as a function of the economy, but in function of the real basic premise of any social: the gift giving."

Source = the G-translation of Mark Holthof's article in Rekto:Verso #46 (2011-03): http://www.rektoverso.be/artikel/music-life-en-het-dilemma-van-de-gevangene via http://translate.google.nl/ (complete with their translation mistakes and all).

Bonus Blommaert, Jan: http://www.epo.be/uitgeverij/boekinfo_boek.php?isbn=9789491297076

 

I.M. Guy Debord. [IM = infotainment media?] For the complete 1973 film with English subtitles: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9. With Spanish subtitles: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 (voir aussi).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle_(film)
http://library.nothingness.org/authors.php?id=2
http://indymedia.nl/nl/2004/06/19810.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Debord

Belgica est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum duam incolunt Belgae … horum omnium fortissimus est GAL … There's a brand new book ("GAL - een halve eeuw op het scherp van de snee", ISBN 9789461310187) and Curieus are showing Gerard Alsteens' work all over Flanders in 2010 and 2011 (check their link for the dates of the travelling expo). 50 years of committed genius! Hats off to you, sir!
http://www.vanhalewyck.be/index.php?page=bookDetail&id=581&writer=581
http://knack.rnews.be/nl/actualiteit/beeldreportages/cartoons-gal/album-1194703645808.htm
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/mediatheek/programmas/Reyers%2Blaat/2.13438/2.13439/1.920419
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur+en+media/kunsten/101208_GAL50jaar
http://www.brusselnieuws.be/video/gal-blikt-terug-op-50-jaar-carrière-brussel
http://www.brusselnieuws.be/artikel/vijftig-jaar-gal-‘tekenen-moet-je-leren’
http://www.cobra.be/cm/cobra/expo/101207-sa-gal_joos
http://www.blokwatch.be/content/view/654/142/lang,nl/
http://www.brusselnieuws.be/audio/vijftig-jaar-gal
http://www.presscartoon.com/nl/cartoonists/27
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2394086
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal_(cartoonist)
http://www.curieus.be/gal/

Alongside the media critique of Katleen De Ridder, there's an excellent manual on 'intercultural communication' by Nadia Dala (ISBN 9789020990942). For journalists and anyone interested. Both women meet on 2010-11-04 (19:30) at the Antwerp book fair.
http://www.boekenbeurs.be/boekenverdieping/hoe-intercultureel-zijn-onze-media
http://mechelen.lessius.eu/content/khm-lannoocampus-debat-intercultureel-communiceren-wie-durft
http://www.lannoo.be/content/lannoo/wbnl/listview/1/index.jsp?titelcode=22975&fondsid=8
http://www.nadiadala.info/boeken_NL.html
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Dala

"De witte media" (Lannoo 2010-10-26, ISBN 9789020985733) by Katleen De Ridder (of the Belgian Minderhedenforum) is a must read book if you're into investigating intercultural communication, or integration vs. polarisation & media critique tout court. (Meanwhile, it's sad to see that Rudi Rotthier's excellent reports on living in Brussels aren't even available online.)
http://www.minderhedenforum.be/media.htm
http://www.minderhedenforum.be/2media/2010SynopsisDeWitteMedia.htm
http://www.kifkif.be/page?&orl=1&ssn=&lng=1&page=ActiviteitenKiFKiF&acy=839
http://www.lannoo.be/content/lannoo/wbnl/listview/1/index.jsp?titelcode=16760&fondsid=8
http://www.bruggenbouwers.com/2010/07/09/waarom-zijn-allochtonen-altijd-zo-slecht-in-het-nieuws/
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20101022_077
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=AC317P84
http://www.radio1.be/programmas/ochtend/boek-witte-media

Bonus best medium in ages: http://www.stampmedia.be/

Waw! Ceci Moss has assembled a massive list of art-related podcasts, online radio stations, and more … for Rhizome. She encourages readers to post their recommendations in the comments … I'm very impressed by Miss Moss's own A million keys blogthang too.

"Toute une nuit" (1982) by Chantal Akerman is a truly idiosyncratic slice of - er - commonplace avantgarde depicting average human beings of the early eighties choreographically sweating and longing and losing both their cool and the plot during a hot summer's night … until the early morn's orage brings them back to reality. Filmed in Brussels and Strombeek (Belgium) with a typically Belgian mix of a cast, featuting Frank Aendenboom, François Beukelaers, Jan Decleir, Jan Decorte, Luk De Konink, Ingrid De Vos, Chris Lommé, Hilde Van Mieghem and many more … "Toute une nuit" somehow ends in much the same way as "La notte" (Antonioni 1960) … yet it's totally of its day and age (see also Bausch, Blier, De Keersmaeker, Tuxedomoon, Van Tieghem, Yello, …)! To me, "Toute une nuit" ranks as one of la Akerman's best - I really love the perfect styling of restlesness and the scarce of dialogues replete with poetic clichés (check Decleir's character's homecoming) that somehow anticipate on the eclecticism and sampling that would mark Brussels later on (and still does). Even so, "Toute une nuit" depicts the universal City and its citizens, both passionate and resigned.
http://www.paradisefilms.be/index.php/movies/view/id/15
http://www.cahiersducinema.com/CHANTAL-AKERMAN.html
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantal_Akerman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantal_Akerman
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/akerman.html
http://eng-wdixon.unl.edu/akerman.html
http://www.siupress.com/product/Identity-And-Memory,459.aspx
http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=2108
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/akerman.html
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/chantal-akerman/bibliography/
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/mln/v120/120.5pursley.html
http://grunes.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/toute-une-nuit-chantal-akerman-1982/
http://www.out1filmjournal.com/2008/08/forgotten-vhs-10-toute-une-nuit-chantal.html
http://www.yaledailynews.com/scene/film/2008/02/15/akerman-wrong-for-lovelorn-filmsters/
http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-A-Ba/Akerman-Chantal.html
http://www.filmreference.com/film/94/Chantal-Akerman.html
http://www.theyshootpictures.com/akermanchantal.htm
http://www.cinepassion.org/Reviews/t/TouteNuit.html
http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/touteunenuit.htm
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/007700.html
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=7472
http://mubi.com/cast_members/2681
http://www.contour2005.be/ca.htm
http://cinemacomcana.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/dvdreviews31/chantal_akerman_collection.htm
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/AllCycle/Chantal%20Akerman?OpenDocument&sessionM=&L=1
http://www.cinematek.be/index.php?node=54&page=detail_personal&id=495&searchtype=personal
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1351-eclipse-series-19-chantal-akerman-in-the-seventies
http://www.carlottavod.com/index.php?search=Akerman&option=com_catalog&view=list
http://sullivandaniel.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/all-night-tonight/  + click the tag
http://alsolikelife.com/shooting/2009/12/989-121-toute-une-nuit-all-night-long-1982-chantal-akerman/
… eh and do check this last link! Sadly, the pdf with press clippings below doesn't always get rendered. Used to, though, and sometimes does. Second pdf from Versus magazine (source) seems ok. Viva Posterous?

Broadcaster Stephen Fry has hit out at the "infantilism" of British tv [...]. He also [...] said "fear" is everywhere in the television industry in this country. [...] "if you are an adult you want something surprising, savoury, sharp, unusual, cosmopolitan, alien, challenging, complex, ambiguous, possibly even slightly disturbing and wrong. You want to try those things, because that's what being adult means." Fry was delivering the Bafta Annual Television Lecture in central London. During a question and answer session after his speech, Fry told the audience: "If I wanted to be angry … I would say infantilism's the problem. The number of times I turn on the television and I think 'Gosh, children's television's gone on, that's a really good art documentary … Oh my God, it's nine o'clock in the evening. This is for grown-ups?' It's just shocking." [...] "they ought to surprise and to astonish and to make us feel perhaps the possibility there is a world outside that we know nothing of to provoke us, to provoke in the best sense of the word, sometimes in the worst sense", he said. "To surprise us, to outrage us."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/16/stephen-fry-doctor-who?CMP=NECNETTXT766