Musicals a world full of music


Television And The Net- Growing Together, Not Apart

The old fashioned wall posters thatof new shows and the launch of new
featured TV and movie stars along withseasons. Web fan sites provide the
rock bands and that highlightedopportunity for the TV networks to
generations of teen-age bedrooms havepremiere character outlines and even
been overshadowed, if not replaced, byselected promotional clips. This was
fan sites on the Internet. There arepreviously the exclusive domain of
untold tens (hundreds?) of thousands ofmorning news programs and entertainment
them, ranging from amateur idol worshipnews magazines like Entertainment
to sophisticated collections ofTonight.
information, photos and often videoIn the World of Sports
clips of the person, or shows beingIn the sports world, there are several
lionized.gaming sites - particularly in the UK -
For the most part, fan sites can uploadthat invite viewers to upload their
photos and small clips from films underpersonal videos or photos of pro
the "fair use" policy. Generallyathletes or games. The entire sports
speaking, fair use is a court-definedindustry, including the gaming segment,
copyright principle based on the beliefis TV driven. Some sites pay for this
that the public is entitled to freelycontent. In this country as in Europe,
use portions of copyrighted materialsmany of the media savvy pro athletes
for purposes of commentary andhave their own websites. Controversial
criticism. Short clips or stills of apros such as Barry Bonds and Terrell
program or film are usually coveredOwens use those sites to respond to
under fair use.negative news coverage; you will often
Turning Fandom into Big Businesssee their personal blogs quoted in
Like most everything else on thesports stories. Some athletes peddle
Internet, people are finding ways totheir own autographed memorabilia over
make money from the phenomenon. Theretheir web sites.
are indexes of TV fan sites that areTV Personalities
peppered with advertising. Sites for theMany teen TV and music personalities
soap opera stars provide particularlyalso have their own websites and provide
potent advertising opportunities. There(ostensibly) personal updates on their
are "official" and unofficial siteslives, careers, etc. It has changed the
dedicated to public figures in thenature of teen idol worship by bringing
entertainment world. Many of thethe entertainer much closer to the fan.
unofficial sites have advertising asThese personal "star" sites have proven
well, while the official sites oftento be productive publicity and outreach
peddle memorabilia. For that matter, sotools for performers seeking to build a
do the unofficial sites.following among the 12-24 age group.
Any Press is Good PressThey have also helped to build ratings
What the entertainment industry hasfor the TV shows starring these young
learned is that, generally, fan sitesactors.
have a positive impact on theis a site dedicated to television and
entertainer or entertainers featured.film industry gossip, news and images.
The old adage about negative newsYou can find television show clips
coverage is "Print anything you wantthere, presumably placed with permission
about me, just spell my name properly."from the studio. An important component
In other words, any coverage is goodof their content, however, is the index
coverage, any exposure is good exposure.of fan pages for stars of all types -
The really short version is "there's nomusic, movies, TV. All of this content
bad press."including the fan sites is interlaced
For television, this is particularlywith advertising for upcoming movies and
important with regard to the premieresmany non-entertainment, online products.



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