Summary: Meet Kyle MacDonald, an unemployed young Canadian with a crazy-wonderful dream: to trade his way up from one red paperclip to a house in just one year using only his blog as his bartering tool. This program-an intriguing example of online entrepreneurship, a case study of an ingenious marketing stunt, and a testament to the transformative power of doing well by doing good-sums up a genuinely...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: It took two years of negotiation for the BBC's Fiona Bruce to get some face time with Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. In this rare interview, Bruce gains insights into both the man and the icon-genius, business magnate, philanthropist, and one of the wealthiest people on the planet. In addition, Bruce probes what may be the key question facing Microsoft in the post-Gates era: with its hands...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: E-tailers routinely collect information from visitors to their Web sites to better target their ads. Is this surrender of privacy the price of a personalized online shopping experience? In this program, NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Kaye seeks to understand the dynamics of, and the ethical issues surrounding, strategic online marketing with top management from Buy.com, Lycos, and DoubleClick...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: From blogs, to e-books, to online reviews, this program introduces viewers to what it's like to be a writer in a technological age. Brief stories of blogs such as Washingtonienne and Belle de Jour that became books (and one book, Jim Munroe's An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil, that masqueraded as a blog) and a quick interview with a successful e-book publisher are balanced by two short panel...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From Internet search, to Android, to cloud computing: how has Google come so far, so fast, and what are the broad implications of Google's success? This program scrutinizes the Google phenomenon as it explores the company's history, corporate culture, business practices, innovations, and altruistic ambitions. Google's controversial experience in China is examined as well, along with its move to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: An industry once dominated by four giant companies-Sony BMG, Warner Music, Universal, and EMI-has undergone a radical transformation. This program examines the explosion of legal music downloading and viral marketing, which have enabled enterprising bands and singers to distribute their own work rather than signing with major labels. Focusing on the success of Nizlopi, Arctic Monkeys, Internet...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Internet auction house eBay and virtual music community Napster are redefining established paradigms of online interactivity. In segment one of this program, NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels explores eBay's phenomenal success with President and CEO Margaret Whitman and others, while addressing concerns related to fraudulent merchandise and shill bidding. In segment two, Mr. Michels...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: As online gaming companies position themselves to tap an entertainment market that is projected to explode, researchers question the safety of deeply immersive virtual worlds. In this program, MIT psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle; David Greenfield, author of Virtual Addiction; Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online; Brad McQuaid, co-creator of EverQuest; representatives of Sony...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Is the surveillance society inevitable? In No Place to Hide, Peter Jennings examines high-tech monitoring methods that promise greater safety and security but threaten personal privacy. The program shows how Acxiom, ChoicePoint, and other companies use supercomputers to obtain data on more than 90 percent of American households-and how law enforcement and government intelligence agencies...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What would modern life be like without technology? Where has technology made a difference? This program explores how the equipment we often take for granted has become an integral part of our daily lives. At work, at school, and in the home, technology has become one of our most valuable resources. Robots, computers, and many other types of high-tech hardware are introduced.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: No email, no Facebook, no blogging. No Google for researching term papers, even. From here on out it's pencils, spiral notebooks, typewriters, and good old-fashioned library books. What twenty-something in his or her right mind would partake of such insanity? Answer: three college students who have volunteered to spend 30 days without touching or using a computer. Documenting their "digital...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Tens of thousands of people "live" there, and tens of millions of U.S. dollars are exchanged there. Welcome to SecondLife.com! After introducing viewers to this compelling virtual world, You Only Live Twice grapples with overlapping in-world/real-world issues ranging from cybersex and the psychological repercussions of virtual sex crimes, to intellectual property rights fraud, to taxation on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Like it or not, humans are adept at the art of lying. Drawing upon the fields of psychology, sociology, technology, philosophy, and criminology, this program sheds light on the complex realities of untruthfulness through the work of researchers who have made lying a subject of profound study: Professor Bella DePaulo, an expert on the communication of deception; Professor Maureen O'Sullivan, an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: What constitutes news in the Digital Age, and who is most qualified to report it? This program takes an insightful look at the growing marginalization of the mainstream press in the face of the digital communication revolution through the eyes of journalists, bloggers, scholars, and the twentysomethings who are driving the consumption and production of news. The merits and liabilities of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Computer bugs are no mere prank. A disruption of global communications networks by today's sophisticated worms and viruses is costing companies billions and can do lasting damage to the world's economic health. This NewsHour program begins by defining these binary invaders and then examines the escalating security challenges of keeping networks free of infection. Members of the Computer...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Gambling is the world's third-largest industry, and the Web has made it more global than ever. One in twenty Americans gamble online, an illegal activity under the Wire Act which forbids interstate bookmaking over phone lines. This program looks at the explosive proliferation of Internet gaming and how America-its people and its government-are reacting to it. To present an overview of gambling...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: In a world of information overload, information literacy has become a survival skill. But what exactly does information literacy mean? With a focus on the Internet, this video explains how to conduct solid online research by collecting information in an organized, efficient, and ethical way. Professor Maurita Holland of the University of Michigan School of Information provides expert commentary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Compact and portable, digitized information is an attractive alternative to bulky books, analog media, and emulsion-based photographs-but can it stand the test of time? In this program, Stewart Brand, co-inventor of the TCP/IP Internet protocol, and others in the know assess the rapid proliferation of digitization; confront the alarming risk of massive data loss through technology obsolescence,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Started by three kids in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook now boasts over 800 million users and affects society in ways many people haven't realized. This CNBC Original documentary delivers a comprehensive look at how the Internet phenomenon began, evolved, and now influences everyday life-or, in some cases, not-so-ordinary life. Featuring case studies of events prompted by Facebook, including an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: While tracing the spread of English via Internet technology, this program considers the implications of such de facto linguistic hegemony in a world of high-tech haves and have-nots. In addition, the program examines the simultaneous standardization and fragmentation of English as it is acquired by non-native English-speakers in Africa and Asia. Interviews with specialists drawn from WorldCom...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Steven Berlin Johnson is the best-selling author of books on the intersection of science, technology, and personal experience. His book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation examines environments that lead to breakthrough innovations. In this TEDTalk, Johnson says the Web is like a city: built by many people, completely controlled by no one, intricately interconnected,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although many men have prostate cancer-a disease that occurs in two thirds of all men by the age of 80-there is a culture of silence among patients that stifles conversation about it. The complexities of the illness, the disease's location, and potential post-treatment side effects such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction have left them at a loss for words. But the Internet is changing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The more digital technology becomes inseparable from our daily lives, the more chances corporate and political media have to manipulate young people-unless students are taught how to dissect and defend against that manipulation. This program helps educators instill media literacy through an exploration of its basic concepts as well as examples drawn from film and television. Defining media...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Award-winning director Lance Tracy balances serious science with tongue-in-cheek humor to create a documentary scrutinizing the scope and effects of pornography that is informative, compelling, and unsettling. Constructing an experiment to identify attitudinal and behavioral changes that manifest as a result of viewing porn—a study in the manner of the Annenberg School of Communications and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007