Our Pop Culture Panel looks into efforts to prevent another Oscar flub, the unattractiveness of swearing, the business of influencing and a whole new way to look at shopping.
Preventing another flub at the Oscars
One year after “La La Land” was mistakenly announced as the 2017 Best Picture winner, which was supposed to be awarded to “Moonlight,” special effort is being taken to prevent a similar mistake from ever happening again.
Two employees were moved to different positions within the company after the gaffe, and CwP has announced new rules for this year’s ceremony: a third balloting partner will be present, who will memorize the list of winners, there will be a confirmation process with the presenter before he or she walks on stage, and employees will be banned from using their devices. Will this be enough?
The business of blogging and influencing
The Internet has remained thoroughly entertained by the online beef between YouTuber Elle Darby, and a Dublin hotel, The White Moose Café.
Darby had emailed the hotel requesting free accommodation in exchange for promotion to her 87,000 followers. The hotel posted the email to their social media, not only declining the offer, but asking who, if not Darby, would pay their staff, and recommending she pay her own way in the future.
Darby maintains this is regular business for social media personalities, while the hotel argues the interaction proves such influencers have a sense of entitlement.
Does your potty mouth make you unattractive?
Historically, gender norms have ruled that it’s unacceptable for women to use swear and slang words as freely as some men do,
But research by Tony Thorne at the King College London says that’s slowly changing. Other studies, by the Lancaster University and Cambridge University Press, show that change is happening whether or not men want it to. Since the 1990s, use of the F-word by women was increased by 500 per cent.
Does foul language affect your impression of someone?
A whole new way to look at shopping
After years of work, Amazon opened its first cashier-less store in Seattle last week. Called Amazon Go, the store uses technology like sensors, cameras, and an app on your phone, to track your purchases.
Customers can simply collect their items and leave the story. Their payment will be made automatically through the app and a receipt will arrive shortly.
In an era when online shopping is increasingly the preference, will this bring people back into the stores?
Our Pop Culture Panel this week is made up of: Shanon Burns, on-air personality with 104.9 Virgin Radio in Edmonton; Kari Watson, editor and writer for the YYScene and Tom Keenan, author and professor of environmental design and computer science at the University of Calgary.
