Getting down about financial prospects these days? Times are tough all over, aren’t they? Or at least for some. Of course, if you believe Hollywood, they’re always struggling just to break even (yeah, sure). Well, in the development of Media Literacy coursework, one of the richest veins of cross-collaborative planning is definitely with business courses, whether related to various fields of economics, finance, or career planning.
This recent article from the New York Times from a series on the use of tax breaks and financial incentives in the United States to spur business activity – titled “United States of Subsidies” – provides excellent examples for areas of inquiry in business and media literacy classrooms. This particular story takes place in Pontiac, Michigan, where, as they way in the article, “happy endings do not usually come Hollywood-style.”
Real Art Ways, one of the primary independent venues for movies in Connecticut
To provide another example, in Connecticut – the state in which I teach (and home of ESPN) – the business sectors of government have worked diligently to draw movie production to the state, as one can see in this site from the Department of Economic and Community Development and another page offering specific links for information and documents on tax breaks and incentives. Wherever one is located, there are sure to be rich avenues of investigation for economics studies related to motion picture media.
Earlier, I put up a post on current prospects for movie production students, and things certainly have not changed much since then. In addition, I also commented on topics for media and business classes related to independent cinemas (and also traditions of drive-in theaters).
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[…] noted in earlier blog posts on mediateacher.net, one of the the most popular veins of cross-curricular planning is between business and media […]
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