The Media Pundit most read posts from 2008
by
Continuing the recap from yesterday when I listed the most read posts from 2007, the year The Media Pundit was launched, here is the first full year in operation. From the launch in July of 2007 through the last of the year, this blog had a solid 61,199 views. 2008 was a bit of an odd year and only saw 100,834 views for a full 12 months.
Because some of the most read posts from 2008 were also on the list in 2007, I've expanded it from five posts to ten.
Here are the top posts from 2008.
1. Streaming and Download Links: Heroes, Chuck, Bionic Woman, The Office, Friday Night Lights (12,671 views)
The second most read post in 2007 was the most read post of 2008; a list of URLs where you could stream recent episodes of shows that -- at the time -- were new and hot. The only one of these shows not still on the air is Bionic Woman. Sadly, Heroes will probably be gone by this fall.
2. Damn those disturbingly hot 15-year-olds (11,649 views)
Young female stars are held to an unfair standard because of their celebrity status. A lot of the criticism that Miley Cyrus has gotten has been for behavior that isn't just typical of girls her age, but probably very healthy if you asked any psychologist who isn't being preachy. This case was little different. This had more to do with how Miley was portrayed in an issue of Vanity Fair, pictures that were sexy and suggestive, and that bothered a lot of people because of Miley's age. This post was some of the first media criticism I wrote on this blog and has been the most read story on the site ever since. Sadly, not for good reasons. The title was a borrowed joke from another blog that was nothing more than a passing remark, something to do with Emma Watson. I thought it was funny and very fitting for this post. Unfortunately the title seems to lure and endless stream of perverts looking for pictures of underage girls. Talk about irony.
3. Hollywood Tuna accusing Egotastic of poaching content (4,289 views)
Another adventure in minor media criticism. These two websites do nothing but post pictures taken by photo agencies of female celebrities. Actual written text never amounts to more than a single paragraph, usually something trying to be funny. These websites do not generate any original content, and are called link or content aggregators. At this time, one side (Tuna) accused the other (Egotastic) of taking its content. Content that belongs to neither side because both sites get the pictures from a third party, probably the same third party photo agency (e.g. paparazzi). It was dumb, but I wrote about it anyway.
4. Movies, TV shows recently released (4,216 views)
One post in a semi-regular series listing movies and TV shows recently released on DVD. Never really took off as a series but this post ranked well in Google and drew in a decent amount of traffic. For some reason while I could get people to this older post, I just couldn't get them to follow subsequent links to the most recent one. I quit doing this when Amazon decided to be a whiny little child over a new tax in North Carolina that would have affected affiliate sales. They kicked everyone in the entire state out of their program rather than pay a small tax. Disgusting and greedy company.
5. Watch the Heroes Season 2 Premier 'Four Months Later' Streaming Now (3,451 views)
The third most read post in 2007 was the fifth most viewed the next year. Lots of people trying to find places to watch Heroes online, for free, and legally. This post filled that void before Hulu was such a big deal with so much content.
6. 'Jericho' Season 2 Bits (updated) (3,325 views)
This is why I expanded the list. The sixth most read post in 2008 was the single most read post in 2007 (nearly 16,000 views.)
7. Ryan Phillippe, a Vikiing? Huh? (2,291 views)
Ryan Phillippe at first blush doesn't seem like a good fit to play a vikiing (a skinny, pretty and preppy white boy), so I thought it'd make a fun but short post. It was both of those things, but also popular. Apparently a lot of people search Google for Ryan Phillippe and this post, for whatever reason, ranked well enough to bring in views. I guess the movie never went into production because I can't find much of anything on it two years later.
8. Torchwood season 2 censored for your protection (1,909 views)
The BBC reportedly was going to censor the second season of Torchwood to make it more family friendly, so they could air it in an earlier time slot. I am not a fan of this, it is the job of parents to know what their kids are watching and for them to decide what they can see and what they can't. To have censorship like this is just flat out wrong and offensive to a supposedly free and enlightened society.
9. Plot News For Shyamalan's 'The Happening' (1,721 views)
The title says it all. The plot of Shyamalan's new movie -- previously known as "The Green Effect" was pretty secret, as are most of his films. People were looking for information about it so I went out, found some, and wrote about it.
10. Best scifi film poll topped by non-scifi flick (1,538 views)
Anyone familiar with me or this site knows that my definition of science fiction is the dictionary definition. Space ships or living in the future doesn't cut it with me. So naturally any list that purports to rank the top sci-fi TV shows or movies of this year/decade/all time gets my undies in a wad. The SciFi (now SyFy) channel, of all people, did a list and topped it with Star Wars: Episode IV. I'm sorry ,but Star Wars is not science fiction, and that's actually pretty insulting to the genre. "The force" is pure fantasy, little different than the magic in Harry Potter. Light sabers? Junk science. Ships traveling at the speed of light but still traveling between star systems? Junk science. Forget it.
Well, there it is the, the most read posts of 2008 combined for 47,060 page views, about half of the total for that year (100,834.) The list for 2007 is here, and the 2009 list will come tomorrow.
Leave a comment