This year's Hollywood is out of touch moment from the Oscars -- Gwyneth Paltrow's (pre-written) award introduction began with "Thanks to cell phones, almost everyone in the world is now a cinematographer." Um, "almost everyone"? There are approximately 2.2 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide, but how many of their phones can take video? More importantly, World Bank estimates show that approximately 1.3 billion people make less than $1 a day and another 1.6 billion make $1-$2 per day. Call me crazy, but I don't think many of those people are taking video with their cell phones.
« Mitt Romney's baby carriage ditty | Main | Gaffney redoubles attack on dissent »
February 25, 2007
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451d25c69e200d834e6f08653ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Paltrow: "Almost everyone" has a cell:
Comments
The comments to this entry are closed.
About Me
I am an assistant professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Duke University in 2009 and served as a RWJ Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan from 2009-2011. Previously, I co-edited Spinsanity, a non-partisan watchdog of political spin, and co-authored All the President's Spin. My posts here are also frequently cross-posted at HuffPost Pollster and Washington Monthly's Ten Miles Square blog. I also tweet at @BrendanNyhan and serve as New Hampshire campaign correspondent for Columbia Journalism Review. For more, see my bio or academic website.
Content feeds:
-Blog RSS
-Blog RSS (no Twitter roundups)
-Twitter feed
-Twitter RSS
-TumblrEmail:
bnyhan@yahoo.com
Recent Posts
- New at CJR: A guide to responsible birther coverage
- New at CJR: The over-covered image war
- Twitter roundup
- New at CJR: The predictable failure of Americans Elect
- The importance of NSF funding for political science
- NPR interview on partisanship versus facts
- New at CJR: Obama "evolves," Romney "flip-flops"
- NPR interview on "The Death of Facts"
- More on pre-accepted academic articles
- Obama's second scandal: Secret Service
Brendan,
Oops! The article says 2.2 billion... 3 billion predicted by the end of the year. Much of the growth from the Third World.
Posted by: Tony Smith | February 25, 2007 at 11:12 PM
Thanks for catching the typo; it's fixed above.
Posted by: Brendan Nyhan | February 25, 2007 at 11:25 PM
Another hard hitting commentary challenging the "facts".
And you know damned well she meant it literally. Why, my BlackBerry doesn't even tak photos!
Take THAT, Hollywood liberals.
Posted by: Lettuce | February 25, 2007 at 11:42 PM
Wow- this is your complaint? Luckily you have a blog to help get this off your chest.
Posted by: Preston | February 26, 2007 at 06:50 AM
So the *literal* truth is (guessing) that hundreds of millions of people can now take and transmit still photos, with something that they have with them almost always, which fits comfortably in their pockets. Tens of millions (ramping up sharply) can take short video clips.
Ten years ago, the number of people who could do this would be the number of people who carried a camera with them, wherever they went.
It's an amazing leap, and one which is still on the way up at a steep rate.
Posted by: Barry | February 26, 2007 at 09:04 AM
This is worth getting worked-up about?
Um... ok.
Posted by: Matt | February 26, 2007 at 11:07 AM
She's almost as out of touch as the Presnit, when he went bike riding Saturday during the White House/Homeland Security 10 city terrorist bombing drill. Better than getting caught reading "My Pet Goat."
Posted by: whack | February 26, 2007 at 12:18 PM