LA Times Piece on 'Annoying Orange' Quotes Prof. Jeff McCall '76

“The Web and TV are merging, but we aren’t there yet,” Jeff McCall, professor of communication at DePauw University, tells the Los Angeles Times. Dr. McCall is quoted in a piece in today’s paper which examines the popularity of a series of animated clips, Annoying Orange. Available on YouTube, the cartoons debut today on Cartoon Network as a full-fledged television series.

According to the professor, the transition from the Internet to television is not easy. “Web ‘subscribers’ won’t automatically follow Web series to television because some of the Web charm disappears once a traditional television channel grabs the content and, in a sense, mainstreams it,” he tells the Times.

Scott Collins writes, “But McCall added that Cartoon could probably squeeze some business from Orange because it fits well with its fairly narrow, young-male target audience.”

You’ll find the complete article — headlined “Annoying Orangeremodels its kitchen for Cartoon Network” — at the newspaper’s website (a subscription may be required).

A 1976 graduate of DePauw, Jeffrey M. McCall is the author of Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences and is the faculty adviser to student radio station WGRE. Professor McCall is frequently called upon by major news outlets to discuss media matters and has been quoted in more than 100 newspapers. Access his recent op-ed on the fall schedules of the TV networks in this previous article.

Read original source here