Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

There are about 6 major media conglomerates in the U.S.

(also click the thumb nailed image above)

What is a conglomerate you ask? Basically when companies merge under ownership.Some conglomerates have so much power and ownership, that their costs are drastically reduced increasing their overall profit. And think about cross promotion… when you watch the history channel why do you see a lot of ABC commercials or Lifetime commercials?

So lets take a look at some major media conglomerates today: who owns what?(i’ll only list the well known ones, but if you want to see all of what they own click the link below)

Taken from here:

DISNEY:

• ABC Radio Networks
• A&E – (37.5% Disney-owned)
• E! Entertainment Television – (34.4% Disney-owned)
• ESPN Radio
• ESPN Sportszone
• History Channel, The – (37.5% Disney-owned)
• Lifetime – (50% Disney-owned)
• Radio Disney

NEWS CORP: (Rupert Murdoch is crazy..)

• 20th Century Fox
• BSkyB
• Fox Movie Channel
• FOXNews.com
• FoxTel

Newspapers:

• The Courier-Mail
• Herald Sun
• New York Post
• Post-Courier Online
• The Sun
• The Times
• The Weekly Times

SONY CORP:

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Sony Pictures

• Columbia Records
• Epic Records
• RCA Records
• RCA Victor
• Sony BMG Masterworks
• Sony BMG Music Entertainment
• Sony Music USA

TIME WARNER

• AOL Time Warner
  • AOL Instant Messenger
  • ICQ
  • Netscape
  • Winamp
• Warner Bros.
• Atlantic Records
• Rhino Records
• Warner Brothers Records
• Bay News 9
• NY1 News
• Turner Classic Movies

VIACOM

• CBS
• UPN
• Dreamworks
• Paramount Pictures
• Comedy Central
• Country Music Television (CMT)
• Noggin
• Showtime
• Spike TV
• Sundance Channel
• TV Land
• VH1
• Paramount theme parks

VIVENDI:

• Universal Studios
• Def Jam.com
• Motown Records

6 companies controlling almost all the media.. hmm

More on cross promotion later, inshaAllah.

Reading time: < 1 minute

I just recently joined a membership based video mastermind group. as part of the introduction process and breaking the ice, everyone in the group was requested to submit a short video about themselves. I figured I'll have some fun with it.

Check it out:

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Imagine what power YOU could have if you MASTERED the art of persuasion.

How? Amazingly, you can learn the art of persuasion just by studying from Sahih Al-Bukhari.

It’s no secret that I’m huge on dawah. After all, it is our duty as Muslims living in America. Although I don’t claim to have knowledge, alhamdulillah Allah ‘az wa jal has blessed me with avenues and opportunities to give dawah to the non-Muslim masses as well as to the Muslim women in my community.

But how do you successfully get your message across? How can you persuade people to buy your product or change their views? This goes with any medium- newspaper, television, radio, face to face, etc. This is what people in media spend hundreds and thousands of dollars trying to learn. And the most ironic part for us is that we have the best techniques in front of our eyes yet we turn to secularist for advise.

A few semesters ago, I took a Mass Comm. course at LSU about persuasion. It was one of my favorite classes. We talked about everything from the art of persuading people on an individual level to the art of persuading mass audiences.

However, that wasn’t the most interesting part of the class. In the back of my mind every technique and aspect of persuasion discussed, I could relate to the dawah of Rasool Allah Salallahu alayhi wa sallam.

So I’m currently in the process of writing a book. A book perhaps that will be one of the strongest guides to dawah today. I am in no way knowledgeable… and that is why I am going to review my book with a Sheikh inshaAllah.

First, we need to know why talking about the sunnah of persuasion is important. And more importantly, what in the world it has to do with Leechon Films:

1. Persuasion is one of the most powerful and perhaps one of the hardest things to master.

2. In mastering the sunnah of persuasion, one will be able to give dawah to Muslims and Non-Muslims in the best way possible- by following the techniques of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam.

3. You can highly appreciate why Allah chose the best of the best to convey the message of Islam. And what aspects exactly make him the best of the best, and how that relates to persuading people.

4. Leechon Films aims to inspire Muslims all over the world with it’s halal media, inshaAllah. In order to inspire people you have to learn about ethos, pathos, and logos.

5. In order to help raise people’s iman, you have to learn how to persuade them to give up the haram.

Media is a strong medium. We as Muslims living in the west realize this everyday.

And we can be that much stronger as a Muslim media outlet, because we have the truth. we Don’t persuade with deception and lying.

I’m going to start a series on persuasion – how to master it using the concepts learned in my mass comm classes, but relating them to the dawah of Rasool Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam.For those of you interested in Islamic media, this inshaAllah will be HIGHLY beneficial bi’ithnillahi ta’ala.wallahu alem.

Stay tuned… videos and articles to come soon, inshaAllah.

They use it with deception… so why can’t you with truth? (*Mute the beginning of thevideo because it has music*) as you watch, think about Hadith or situations of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam that relate…

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

A lot of Muslims these days are so lazy and uncreative that they are willing to compromise on their deen under the clause of “necessity.”

People purchase homes based on interest because they say its a necessiety to have a roof over your head.

Understood. You HAVE to have a roof over your head and provide for your family, but who said you have to OWN that roof if you can’t afford it?

When it comes to the realms of entertainment and media, a lot of Muslims who follow the opinion that musical instruments aren’t permissible – especially string instruments, tend to compromise on that area as well.

Whatever happened to breaking the “rules” of entertainment and doing things in a creative and unique way that was along the lines of Islamic principals?

This spotlight is dedicated to Naturally Seven.

Naturally Seven is a HipHop-R&B-A’cappella group out of New York. The following was taken from: http://www.singers.com/gospel/seven.html

Naturally Seven use neither instruments or samples for any of this! The seven vocal giants have found a wonderful way to exploit the variety of their styles– with a self-directed irony, they dramatize their competing musical interests as comedy.

The following video is of them performing in the Paris Metro:

The following is their new music video called “Feel It”

Muslim vocalists…bring forth your talents!

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

What do you call an “A-Grade” lecture?

In an ideal scenario where money, equipment, and human resources are not an issue you may be able to produce something along the lines of what multi-million dollar studios produce. A speaker who can hypnotize and move people with their words. A setup where you have multiple professional grade cameras facing both the audience, and the speaker. Elaborate lighting that is setup in a way that is not uncomfortable to either the speaker nor the audience, and at the same time is able to set the right mood. Technical directors and editors on hand that can switch from one angle to another with such finesse that you hardly notice the fact that there is a whole crew of people behind all of this…

…delivering an experience that is both exciting, inspirational, entertaining, and beneficial as a whole…

…but the layman doesn’t have all that at their hands…or does he?

The last two weekends of January I spent my time in Houston attending an AlMaghrib seminar with Qabeelat Hosna on the topic of Thematic Tafsir. I was invited by Eman Rush to help with the production of the DVD for the seminar. Although we had to cancle production on the second Friday of the seminar due to a location change that was unsuitable for recording there were many lessons learned that can be applied by anyone to produce a true A-GRADE lecture.

I’m a firm believer…

…in the fact that the technology and equipment doesn’t define the production, rather its the passion that drives the producer. That passion will lead the producer to come up with creative ways of meeting the deadline and keeping to a standard at the same time.

• Know your tools and team – What good is a camera to you if you don’t know how to use it? How will you direct and suggest your team to do certain things if you yourself don’t know what you’re doing? What good is a professional microphone if you don’t know how to record with it? How will you lead your team if you don’t know what makes them tick?
• Max out your creativity before you max out your wallet – Throwing money at a problem or challenge doesn’t necessarily solve it. Throwing your mind, body, and spirit at it does.
• Be Macguyver — In other words, be resourceful. Take an account of everything you have available to you? Locations, people, tools, equipment, etc. Don’t have a boom pole for a mic? Make one! who said you cant use a broomstick or a broken windshield ice-scraper as a means of holding your microphone from a distance. Who says you can string a few $2 pipes together to make a camera stabilizer? Who says you can’t use some string and a bolt to use an a camera anchor?
• The Speaker – Is the speaker engaging? Are they the type to connect with your target audience? Do they have a story to tell? Do they give words that are inspiring, educating, inline with the Sunnah, and overall beneficial? In that end what they are saying and the way they are saying it is what will really matter.
• Cut it up — The production and filming is only half the job. The other half if editing and marketing. Be creative and have fun. Cut it up like no other lecture has been cut up before (most lectures are just static with a single camera angle…how very un-engaging.)

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Leadership & Character

• Be diplomatic – Not everyone will appreciate what you’re trying to do. That’s okay. You’re not there to please them. Just keep in mind the hadeeth of RasulAllah-saw, “Fear Allah where ever you are, follow every bad deed with a good deed, and be kind to others.” — Treat everyone with respect. This goes a loooong way.
• Break the rules – Who said they’re rules in production? Break them! The only rules are the ones you set for yourself. The only limitations are the ones you set for yourself.
• Lead by example — when you want to instruct someone to hold the camera in a certain way, do it yourself first. They will follow.

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Originality is Golden

• There is no one way to get a result – Find out how others have done it (and/or) find the way that works best for YOU and DO IT! The key is to DO IT!
• Be Different — Do something that others wouldn’t do. Produce a lecture on a topic that others wouldn’t dare to risk. Maybe you don’t even want to do a lecture. Do something else. Be creative. Have fun
• Be Sincere — There’s nothing worse than having all your effort wasted in the sight of Allah-swt because your intentions were not directed to Him. Don’t be the one to stand on the day of judgment in front of your creator and be told that your actions were in vain because you did it for the wrong reasons.

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Tie Your Camel

• Ready…FIRE!…aim. Repeat. — The MOST important step is to start. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to get going. That’s all that Allah-swt demands of us. The results are in His hands, so put your trust and reliance in Him.

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InshaAllah this is of MASSIVE benefit to you, leading you to amazing RESULTS. I’d love to see the product of your efforts.