As always, the past year’s media output covered a wide range — in quality, subject matter, and effect. It’s heartening to think that media might matter in venues beyond multiplexes, as demonstrated by the high-volume political agitating conjured by Mel Gibson and Michael Moore (and their voluble detractors), and also good news that reality (unscripted) TV might be losing steam. Most happily, documentaries — courtesy of cable TV, film festivals, and at long last, anxious mainstream distributors studios — seem to be making their own sorts of difference. And once again, PopMatters‘ writers do their best to sort out the wheat, chaff, and in-between.