Humping The (new) Media Landscape

The Myth of Viral Media

I just returned from a weekend of convergence culture convening at MIT's Future's of Entertainment Conference. I am still reeling from all the amazing people and potent conversations. Although a relatively small group attends this event, the variety and level of engagement is remarkable. Just sifting through the pile of business cards I collected over the weekend, from experienced thinkers and do-ers, producers and PHDs alike, I am reminded the importance of this very rare, much needed, opportunity for exchange.

The conference started on a pitch perfect note when Henry Jenkins called out the Myth of Viral media, which got a hearty Amen! from those gathered before him. The point is, we know that the injection theory, is just not true. Consumers are not simply impregnated with ideas, people have agency and contexts as well, are dynamic, and especially so in todays media environment. 'Viral' is clearly the wrong metaphor to rely on, if we really want to understand the complicated things that the internet is teaching us about media and how people (have always) connected to each other through it. Avoiding use of the word became an excellent test for all the panelists, keeping everyone on their feet and avoiding falling back on BS industry terminology.

This conscientiousness with language is one of the important aspects of this conference. Having a dialog about the industry that takes place in an academic context forces more specific articulation, guiding the discussion to the real issue by not overly simplifying with some non-dairy whipped topping buzzwords.

Last year, the overall sentiment that moved me the most was a sincere desire we all shared to make (promote, distribute etc.) meaningful experiences for people through entertainment.  The this year I would say, the word empathy struck me as a defining theme. In the closing panel Maurício Mota of New Content (Brazil), created a nice bookend when he so passionately advocated for empathizing with audiences - seems so obvious but is the first the to get lost in the frenzy over new technologies and money making schemes around media.

Entertainment which is attempting to broadcast with generic broad stroke demographic information is no longer working (and I think many would agree, has always sucked.) The key is to remember that an audience is still made up of individuals with varying interests and changing needs from moment to moment.

I'll be posting more specific thoughts from various panels in the next few days. I noticed Mike Arauz is also thinking about audiences and fans in particular and I am sure he'll be posting more from FOE3 as are many others. The official Convergence Culture Consortium blog has lots of conference notes posted, as well.

(image credit - Factoryjoe )

Reading: Everything Bad is Good For You

Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter.
Stephen Johnson

Johnson's book is an argument against a common assumption that contemporary popular culture makes its consumers dumber over time. He advocates for a new set of standards to assess the value of the popular media culture object based on what types of neurological functions video game or television program is allows it’s audience to exercise rather than the moralistic view of what the content of a storyline teaches. "looking at media as a kind of cognitive workout, not a series of life lessons" (p.14)

Through a formal analysis of the narrative structures of television shows, films and video games he quoting such diverse sources as mathematicians, game theory scholars and screenplay writers. Although he includes a personal narrative and perspective to make it more rateable, Johnson primarily takes a systematic approach to investigating the subject. He culls data from many sciences including specific Sociological studies and citing Neuroscience research into how the brain works. He points to several specific studies on game theory and supports his statements with a variety of texts from the established Media Studies and Cultural Theory cannon.

Johnson coins the term Sleeper Curve for thesis that mass culture is altering the cognitive development of young people in a positive rather than negative manner. Because today's popular cultural objects are more complex in narrative structure and form than that of preceding eras the cognitive skills developed by playing a video game or watching The Simpsons, are as valuable as those developed by reading classic literature or other older forms of popular media. He identifies two forms of intellectual labor which occur when playing modern video games: Probing – essentially learning the scientific method via exploring and poking around to builds knowledge with which to make educated guesses about how something works.  Telescoping –  prioritizing and managing sets of tasks that are nested one within the next, building up complete the larger task at hand. These are important skills in today's world that are quite difficult to teach in a linear way. Similarly, modern TV also develops certain skills set in our brains for example, the prominence of nonlinear narratives and multi-character storylines which require viewers to keep track of many ideas at once and do not allow for neatly packaged conclusions.

Thus:

Audiences expectations are changing and so is the type of media they are consuming. We should not underestimate the "work" that the brain is doing when engaged with these films/tv shows/video games. Being merely a spectator in modern culture is becoming the less dominant experience. What seems passive is actually focus.

Yes, there is a lot of junk out there but in comparison to the junk 20 years ago today's junk ain't so bad and the good stuff now is really quite good.

This book admittedly does not have sufficient data to support its precepts properly in a scientific environment and Johnson hopes that the book will actually inspire more empirical research in this area. Regardless, it is a helpful starting point for thinking about what is unique to today's popular media and how to assess its value in a practical way, for example, to serve as a guide for concerned parents. Ultimately, a well informed and open minded  exploration, I really enjoyed it  - will post more personal thoughts when I have time.

Can I Call You Joe?

         The folksy talk of  "Main Street, USA" is in no way a surprising theme in presidential elections. Candidates of all stripes, determined to connect with average Americans, invoke a myriad of clichéd Americana even trotting out a middle-aged out-of-work so-and-so at every campaign stop, who happens to have an incredibly practiced personal narrative to share and a miscellaneous down home accent to go with it. These people serve as surrogates invoking a normalcy that presidential hopefuls can't have, as they have most likely spent their lives either in prep schools or working their less privileged asses off in order to attend a top law school, then in various state houses and then, ideally, getting to know how government actually works in Washington, DC.  They desperately need you, the populace, to identify with their carefully selected surrogates and they need you to do it quickly and definitively.  This concept has been taken to its most absurd turn with the current presidential race, as Governor Sarah Palin makes near constant references to “Joe-Six-Packs” and “Hockey Moms”. 

           Since I initially decided to write on this topic, the subject of a certain Joe so-and-so has ballooned to degree of absurdity beyond my wildest expectations. Something about hearing Governor Palin in the Vice-Presidential debate repeatedly calling out to her audience, the person watching her at home on the TV as “Joe Six-Pack”, struck me as very peculiar. First of all, it seemed an odd choice of words; essentially, calling ones audience by a derogatory name. But there was something else that made it feel even more inappropriate in this context. Why was this term was so familiar and yet wrong? Then I remembered, its a television industry term used to describe a marketing demographic. Use of this term betrays the humility it is meant to bestow on Governor Palin, because it is language of a marketing strategy rather than an actual down-home turn of phrase. Peggy Noonan described Palin’s entire performance as “an infomercial pitch for charm in politics” transparent yet effective. Noonan asks, at what point “shiny, happy populism becomes cheerful manipulation.”1  For me this indicated a fascinating breakdown of the communication structure, where the seams of this shiny, happy populism are ripped and the strategic manipulation beneath is revealed.

Click to read the rest of what I wrote on the subject

This is a link to a great interview with several demographics experts related to the election on Salon.

Battle at National Geographic: liveblogging OMMA Global

KeyNote: Rob Covey, SVP of Content Development and Design - National Geographic Digital Media

National Geographic is doing a lot to extend their content across platforms. Rob is showing some of the ways they have opened up their site to user generated content in a way that doesn't devalue the National Geo brand. They have been working with this longer than many content companies.

I wonder if the reason why this came more hmmm... shall we say, naturally, to them is because they are concerned with getting out an overall message to the public. This presentation even began with a video of employees explaining that they are passionate about these efforts because it helps with their goal of getting people to see and care about the natural environment. They have a clear goal as to why they are doing these things that is, of course tempered by $$, but is ultimately larger. I can see why that would  keep a team excited and focused on creating these kinds of campaigns.

Nice to hear someone talking about meaningful experiences with content.

He made a point to express that they are making efforts to monitize all of this especialy since they now have a sweet TV/Print/Web package to offer. Also that all of this is not without the many challenges that everyone faces in this area.

We just watched a video about the elusive Snow Leopard ( Note that ngm site I linked to is built on Typepad!). I want to be a Snow Leopard.

Obey Dexter

I am thrilled to have something exciting to post about today, other than the iPhone and my dad's birthday (Happy Birthday, Chuck!)

In order to my my job just a little bit easier, Showtime has commissioned Shepard Fairey to create original art for Dexter at Comic Con!

If you don't know this guy you know his work he is a 'Giant' among the street/graphic artists.

You will definitely be seeing his Obama poster around this summer.

Dexter is grosser in Spain

And Portugal.

It has been very interesting to see the difference in promotional tactics when one of Showtime's series is premieres abroad.
Spain clearly went for the gross out factor for Dexter

 

And then there's this lovely experience Portuguese men were treated to:

 

To think people thought this US promotion for Dexter last year was tasteless - seems so tame now!

Speechless

In support of striking WGA writers, top notch actors make silly videos and prove that they are indeed helpless without writers.

The cast of Ugly Betty really needs them, really.

You can see Laura Linney, Sean Penn and many more awesome actors, not talking on the the Speechless  Without Writers site.