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Truly, What is the Purpose of “Breaking News?”
29 November '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
Breaking News is big money. Recently, @BreakingNews sold to MSNBC, for what I’m sure was a hefty sum, but really, what are we all getting out this BreakingNews — Real Time Web obsession?
I recently helped shape a friend’s article/blog post that came out of a discussion on the recent Tiger Woods debacle. The discussion started out as “what’s the big deal with breaking news” and soon turned into a bigger question: “What is the purpose of news in general?” This is definitely something interesting-journalists and academics alike inflate the purpose of news. People are looked down on for not being aware of what’s going on. While I tend to agree that there is a need for being informed, Justin (@modernserf) makes an interesting case against the inherent usefulness of news (with the exception of news for specific trades and sectors).
He only touches on the subject of citizen journalism via Twitter, etc. I’ll throw my two cents in here. While I think, technological advancements have allowed us unfettered access to breaking information, and I must say it was quite cool reading about the Iranian elections as it happened, but what good has it really done? Am I (or anyone else who painted their Twitter Avatar Green) that more “aware” or “knowledgeable” of the situation? I would say no. This is definitely a subject that needs to be explored more carefully rather than lauded endlessly on Mashable.
Article Below — or check out The POST on his site, ModernSerf.com.
The Value of News
written by: Justin Falcone (aka The Modern Serf)
The downside to @BreakingNews is that I get alerts long before any trad news source has the pertinent details. Now fretting about Tiger. @noelMu
What’s the upside to knowing breaking news?
Tiger Woods got in a car accident a few days back. Thanks to breaking news, and twitter in general, we found out long before any relevant details were available; he was definitely either seriously injured or not seriously injured – Schrödinger’s Tiger, if you will. This information was absolutely useless, even to bookies and his sponsors. But we knew about it right away!
TechCrunch argues crowdsourcing the media via Twitter is good – after all, that’s how the Mumbai shootings, “the miracle on the Hudson,” and Michael Jackson’s death broke long before the mainstream media reported them. But for what purpose? The people of Mumbai had a need to know about a terrorist attack, of course, but what about the people of California? Michael Jackson’s camp would definitely want to know right away when he died, but I highly doubt they found out via Twitter.
While there are a handful of cases where a mass audience finding out about a crisis is valuable, such as a tornado warning or an Amber Alert, most breaking news has no tangible value for nearly anyone who will hear it. Despite the “personalization” of news over the last few years, I’ve yet to see a chyron pop up on MSNBC saying “Justin Falcone, your car is being towed.”
My generations immersion in “Breaking News” began in early Septermber of 2001. I was in history class, junior year of high school when the teacher made the announcement that passenger jets had hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Being sixteen-year olds hundreds of miles away from the events, we were powerless in the situation. The President, who actually could do something with breaking news like that, chose to finish reading “My Pet Goat.”
We all watched the news for the rest of the day. There wasn’t any other choice, really, since they were simulcasting the news broadcasts on nearly every channel. It was inescapable. It was the global conversation. It was fantastic, mind-blowing TV.
The event, bar some even more horrifying disaster, will be the defining moment of my generation, the “where were you when…” that everyone has an answer for. Anyone who’s enlisted in the armed forces or even flown on an airplane knows exactly how far the effects of 9/11 have trickled down into our day-to-day lives. But I watched dozens of hours of news, as bits and pieces were coming in, pundits breathed fire, and Ashleigh Banfield became a sex symbol. The single piece of information that has any real weight in the world is that terrorists, sponsored by afghanistan, hijacked some planes and crashed them into US landmarks. Every other piece of information I absorbed about 9/11 in the following years has been essentially irrelevant. Interesting, often, and occasionally something would affect my method of thinking, but for the most part it made as much difference in my life as the plotline to a sitcom.
Of course, breaking news does have real value for some people – namely, the media. A news organization that breaks a hot story gets higher ratings that lead to more advertising dollars. A hot story is currency for a news outfit. Yet like most currencies, a hot story is only valuable because we believe it to be so. Sure, some people actually need to know about Tiger Woods right away, just as gold has a number of limited industrial uses. However, for the rest of us, it is only the pleasure of having a new shiny bauble that gives it any value.
However, if we measure the news as pure entertainment, things work out a little differently. Knowing world affairs has essentially the same value as knowing football scores or movie plots; it gives people something to talk about. As trivial as that sounds at face value, even lifelong bonds need small talk to fill in the space between the big ideas. Most conversations with my closest friends, some of whom i’ve known since elementary school, revolve around movies or tv shows. Even at a professional level, knowing about an article in your given trade publication and being able to discuss it with someone in your industry is much more valuable than the actual information one learns from said article. And, as I mentioned above, a shared news event like 9/11 or JFK’s assassination becomes a cultural touchstone.
Finally, there’s the pure value of the news experience, independent of the facts it describes. When I was a stockboy, scanning in our delivery of magazines, I would scoff at the tabloids for conflating the misadventures of basic cable personalities with “actual news.” Now I realize that even the articles in a beautifully written and exquisitely detailed magazine like the economist has exactly the same practical value as Kate Gosselin’s familial drama. While the Economist is more entertaining to me and affects me in a deeper way than Star magazine, the reverse is true for much of the world – my news snobbery is no different from the contempt I felt at a younger age for sports fans. Sports and tabloids aren’t “for me,” but a great basketball game or a shocking and titillating celebrity story is just as valid an expression of as a heartwrenching story or a beautiful song.
Important news has its place in the world, right beside important novels and important records and important art. News is just a particularly effective format because it depicts the real world, much in the same way a photograph has more inherent gravitas than a painting. Popular news connects society, shocking news excites and entertains, informative news teaches, and beautiful news enriches the soul.
With additional research, editing and pontificating by Adam Wright.
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Tubefilter Roll Up: 15 Gigs vs WGA East Profiles
29 November '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
I feel like I should continue to cross post my Tubefilter articles on my own blog in case anyone who happens to come across this blog is interested in checking them out. Here are two relatively new posts both profiles of traditional media new initiatives in the Web Video Space. Oddly enough from both sides of the 2007 strike’s negotiating table. It’s very interesting to see two sides of the WebTV Coin. One comes from studio backing, with the a partial goal of exploiting the amazing research abilities of the web for Traditional TV’s gain(sounds like my graduate thesis!). The other side is a Guild which is trying to step into this space before the former really takes advantage of the young eager content creators! Roll up Below!
Fox’s 15 Gigs Opens Up Their Digital Playbook
This first is a profile derived from a fantastic interview with Ilsa Berg and Rachel Webber. This was my first official journalistic interview. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be–but it was also nerve wracking! I really think they have some bright minds behind this push, and some interesting creative folks as well!
WGAe Tries to Bridge New Media Divide
The second profiles the WGA East’s new media initiative. I cannot stress how important, IMHO, this is. There needs to be someone in this space starting to set standards as the economics of it emerge. They are also very careful not to start putting creators in boxes, because the economics just aren’t there yet. Forward thinking, we’ll see how this ends up!
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Revisiting the NYTVF and Ad Week
06 October '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
Hello All!
I’ve been waiting to post a consolidation of links from my coverage of the NYTV Festival And Advertising Week. Finally, today, my last NYTVF centric article was published. It was a great time. NYC was a blast. I need to give a shout out to my two friends who housed me at random points while in NYC, Matt “Brooxie” Brooks and Sean Capperis. Thanks to Ned Canty again for inviting me onto the Developing for the Web Panel. Also, everyone who gave me a business card. I WILL WRITE YOU BACK. Soon… hahaha. Anyways, enjoy the roll up!
Four Conclusions from Madison Avenue
My take on Digital Video Panel from Advertising Week. This panel really started the whole week trend of staunch industry folks showing how scared and ignorant they are of new media.
Caution Flags Raised at NYTVF Industry Day
More commentary, this time on Industry Day at NYTVF. More executives scared and clinging to their old ways.
NYTVF Solidifies Web Tipping Point For Indie TV
My coverage of NYTVF’s second annual Digital Day. A bonanza of new media panels and series premieres. Really this set the tenor for a festival that has gone to the WEB! Met a ton of great people on Digital Day. Coincidentally it was also the day that served the most free beer. Stella, Leffe Blond, Leffe Brown, Hoegaarden. I was in heaven.
6 Web Series You Haven’t Seen Yet (Unless You Were at NYTVF)
I must say, much of what I watched from the actual festival was influenced by the people I met on Digital Day. There were just too many independent pilots for one man to watch! So, anyways, I caught all of the Comedy slate along with the Animation. Almost every single pilot I saw was good (or at least passable). Here, I try to highlight lesser known web series that were played as pilots.
Check out all my articles on Tubefilter!
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Developing for the Web Panel — NYTVF
29 September '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
Of everything that went on at the New York Television Festival, the “Developing for the Web” panel was by far the best most engaging panel at the festival…
Oh yeah, did I mention I was on the panel? There goes my journalistic integrity!
Seriously, check out the panel. My fellow panelists, Ilsa Berg of Fox’s 15 Gigs, Mark Grande of Little Grande, Inc, and Tina Santamauro of Atom.com were awesome. They’re all extremely smart with a ton of experience behind them.
Had a great time! Stay tuned for a wrap up of all my articles on Tubefilter.tv about the NYTVF and Advertising Week.
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Covering NY TV Fest for Tubefilter & My Beef with Crackle
21 September '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
Just some exciting news. This week, I will be covering the NY TV Fest, the leading Independent Television Festival, for the blog I moonlight for, Tubefilter.TV. I will be blogging and live-tweeting (@Wrighteous1 / @tubefilter) on Digital Day (Wednesday) all day, but stay tuned for posts during other days of the festival and about Ad Week overall. So stay tuned for more updates!
Side note: I was actually at a job interview recently where they had read some of my blog. They read my last post on intrapreneurship in big companies. I casually mentioned that I thought of Crackle as a failure. She inquired “Why?” I would like to clarify. I think the Sony Studios side of Crackle. The guys that were behind such great web series as “Starv-ing,” “My Long Distance Relationship,” and “Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show” are fantastic. They are developing great content for the web and trying to figure out ways to monetize it.
On the other hand, Crackle the SITE, the Platform, is a wreck and a failure (currently). It gets very little traffic, because the UI is awful, and search and navigation is almost impossible not to mention a brand name that evokes nothing of Sony or anything else. I’m sure their originals are much better served on other parts of the web such as Hulu. They tried boosting up their views by offering other more recognizable Sony content, but it just added to the confusion of what crackle actually is(portal for original content? or Sony’s Hulu?).
I think it could still be worthwhile, if they pare down the content and update the UI to make it usable but it’s a tough crowded marketplace. I hope Crackle proves me wrong. I really dig their content and want them to succeed overall, but we shall see.
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Intrapreneurship in Big Lumbering Companies = Fail
29 August '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
Intrapreneurship (according to wikipedia) is:
The practice of using entrepreneurial skills without taking on the risks or accountability associated with entrepreneurial activities. It is practiced by employees within an established organization using a business model.
For things that require a capital intensive investment, think about many technological advances such as ones coming out of places like Intel, intrapreneurship is a useful practice because one can capitalize on the resources of a company. Even if the aim of the original project fails, the company is large enough that it can utilize/leverage at least some technology or knowledge from such a project in some other business capacity(or sell the tech to others).
For the media and tech world, these techniques 9 times out of 10 seem to fail. Companies like MTV(Soundtrack), Disney(Stage9), NBC(iVillage), Sony(Crackle) all have tried to launch consumer facing online media sites with much disappointment. These efforts are often late entries into the fray as a way to reconnect with their audiences. This out of touch aloofness is ultimately the reasons that sink these ventures and the reason why competitors start up in the first place. On top of this, what comes out of these ventures can’t really be re-purposed in any meaningful way.
I just read two great articles that really highlights flaws in cable intrapreneurship from my favorite technerd-business blog, Silicon Alley Insider.
The first bemoans cable’s TV Everywhere program as being a bloated mess rather than a savior. With the major question, “How are they going to pay for it?” Certainly not by raising prices even more, we’re already getting gouged by prices–one of the reasons why a growing, albeit slowly, minority have switched off Cable and are internet only. Even though this is only a minority, who knows the elasticity of the demand for Cable companies when faced with much cheaper often FREE competition.
The second highlights the fact that Hulu now officially has more subscribers than Time Warner Cable, a giant in the industry really only second Comcast and DirecTV.
I’m not going to lie, I’m a Hulu bull. I love it. I use it religiously. I do think it has drawbacks in UI, Content Discovery, and Acquisitions. I also think they’ve wasted a great opportunity for advancement in the summer, but I’ll explain that later. The important point is that Hulu was not a media company intrapreneurial project—it was external. It just so happened that two(now three) major media companies have signed on to help invest and place content to make Hulu work.
The problem with cable and the wonder of the internet is the network effect and thus scale. Hulu has only taken 2.5 years to make it to this point while Time Warner has been around for decades.
Ultimately, the cable companies have fallen behind instead of admitting defeat and trying to work out a deal with a company like Hulu or countless other participants who legitimately know what consumers want, they throw a bunch of money at a mediocre half-assed idea, and they get their asses kicked. The problem is they won’t realize that they are their worst enemies.
The idea of working change from inside just doesn’t work well at big companies. It takes lots of time and more effort than most people are willing to put up with even for 6 figure jobs. The best kind of advancements a major company can gain in this space is either a) through Strategic Partnerships or b) Outright Purchases of other more nimble companies.
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Social media changes everything.
23 July '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
The recent Iranian presidential election has proven unequivocally that the social media led masses will not stand the tyranny of the few. Information is a powerful tool. It keeps people, business, and structures honest. All of which leads us to the following linked video (via Mashable) from NYU Professor Clay Shirky’s TED talk, last year.
My favorite line is:
“[MyBarackObama.com's] goal was to convene their supporters not control their supporters.”
Very prescient line, it flies in the face of the old advertising notion that companies need to lead the public into buying their products. That just doesn’t work anymore. Let the people talk. Don’t shut them up! Talk back or let them complain if you believe the complaints are unfounded, but the future is in pleasing your supporters/customers not rejecting them. Help them find new reasons to love you and your brand
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“Hello mighty brontosaurus, do you have a lesson for us?”
23 July '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
Silicon Alley Insider has an interesting piece today:
The traditional TV industry–cable companies, networks, and broadcasters–is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago:
In denial.
Blodget then goes into a detailed analysis why he believes the end of “Traditional Media” is nigh. My favorite highlight:
The cable companies will become dumb pipes, and they’ll get disintermediated. We won’t need Brian Roberts to negotiate a deal with the Tennis Channel for us (or, rather, to prevent us from getting the Tennis Channel because of some contract dispute). We’ll just go direct.
The phone companies will remain dumb pipes.
The wireless companies will become dumber pipes.
The competition between the multiple dumb pipes will eventually, we pray, result in lower prices for consumers for the only thing we will really need: Ubiquitous high-speed Internet access.
This is the kind of thing I’ve been saying for a while. MSOs in their current form will die a slow painful death. I personally think they need a little more government regulation to help this process along. I pine for the day the internet becomes a commodity not unlike Electricity.
Keep an eye out for the “Smart Aggregator’s of the World” like Hulu, Netflix, and even MySpace(if they can get their act together) to take the place of traditional Content Aggregators.
The worst part is that traditional companies like NBC, Fox, and ABC could really be true innovators if their companies weren’t so large. The people who work on Digital Initiatives for the Big 5 are some of the brightest in the business (believe me, I interned with some of them!). The problem is it’s nearly impossible to push innovation when you have entire sections of your company threatened with the advent of digital media.
This is the reason why NBCUni and NewsCorp created the Hulu JV. My one worry for Hulu is that it doesn’t get bogged down in the petty inner-politics of its parents. I’m not too worried, the ABC addition makes it look so far so good!
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Welcome
23 July '09 by admin, under Uncategorized.
Hello Internets! My name is Adam Wright, and I’m here to discuss the 2 “aw”s of digital entertainment: The Awesome(Hulu) and the Awful(DRM). Look back for discussions on everything from an indepth analysis of Crowd Sourced A&R websites, WebTV, Video Games, Social Media, and of course Zombies, LOTS of Zombies.
Adam Wright is a Creative Entrepreneur and Digital & Social Media Consultant for Brands and Entertainment.
