Video column: Responding to Kirsner
PRpulp is pleased to welcome Jay Childs as video columnist. Jay is Director at JBC Communications out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His commentary will center on new technology and developments in the video and interactive space. Enjoy!
Scott Kirsners’ recent Mercury News article on online video viewing is important to consider in the not-so-quiet war going on between those who wish to see the web remain the broad media platform available to the everyman, and those for whom the web is the next technology after radio, film, and television to become dominated by strictly commercial players, pushing the neophytes to the side. However, in predicting that viewers’ tastes over time respond more to quality production and branded content, such as happened over time in film over a century ago, Kirsner doesn’t pay nearly as much attention to another key driver which the consumer demands now more than ever, and should help extend the relevance of the individual uploading their own amateur produced clips – the demand for choice.
Kirsner demonstrates how with technology like film, early on many people would pay admission simply to see workers leaving a factory, or a train arriving, or an older man kissing an older woman. As film matured people began to want to see a story with the moving images, and to use film to see other places they had never been to before. All the while production techniques improved. Over a much longer period of time the ability for the consumer amateur to make home movies at a price point many could afford became a reality. However, even though over time movie studio content began flooding the theatres and then cineplexes, moviegoers never quite gave up their taste for smaller independent films, and still actively seek out alternatives to mainstream film. Does a flood of movies from a movie studio mean it will be harder to find the smaller film? Maybe. But even on the viral video web today, the chances of your clip reaching the heights of the Mentos Diet Coke Duo are pretty slim … but not impossible. And the web provides something independent films in days past never had, a community connected together through the Web to spread the word to the world, or to a specific niche community.
Now comes “viral” video on the web on sites like YouTube, Google, Brightcove, and even AOL to name just a few. Kirsner sees the same pattern emerging. We think finally a medium will democratize the mass communications landscape, allow anyone to become a broadcaster, and finally bring more everyday voices to the conversation that until now have been shut out. Media giants meanwhile, stand back and watch the parade of “Chinese teens lip-syncing to the Backstreet Boys” clips, among others, to see which site will win the hearts and clicks of viewers. Then they buy it, and over time brand that site with their own content, some new – much of it repurposed from other outlets.
So I agree over time some viewers may tire from scanning mindlessly through a steady diet of skateboarding mishaps and karaoke singers or schoolgirls cackling – as viewers tired of the novelty of film motion and watching people leaving a factory. Over time, as Kirsner asserts, more viewers may naturally gravitate towards those branded sources of content they already know and trust – created with more professional production values. However, Kirsners argument seems to present a static choice; a choice where viewers will decide to watch a David Letterman clip or an amateur clip of a comedian who is not a household name. My belief is consumers will demand the maximum amount of choice of content, from strictly amateur to the latest movie studio trailers. The branded content may take over more slots on the top ten viewed list, but the desire for fresher, independent content will still be there. Because along with consumer demand over time for higher quality, today’s consumers demand more choices, and they are willing to look beyond the obvious to find the surprising, maybe more authentic choices. Cable television quickly became passé because what looked like broad choice (with channels such as Bravo aimed at presenting the fine arts to a wide audience), quickly narrowed to a point where Bravo served as little more than a rerun platform for NBC shows like Law and Order, ER or drearily recurring reruns of Braveheart. Only when consumers began leaving cable for satellite (with far more choices) did cable respond by emphasizing true choices in programming and on demand movies, as part of their digital packages.
One final comment regarding production quality. Have you noticed what passes for broadcast television these days? Many reality programs on MTV, VH1, HGTV, TLC, even some reality series on network TV are produced using tools and techniques not much better than what ends up on YouTube. So because these viral video sites do not represent a static of “shelf space” for the number of clips to view – not subject to simply being replaced by professional branded content, these sites, if they are forward thinking – will expand to accommodate content across a vast range of genres. They may even create a separate category and ranking for amateur citizen content, easy to find and search and not in direct competition with big media branded content.
Kirsner does not seem to use as a reference the “print web”, which is further along – but look what has happened. The blogesphere allows anyone who signs up to become a published writer with millions of potential viewers (if they can find you and you them). Many careers were spawned (such as Anna Marie Cox, who founded Wonkette and now, among other things, is the Washington Editor for Time.com). The media giants jumped in with both feet and now even Tom Delay has a blog. The fact that the famous blog has not constricted the pool of amateur bloggers, only expanded the blogesphere’s real estate. Same with podcasts. Jim Cramer and NPR may have popular podcasts, but it is giving established media brands too much credit to think that they too will continue to pump out original content for the web. That challenge is not unique to amateurs. Many of those popular branded podcasts are already repurposed existing content – not new content.
Will media giants infuse more content? Yes. But with more, better and cheaper video cameras, and the coming of more cameras and software tools targeted specifically for creating web enabled content, I simply do not see the public being nudged aside over time in this medium the way they were in radio and television. Yes quality and brands tend to win out over time, but more often that happens in a market with static shelf space. 21st century video consumers will continue to demand expanding choice, from within the mass commercial marketplace, and outside of it. People still demand of the Internet the ability to make the surprising find, to make connections outside of the dominant marketplace. It has already happened in music, where the market is becoming more fractured than ever. It will continue in video for the foreseeable future, as the medium continues to mature and video integration on websites becomes more commonplace. TIME magazine was right in naming “You” the Person of the Year. For consumers of internet video being a viewer is no longer an option. Many of us demand the ability to be producers and participants, a point Kirsner seems not to give much credence.to. Yes I want to know what Tim Russert or Cramer or “Tech Chick” Cat Schwartz has to say on many subjects. But I am also fascinated to know what “You” think.
~Jay B. Childs, Video columnist
PRpulp
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