Reflections on a Dancing Pixel
NOTE: The following is an essay from independent filmmaker Maurice Jacobsen, who was a guest at The Media Center's Cross-Platform Media Teams event.
This story begins a long, long time ago. Well, actually, not that long ago, 1999 to be exact. But with the speed of Web development, it feels very much in the past.
David Neumann, president of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), proudly gives a keynote address at the Streaming Media West Conference in San Jose. He speaks of his online network targeting Generation X and the great original programming his company is producing. His is the future and DEN is at the leading edge. He proudly talks of the sixty million dollars his company has raised.
In 1999, however, there are huge holes in the company’s premise. For openers, the technology for streaming video is far from perfected and online delivery speeds are woefully slow. This makes watching online content difficult at best. Second, it appears the people at DEN have not given any critical thought to program content or the production process.
It is an idea doomed to failure and it did. A year later in 2000, they went bust, along with many other start-ups trying to do similar online content projects.
Now five years later all that was envisioned for rich media sites is possible. High-speed Internet connections make watching video totally viable. There is pent-up audience desire for consuming and reacting to media that talks with its audience rather that at it, and there are proven sponsorship business models to support online-video content.
But the terrible taste that DEN left in the mouths of media organizations still lingers. It is well-founded skepticism. The challenge in mid-2005 is to move beyond that skepticism and begin using the medium to its full informative and creative potential.
Virtually every news organization now has a Web presence. Two major media companies, CNN and AOL, have recently gone to an open platform, their mission, along with every Web site, is to build audience. The larger the audience the more they can command from advertisers.
So what do we find when logging onto newspaper sites? What is found, unfortunately, is video and multimedia segregated to its own sidebar arena. And for the most part, the video has been repackaged from broadcast or syndicate sources.
We also find photo galleries. Because of the world-class work done by papers such as The Washington Post and New York Times, many of these photos are riveting. But for the most part these photos are placed away from the main body of content rather than integrated.
And most importantly, news sites are primarily rewriting content generated for print editions with very little, if any, content generated solely for the Web edition, content that takes into account interactivity from the get go.
During the Cross-Platform Media Teams event sponsored by The Media Center, we heard from major industry players; the Times, Post, USA Today, CBS, CNN and Discovery were among those giving presentations. All acknowledged the importance of the Internet to their future. They all professed a need and desire for integrating immersive interactive media, but there were few if any examples to show.
This poses the major conundrum. What outside social, economic and technological forces need to coalesce before news organizations begin to integrate words, pictures, video telecommunications into an integrated whole? Can changes to content generation and format presentation happen from within? Or do independent journalists and Web producers have to lead the way?
Neil Chase, deputy editor for news at New York Times Digital sets up this question as well as anyone. “People are confused within news organizations as to what to do next,” he told us.
Fair enough. There are major hurdles. How should reporters approach integrated multimedia when generating stories? What groundwork needs to be laid to get them to start thinking about interactivity? How should this multimedia content be packaged and presented? How should newsrooms work with multimedia freelance journalists?
These are all major questions, with major consequences. This is true because the entire nature of how news is gathered and presented is at issue.
During his Media Center presentation, Neil Chase gave an example of how an online piece can be approached. He threw out a story to the audience and had us break it down into its nouns and verbs: location, motivation, reaction, consequence, etc. This is exactly the correct approach. When asked how the Times actualized the end results of this exercise in its online edition, he confessed that it was only an exercise and that it had not been turned into multimedia content. This simply points out that the issues are being thought about, but they are not now being acted upon.
It can be speculated that the reasons for this are simple enough – economics and inertia. Creating interactive content does involve investment in personnel and tools. And the business models are still being proven. Will the additional expenses pay for themselves in added sponsorships? Can a subscription model generate revenue? Can ancillary services be added without harming journalist integrity?
There also must be a strong motivation, as it is decidedly more difficult to generate cross-platform content beyond that of a print story. This motivation must come from individual journalists with both interest and desire to use the best media tools to tell their stories. And the motivation must come from management to give those journalists the tools and resources needed to move forward.
There are answers. The technology is available. The social climate has created an audience desire for multiple approaches to news coverage. There is a talent pool of independent journalists, producers and writers capable of generating multimedia content.
As one of those independent producers who passionately believes in the potential of the Internet, it is one of my tasks to evangelize what the medium is capable of: It is a wondrous tool for opening windows to knowledge and understanding. It is a participatory media where viewers/users, “vuers” if you will, can feel empowered to seek out all sides of a complex issue. It can visually bring people to places they have never been. It can give them the opportunity to ask questions and get answers from the source. It can give them options for reacting to stories and adding to those stories with comment, observation and fact. And most importantly, it can treat audiences with respect by making available options for delving as deeply into stories as they care to go.
Reflections on a Dancing Pixel” is what this analysis is entitled. The monitor you are now viewing is made up of millions of these tiny points of light. They are always receptive to change, subject to the amount of electrical charge directed to them. They do not remain constant. It is a good lesson to learn. Each of us can be considered a pixel in this giant sea of humanity. Each of us can be receptive to an electrical charge of energy that causes change.
The concept of interactive digital online content is something that not every user of the Internet will get charged by. But for those who do, they most assuredly will be energized, and will respond with a resounding clarity.
NOTE: The following is an essay from independent filmmaker Maurice Jacobsen, who was a guest at The Media Center's Cross-Platform Media Teams event.
Wikinews 