Of Video Games and Video

It was surprising to see that people are videotaping themselves playing video games and then posting it on YouTube (and other video-sharing sites). What was intended as an interactive video experience becomes a passive video experience. When I asked my kids why watching these videos is interesting to them and why they themselves produce them sometimes, here's what they said:
It's fun;
You get tips about how to play the game;
You can learn how to do something difficult by watching someone else do it;
You gain confidence in your own game-playing skills.
So, while it's not immediately interactive, there is something of a "time-delayed" interactivity involved in the enterprise.

Attack of the Unemployment Rate

I've been reflecting recently on the trend in popular culture to feature the undead. Current examples of horror novels, movies, and TV shows, as well as undead-related advertising, are many. "Twilight" may have been the spark, but the oxygen fanning the flames of this new paranormal obsession is the angst over the current economy.

We keep hearing that the unemployment rate is more than 10 percent, but it's actually more than 17 percent when you count those who are underemployed and those who have given up altogether. Compared to that, I'd happily face a vault full of vampires, a gaggle of ghosts, and a zoo of zombies. It's comforting to know that, while the undead are frightening, we are more afraid of losing our homes. As I tell my children: "The only scary thing in our house is the mortgage."

Election Day

Ah, Election Day! The day we know the end is near: the end of the campaigns and the end of the campaign advertising. One more day of this political publicity pollution and then we can all get back to normal.
Election returns are so anti-climactic these days. Even ballot counting that goes on for weeks would never qualify as a "cliff hanger." And mailing your ballot, along with your gas bill and birthday card to your sister, just doesn't have the same cache that going to the polls had. I miss the nice retired ladies with the cookies in the church auditorium. What are they doing now?
It is a lot more convenient, though. So why do election officials expect only 56 percent of registered voters to submit their ballots by midnight tonight?
Has the plethora of political ads led to greater apathy among voters? And, if so, can we fight fire with fire? Perhaps we need a public service campaign (another advertising campaign?!) to combat voter apathy. Rock the Vote and Washington Bus are two programs aimed at activating teens during elections, but what about us old folks? Only half of us are voting right now. Seems like there's a lot of room for improvement.

Hide-and-Go-Text

I discovered my 8-year-old daughter and her friends playing a new game yesterday: Hide-and-Go-Text. It's a version of hide-and-go-seek, of course, but the players (both hiders and seekers) have a cell phone with text messaging. So the hider sends a text telling the seekers how long to count before seeking. Sometimes they provide clues during the seeking: hotter, colder, etc.
My immediate reaction was to feel REALLY old. But then I remembered it was my generation that invented the video game - an electronic interface between two or more people who want to play a game together but can't stand the intensity of actual face-to-face competition. Sometimes I think that our inability to deal directly with one another is being reflected so much by the technology we use. Even phone conversations have been replaced with texting. We hope to replace voice inflection with emoticons.
So, let's think of what other classic children's games could be adapted to work with new technology. Tag using Segways? Jump rope with avatars?

When News Breaks, We Fix It!

Ah, yes! I just saw the first of many "breaking news" stories that are headed our way in the coming weeks. This one was a condo fire in downtown Seattle. No one was hurt, as far as the report went, but it was really only news because there were flashing lights in the dark. Good video.
When I worked on the assignment desk of a local television station's news department, I remember conducting beat checks, calls to various police and fire agencies to see if there is anything newsworthy (i.e. any flames visible, etc.). But during my tenure, an edict came down from the news director that "thou shalt have a live shot in every newscast."
Why include a live shot in every newscast? Because it creates the illusion that the station is covering "breaking news." In reality, the poor nightside reporter is standing in the dark outside a darkened building, saying: "Two hours earlier something was happening here."
That's one of the reasons why a lot of live shots are weather related. Something is always happening with the weather: rain, snow, heat. And the weather forecast is the most watched segment in any local newcast. That's why it won't air until later than fifteen minutes into the newscast. Because if the viewer makes it into the second quarter hour, even if just for the three-minute forecast, the station gets credit for the entire half hour.
At least that's how it used to be in the stone age of television nearly 20 years ago. Nowadays, the ratings services are much more sophisticated and measure viewership in smaller increments. It was a sensation when Nielsen introduced the "People Meter" which could track which members of the household were watching at any given time. Streaming video online made that somewhat irrelevant, at least for certain demographic groups.
Next time: more to look forward to in the coming television ratings sweeps.

Dave Receives Absolution from Steve Martin

Information from the Associated Press' entertainment reporter as published on www.seattlepi.com:
Jokes, apologies from David Letterman on his show
During the hour, he also apologized to his staff, which, he said, had been subjected to "being browbeaten and humiliated" by reporters since his revelations.
The story goes on to talk about how it's been a ratings boost to the show and could affect the all-important sweeps period. It is ironic that his staff are being harassed by the people who work down the hall in the newsroom (or some newsroom nearby). Let's see how much coverage CBS gives the story compared to the other networks.

Damage Control 101: Dave Apologizes

David Letterman continues to keep his own scandal alive by apologizing to his wife on his show tonight. So the first round was his confession, second round was the indictment/arraignment court coverage, third round will be his apology. If they can keep it up for another month they will likely win their time period during sweeps!

Damage Control 101: Did Dave Do It Right?

There is a lot to be said for controlling the message, but is that possible in every situation? Obviously, David Letterman knew that he wanted to inform the public about his recent experience with blackmail, but did that make the media reaction more or less intense?

If I were one of his advisors I probably would have told him to do exactly what he did, when he did it. The "entertainment news" has continued to cover it all weekend, but the mainstream media reported the scandal on Friday and then let it be crushed under the wheels of the 24-hour news cycle.

Of course, sex sells, and the most important television ratings period of the year begins at the end of October. Buckle your seatbelts because we are about to be inundated with news and entertainment programming about waste in government, sexual impropriety, and any other salacious topic that will make people watch.

You Can't Beat Name Recognition

I've been thinking about celebrities who become politicians, some with nothing more on their resumes than having been an actor. I could think of 10 such "celebri-ticians." Can you add to this list?
Bill Bradley - professional basketball player who became a U.S. Senator
Fred Grandy - television actor who became a Congressman
Vaclav Havel - poet who became president of the Czech Republic

Susan Hutchison - former Seattle news anchor running for King County Executive

Ronald Reagan - movie actor who became governor of California and President of the United States

Norm Rice - Seattle news reporter who became mayor of Seattle

Dave Ross - Seattle radio host who ran for Congress

Charles Royer - Seattle news reporter who became mayor of Seattle

Arnold Schwarzenegger - bodybuilder and movie actor who became governor of California
Fred Thompson - television actor who became a U.S. Senator

Our Incredible Shrinking Attention Spans

I came of age at the same time music videos were born. Everyone in my high school wanted to have cable television just so we could watch MTV. There were only about 10 music videos that had been produced, but we didn't care how many times we watched the same songs by Sting, Michael Jackson, or the Buggles (look it up).

But video killed more than the radio star; it may have killed our attention spans. Music videos introduced the less-than-five-second edit point. Prior to the early 1980s, television viewers were accustomed to longer edits; sometimes the camera angle didn't change for up to one minute! Now we have adjusted to a less-than-five-second edit point and we get bored if asked to view anything that changes with less frequency.

Think about Huntley and Brinkley staring into the camera with very little film (not video) to break up their reporting. Now compare that to today's newscasts, which provide us a view of the world that seems hectic and hurried because that's how the video is edited. Television commercials fly by at an even faster pace.

Did the music video kill our attention spans?

Welcome to Media Reflection

Do mass media - their messages and their mediums - reflect our culture or determine it?

That's the question I hope to ponder with you at Media Reflection. It's a question that's been nagging at my psyche for years, if not decades. The roots of this media obsession predate my work in mass media, although my on-the-job experience certainly led to many revelations. My view of the world and how I fit into it was shaped by popular culture. Developing insight into how the mass media influence us and how to understand and manage that effect is the goal of this blog.

So welcome. Please share your thoughts on mass media and how it has affected our culture. Any mass medium is fair game: books, magazines, music, radio, movies, television, and new media (blogs, websites, Facebook, etc.). Despite the intensity of your ideas - profanity, discrimination, and mean spiritedness will not be allowed. Please focus your comments on how mass media have influenced our culture. I look forward to the conversation.