Recently in Reality TV Category

I will not have access to the Internet between November 4th and the 18th, because I will be traveling on a sail boat from Grenada to Antigua. Please excuse the blog interruption.

I leave you for the time being with my undigested thoughts on the broad and relevant topic “the evolving nature and aesthetics of creative content”.

First, it covers the evolving structures of storytelling via new media. Examples of new media structures are foureyedmonsters.com and lonelygirl15.com; and interactive television content that is created on the web to supplement traditional shows. Reality TV is obviously interactive but LOST is the best original dramatic example of this interactivity; and then of course, their is the growth of user generated content from channels like YouTube and CNN): What do these new storytelling structures look like? How are these structures similar and different to their predecessors?

Television, can have a relationship with the internet that film cannot. I imagine that the nature of going to the movies will still demand High Imaging that allows for suspension of disbelief...but there is a degrading of image quality and techniques that lower-end digital technologies have supplanted into the aesthetic psyche of many younger viewers – just look at the ads created and aimed at the under 30 demographic. Old tricks. Why is that? Perhaps because they are expert consumers of electronic stories and know it’s manufactured.... They are deconstructing the image.

Another thought, I think of Mark Chiolis’ (Grass Valley) remark to me in my interview with him:

"Today there are a number of thought provoking questions that are being asked. What happens when there is a true RGB 4k (there isn't one today) sensor that rivals, if not exceeds, that of today's film stock? One of the arguments for film is that people like the "look" which includes the grain and movement through the gate. What happens when the "game-boy" generation takes over? Having grown up with "video" is this the "look" they want to see? Will they have a different set of standards to compare to?"

Film (theatrical features) is (are) different. I think they will demand even more heighten realism and I suspect that Digital 3D will become increasingly popular in that format in the years to come (an outgrowth of the gamers demand for a heightened experience).

What are the fundamental relationships that the younger generation seem to be exploring via this new media content and traditional content? Some may say the subject matter is generally solipsistic, passive - an outgrowth perhaps of the individuals solitary communion with the anonymous web or with media itself...but look at the bleeding edge technology and science of virtual reality. Look at the studies of the psycho-physical effects of these media tools on users in medical and defense research. Passive is not the right word to describe this relationship. Interactive is better. But with what (media) and whom (other players)?

I say one cannot understand this generation unless they have a MySpace page and love it. Why? There is a freedom of movement in the field of archetype and symbol that enables both artist and audience to observe without disclosure, absorb without acquisition, and create without the demand for conclusion. The repetition of archetypical representation uncovers both artist's and audience's collective mythologies, thereby revealing: The anonymous is personal.

Renowned urban planer Richard Florida notes that the fundamental social and economic changes that underpin the Creative Economy, demonstrate that in “virtually every aspect of life, weak ties have replaced the stronger bonds that once gave structure to society. Rather than live in one town for decades, we now move about. Instead of communities defined by close associations and deep commitments to family, friends, and organizations, we seek places where we can make friends and acquaintances easily and live quasi-anonymous lives. The decline in the strength of our ties to people and institutions is a product of the increasing number of ties we have.”

How have television and new media influenced the sensibility and subject matter of creative content. I see the primary relationship that the younger generation is exploring, is with the media itself (I am not talking about the news media, I am talking about media itself). You may critiqued the passivity of video games...but, perhaps that passivity masks an exploration with identity that is not understood by non-participants and therefore disregarded as irrelevant. I say this exploration is powerful and emergent in movies like Adaptation and I Heart Huckabees. This relationship between identity and media is increasingly portrayed as mystical, interactive, and “high touch”. Their is a propensity for role playing, a desire for authenticity coupled with a disdain of truthiness and even traditional ideology. For dramatic content and docu-reality, they create satire and even sarcasm (the mass may also create cynicism, but I would never characterize this generation as cynical. They know the line of complicity runs through each of them).

In some respects, “reality shows” seem like an outgrowth of this propensity for role-playing, a study of the dramas of personality. In deconstructing the “sit com” and “documentary” and even the “commercial brand”, there appears to be an investigation of topics like truth and being.

Regarding lonelygirl15.com. As one writer I spoke with remarked, “Entertainment is always flirting with reality. It seems that things that don't aim to be thought of as real do a much better job. Verisimilitude, it's what it's all about."

Is there a common thread in the subject and structures explored by newer creative content, a post-post modern sensibility? See the NYT’s article, “Brand Underground”:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/magazine/30brand.html?ex=1311912000&en=82edb890b1d6c977&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

There are several larger forces manifesting in the recent development of MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach for example. One of them is the evolution of brand: how the concept has extended itself into the realm of branded communities in the digital age. Gamers (the generation under age 35 and including generations X and Y) have grown up in a world saturated by brand so that the phenomenon is now a vehicle for personal expression and identity beyond the ostensible confines of a corporate mandate (well, except their own). Commentators like Rob Walker (The Brand Underground, NYT) have elucidated the social phenomena well, however, they tend to look at the expression as another failed modernist attempt to beat the system. Hand me the cyanide, the revolution is over and we lost!

Boomers are wired to view creativity as a choice between “selling out” or “sticking it to the man” and the quest for the great society as a dogmatic battle between the mediocrity of relativism and the virtue of absolutes. To use former bohemian terminology, today’s generation does not have that hang up. “They have relatively little generational consciousness,” writes David Brooks, “because this generation is for the most part not fighting to emancipate itself from the past.” The suggestion is provocative considering that while “the baby boom included the largest U.S. birth cohort to date, the game generation will ultimately outdo the baby boom in size, in scope, and presumably in influence,” notes John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade in their study of the game generation’s influence on organizational values in business. “The total size of the game generation is already greater than the baby boom ever was,” and the whole generation of gamers, “including X and Y and letters to be named later-simply approach the world differently than their predecessors.”

I am a broken record, but like dissident antipoliticians from the former Czechoslovakia, who used satire and absurdity to highlight the fact that in a postmodern consumer society the “line of complicity runs through each of us," this new American generation distrusts political grandstanding and even traditional forms of organized politics. Hence, the popularity of so-called no brow satires like South Park, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show.

The playwright Heiner Mueller once remarked that the potency of theater in his native East Germany was based on the absence of other ways of getting messages across to people. "As a result," Mueller says, "Theater here has taken over the function of other media in the West," before now. While the never ending surface chatter of talking points and double speak on both the left and the right continue to erode the value of words, they also inflate the space between the lines.

None of this mentions how the game generation take globalization for granted and the growing crossover of cultural content from other traditions, “bollywood”, Japanese Anime et cetera.

There are several larger forces manifesting in the recent development of MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach.  One of them is the evolution of brand: how the concept has extended itself into the realm of branded communities in the digital age. Gamers (the generation under age 34 and including generations X and Y) have grown up in a world saturated by brand so that the phenomenon is now a vehicle for personal expression and identity beyond the ostensible confines of corporate mandate.  Commentators like Rob Walker (The Brand Underground, NYT) have elucidated the social phenomena well, however, they tend to look at the expression as another failed modernist attempt to beat the system. 

I am not suggesting that the gaming generation, of which I am a part, is somehow untethered to history.  Instead, I want to emphasize that the boomers polemic between left and right overlooks how truly different this generation is.  To paraphrase David Brooks, this generation has simply moved on from the culture war in many respects.  Other commentators have illustrated how the game generation has put its resources into transforming corporate America in a similar way its predecessors channeled its own energy into political and social movements.  Some, like John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade in Got Game have gone so far as to say that the dot com era was an example of this corporate revolution and symptomatic of the game generation's predilection for role playing, in other words, Sims taken beyond the confines of the console.

The evolution of brand and branded communities is provocative in another respect.  Multinational corporations have growing political and commercial leverage that is unfettered from the confines of the nation state.  That phenomena presents a challenge to the polis but also changes the way constituents, if only subconsciously, organize themselves.  In a commercial world, branded communities, become social organs as much as a commercial one.  The notion infuses the gaming generations unique identity and illustrates another way in which they have ostensibly moved on from the polemic that sets art against commerce.

In the new world, media and technology must play to these sensibilities if they intend to reap the rewards of the younger demographic.  I would not be surprised in ten years if movie and home theaters became virtual environments equivalent to branded paintball.  Gamers demand a heightened sense of reality and want to be engaged with their media in a way far more intense than the boomer's relationship with television.  Virtual Laguna Beach is in my mind symptomatic of the beginning of this transformation.

Advertising Age - Digital - How MTV Plans to Let Anyone on 'Laguna Beach'

Excerpts:

"Think of virtual Laguna Beach as a cross between Second Life, the online virtual world community that opened in 2003, and popular computer game The Sims. "

"MTV Networks figures that a single "resident" of its virtual world can translate into $150 of incremental revenue, based on estimates from existing virtual world There.com, whose technology fuels VLB -- or "Virtual Laguna Beach." And that doesn't count revenue from potential advertising. MTV is already in talks with marketers Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Cingular and Paramount about developing campaigns for the virtual version."

They use the keyboard to walk or run around the island and a toolbar along the bottom of the computer screen offers more functions and can adjust their physical appearances -- from hair color to face shape to complexion. They can go shopping, exchanging MTV dollars for, say, new clothes or a surfboard (they earn MTV dollars by spending time in the world and interacting with brands).

"MTV promises advertising will be much more than billboards on the side of the virtual sidewalk or product placements and said the opportunities for behavioral targeting are "incredible." They also haven't worked out the ad rates -- in part because no one's exactly sure what the ad model will end up looking like."

"'We didn't back into revenue expectations,' said Sean Moran, exec VP-MTV 360 ad sales. 'This is a case of you can't put the cart before the horse.' (For context, however, in the kid- and brand-friendly virtual world Whyville, cost-per-thousand rates range from $6 to $30 and onetime sponsorship setup fees range from $25,000 to $250,000.)"

"Michael Wilson, CEO of Makena Technologies, which created and powers There.com, says the virtual worlds are a breeding ground for focus groups and consumer research."

"'There are a lot of unsafe places online, and we wanted to make this a safe place for our audience and our advertiser partners,' said Jeff Yapp, exec VP-program enterprises at MTV Networks' Music Group."

"MTV developed the project primarily in-house, using about 20 employees over four months. So if it doesn't work, Mr. Toffler said, it's not like the company went out and spent $50 million on an acquisition that bombed. (MTV execs wouldn't outline exactly how much the initiative cost, but earlier this summer Viacom Chief Financial Officer Mike Dolan said broadband channel Overdrive was built with an investment of $5 million over eight months.)"

"VBL is the first step in a series of virtual communities MTV hopes to build around music and lifestyles -- look for a Logo-themed world to launch in 2007, for example."

"Soon VBL will include an e-commerce aspect (the first step will be working with the actual stores in the real Laguna Beach before expanding it out to other national retailers) and launch a second-tier subscription-based service for residents who want the ultimate virtual lifestyle -- who want to live in a waterfront beach house, for example."

Advertising Age - Q&A With the NFL's Lisa Baird: How to Market the Biggest Reality Show

Excerpt:

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Lisa Baird joined the National Football League from IBM Corp. last year at a time of transition: the extension of TV deals with CBS, Fox and DirecTV; a new pact with NBC; and the shifting of Monday Night Football to ESPN -- not to mention a new commissioner who took over on Sept. 1.

Ms. Baird, now senior VP-marketing, took over the top marketing spot after the departure of ex- General Motors Corp. executive Phil Guarascio. As the NFL's big kickoff weekend begins, Ms. Baird took time to talk about matters including the league's future in a digital world.

The NFL is the ultimate reality show: It's unscripted and unpredictable, played out in front of the biggest TV audience each Sunday and Monday night. Mark Burnett couldn't come up with "reality" like the next 21 weeks of our season.

Changing demographics and emerging technologies continue to mystify those companies that are five to 10 years down the road. We're also in a unique brand position with the NFL and the 32 clubs having such massive audiences. We continually need to protect our brand from companies that look to redefine the NFL image to their own advantage.

We've talked a lot about better understanding how our most important constituency -- our fans -- interacts with the NFL, consume media and spend their time and money, particularly given changes in American demographics.

We hold the keys to some of the world's most valuable content -- NFL games. We need to keep finding compelling ways to deliver our content, while protecting our network packages which have been the underpinning of our league and what makes us unique.

Reality television is a result evolving market forces.  Certainly, the rising cost of production and the demand for content with the worldwide proliferation of cable is one obvious driver.  Reality television especially of the type that is integrated with the Internet or with direct viewer response is also part of the evolving trend towards interactive media with the younger demographic.  Interactivity is also part of the gaming generation's fascination with role-playing.  Sims in the world of traditional television content is found in the form of reality television.  According to John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, in their study of the gaming generation's attitudes towards business, entertainment software has trained this generation to expect a heightened relationship based on immediate rewards or consequences with media and the world at large.  I believe this ethos towards role-playing and interactivity is seen in the form of reality-based shows like "American Idol" and the "Apprentice".

With advertising in turmoil on broadcast TV, reality shows - like American Idol or even Tommy Hilfiger's less successful "The Cut" - take product placement well beyond a can of Coke enjoyed by our favorite television show's character. "Idol was simply a marketing tool for me to sell records," says Simon Cowell on "Larry King Live."  "The show was one thing but it was actually my record label, which was the most important thing.  So, my background is I run a record label, and I still run a record label and that's really my passion.

The real winner of "American Idol" is Cingular Wireless. Cingular has an exclusive deal with the show's producers that let customers text their votes instead of trying to call in on busy lines. In Season Four last year, 41.5-million text votes were sent in; Cingular charges between $19.99 per month for a text package with 2,500 messages included and 10 cents per message on a pay-as-you-go plan, meaning the company raked in as much as $4.15-million in text messaging fees from American Idol votes alone last year. When the Apprentice was at its peak, Ad Age writes, Yahoo's product placement was a solid success, "After the ice cream challenge during the second season, viewers were told to go search Yahoo, and “Within three hours of the end of the show, the term ‘Apprentice Ice Cream’ was the third-most-searched term on Yahoo that day. By 5 o’clock the next afternoon, the ice cream was sold out,” says Yahoo VP Jim Moloshok. And the results kept coming.  After the Levis challenge, “[f]our days after that episode ran, viewers were still searching Yahoo avidly for ‘Apprentice Jeans’ to get a copy of the catalog.  And "Apprentice Jeans" was still ranked No. 1 among Yahoo Web searches,” AdAge reports. Using secret tracking devices, Yahoo discovered that “The core demographic for the ice cream was 21 to 34 years old. For the jeans, it was 35 to 44.” Yahoo VP  Moloshok says, “If you can complete the loop, product placements like Mark Burnett is doing are one of the most effective ways to get people engaged with a product.”

Now CNN like MTV Flux are taking "reality" one-step further implementing an infrastructure for user-based content.

Advertising Age - MediaWorks - Dell to Sponsor CNN's 'Citizen Journalism'

Guardian Unlimited Business | | MTV hooks up with Google

MySpace a launch pad for next-gen media biz

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - News Corp to sell films online

MTV goes after MySpace users with new social networking site MTV Flux news story in Online - Pocket-lint.co.uk

Ultimately, television can have a relationship with the internet that features cannot. “Features have been able to grab on to what internet can do for marketing and publicity,” says Megan Wolpert, executive vice president of Spyglass Television, when I interviewed her in January this year: “However, TV can do what movies can’t with that relationship, because they don’t need to add a step. They don’t need to say come see us. They just show it. You can show a memoir, a travelogue, a serialized anything on the internet. I think even if you just look at the act of watching a movie versus watching television, it’s more analogous to the act of watching a computer.”

Certainly, the popularity of Reality TV is the outcome of the game generation trend towards interactivity. What is happening more recently, however, is an extension of the relationship between television and internet with show like Lost and VH1 Webjunk. Now MTV introduces MTV Flux a combination social networking portal/television channel.

Excerpts: