There's an
old story about a father disciplining his son. "Sit down," the man
says, and the boy refuses. "I said sit down," the father demands,
but the boy continues to stand. The father grabs the boy's shoulders
and forcibly puts him into the chair, whereupon the lad says, "I'm
sitting down on the outside but I'm standing up on the inside."
As the cultural
shift of Postmodernism continues to envelop authoritative logic
in the West, new ideas and new concepts are emerging to fill the
Modernist void. This is happening without the approval of those
in charge, mostly because they're driven by an opposing worldview
and can't see it. There's no secret organization meeting in some
mountaintop hideout and pulling the strings of this movement. No
marching on Washington or waving of banners. Driven by technology,
the Postmodernist movement is occurring at a level beyond the reach
of manipulation, where human nature itself calls the shots. It is
a time in history when one must step back and take stock, because
the status quo is crumbling under its own recalcitrant weight. It's
sitting down on the outside but standing up on the inside.
Nowhere is
this truer than in the world of television news. This elitist, Modernist
institution stubbornly clings to 20th century concepts with the
feigned confidence of a professional wrestler engaging a 40-foot
python and being slowly strangled to death. Technology is evolving
television news to Video news, which inevitably will evolve to Video
News on Demand (VNOD).
The Video
Journalist movement is sweeping Europe, thanks to Michael Rosenblum
and his vision of television newsrooms that resemble newspaper operations.
I've seen the results and heard from these VJs who're on the cutting
edge of a genuine revolution in television newsgathering and the
results are provocative and encouraging.
In a nutshell,
the idea is to eliminate nearly all of the 2-person news crews in
a newsroom, remove the edit bays, get rid of most of the ENG gear,
and then equip everybody with small digital video cameras and laptop
edit systems. The result is a reporter-driven newsroom that functions
like a newspaper. Producers have much more material from which to
choose for their programs. Field people aren't stressed by turning
a package and a v/sot in half a day, and the reporter dynamic in
the field changes, because a television crew with all their gear
doesn't become a part of the show. The little cameras don't dominate
the scene, and people are much less intimidated, which makes for
better interviews, etc. Prima Donna reporters can no longer lean
on gifted shooters, and the gifted shooters become the star reporters.
Since everybody edits their own pieces on their own systems, everybody
"thinks" television, and the quality of the work goes up.
And it costs
only about $10,000 to fully equip a VJ.
TV news photographers
despise the concept and go out of their way to vilify Rosenblum
at every turn. This is lunacy, because the whole idea is built upon
the recognition that video is the foundation of TV reporting - something
news photographers have been preaching forever. What the VJ concept
offers to photographers is job security and the chance for vindication
in an industry that has increasingly rewarded pretty faces over
quality work. Moreover, there are still live shots and places where
2-person crews are necessary. (Although Sony makes a wonderful and
inexpensive little camera with face recognition software that'll
follow a reporter's face in a crowd, perfect for those walking,
talking stand-ups without a separate shooter.)
The VJ idea
hasn't fully taken root in the US yet, although embedded reporters
used it during the Iraq war with stunning success. It is only a
matter of time. The economics of the move make it highly attractive
to increasingly cost-conscious station owners. While cost savings
may be the impetus that drives the American foray into this realm,
it will be the new newsroom dynamic and product that keeps it around.
However,
in a Postmodern world, the VJ concept takes on significance far
beyond the newsroom, because it opens the video news door to anybody.
Postmoderns (Pomos) reject elitist authority and the "thus saith
the anchor" inference of typical 20th century newscasts. Pomos gravitate
to the idea of tribes and a multicultural mosaic that doesn't have
to make sense. All points of view are relevant and therefore worth
consideration. Pomos don't want information predigested, like the
mama bird of contemporary journalism provides. They feel they can
do that themselves, thank you very much. Moreover, Pomos view as
dishonest the idea of professional objectivity and choose instead
to have their information needs met in other ways.
As such, the
idea of Independent VJs who represent various points of view is
very Postmodern and, therefore, inevitable as the evolution of video
news continues. As with everything else Postmodern, technology drives
the train for video news. For the Rise of the Independent Video
Journalist to happen, four things need to be in place, all of which
are already there or very close.
Playerless
video streaming technology and bandwidth provide steady, high quality
Internet pictures that users of all ilk and hue will accept. Video
doesn't drive the Internet yet, but by 2010 it will share the stage
with the other efficiencies of a wired world. It's unlikely consumers
will fully embrace the idea of combining their TV set with their
computer until the same box runs both and the video quality of both
is interchangeable.
Video-on-demand
(VOD) takes the place of broadcast schedules as the principal method
by which people watch television. The TiVo personal video recorder
(PVR) model is changing the way consumers relate to entertainment
and information programming by empowering them to watch what they
want to watch when they want to watch it. VOD makes sense in a Postmodern
news world too, because it puts decision-making in the hands of
the user instead of an Executive Producer somewhere else. Pomos
want to participate in their world, and PVRs make that possible.
Point-of-view
journalism becomes an accepted part of information programming.
Special interest groups representing specific points of view will
get into the VJ business, because it makes economic and political
sense for them to do so. Pomos think information should be free,
so who's going to pay for video news in the 21st century? Advertising?
Perhaps, but not in the form we know today. The first thing every
PVR owner does is remove the commercials from their viewing. One
day, an Independent VJ in, say, New York will be paid by the Sierra
Club or PETA or Ford to insure their perspective is presented in
daily stories about virtually anything. This is not to suggest the
VJ will do only stories about Sierra Club or PETA or automotive
issues; rather, that their perspective won't be omitted in the pieces
he or she does do. Remember that Pomos embrace the idea of different
perspectives as they continuously scan their surroundings in search
of comfortable tribes. There is a subliminal honesty to point-of-view
journalism that also fits the Postmodernist ideal, along with a
realism and practicality that Postmoderns appreciate.
Internet video
news portals take the place of or supplement news organizations
in offering Video News On Demand (VNOD) to users. Since the Independent
VJs don't work "for" these portals and, in fact, may never visit
the building that houses such, the Internet becomes the most efficient
method of getting their stories to end users. Each Independent VJ
could have their own Web-based Video BLOG or archive from which
these portals would cherry pick the VJ's latest offerings. Google
News has pioneered software that presents text-based news in a similar
manner, and these video news portals could function in the same
way. On Google, for example, the same story is presented from multiple
perspectives based on the news organization providing the story.
This gives readers a well-rounded view of a particular issue, especially
when various international spins are presented. In the same way,
video news portals would provide viewers with multiple points-of-views
on stories based on the published biases of the various Independent
Video Journalists selected by the portal.
Word-of-mouth,
jungle drums and smoke signals aside, the news/information spectrum
we have today began with a single tool, the printing press. Then
came radio, followed by television, and now the Internet. Each has
its own unique niche, something it can do better than any of the
others, and that niche guarantees each a future. Printed news -
whether newspaper or magazine - provides depth, which can be picked
up and put down. Radio occupies only the sense of hearing, which
means listeners can do something else while participating. It can
provide information immediately too, but so can television. TV's
niche, however, is that it occupies two senses and can "take people
there" better than radio. The Internet bests its competitors, because
it can provide all three forms of communication in addition to being
a 2-way medium.
The extent
to which television news is clinging to its niche while ignoring
the natural transition to Video News On Demand (VNOD) via the Internet
is both self-destructive and sad. Today, events drive television
news, because covering events - especially compelling breaking news
- is what TV does best. But where there is no event, TV operations
attempt to create them through manipulative marketing gimmicks and
hyperbole. Meanwhile, people, especially Postmoderns, are turning
away in droves.
Local television
stations are the natural choice to move VNOD forward and reap the
financial benefits thereof. However, the price of admission to this
dynamic new world is so reasonable that outside investors could
easily steal the niche right out from under stations. This is a
business threat that station owners should take seriously. Already
Dirck Halstead's Platypus Movement is training print photographers
in the art of video journalism, and some newspapers are drifting
into the video news business.
Marketing
guru Craig Marshall gave six rules for managing change, and they
are especially appropriate for television news leaders today.
Challenge
the status quo.
Utilize consumer research.
Analyze your current strategy.
Recognize paradigm shifts.
Constantly monitor change.
MAKE the change.
Make the change,
TV News. Stop standing up in the face of a vastly more powerful
entity that is insisting you sit down.
