[Check out my vlog on this topic for more]
As ubiquitous as YouTube has become, it's most engaging features have largely gone unnoticed outside of the "active" YouTube community.
As ubiquitous as YouTube has become, it's most engaging features have largely gone unnoticed outside of the "active" YouTube community.
As I pursue my evangelistic shtick (how's that for a combo!) with the traditional media community, educating as many as possible about the reality of interactive social media, I've found a surprising lack of awareness of the ability to set up an account, comment on videos, and become part of a community of one's own design - even if one never posts a single video. It's a real stubborn misconception that, I think, hinders growth in certain areas of this world.
The other day, I received an email about the VARIETY Entertainment and Technology Summit, which will be held this fall at Digital Hollywood. There is quite a list of noted "players" in the mainstream "digital world," from the studios, production companies, Google and so forth, but there's very little coverage of the developing social media model - more accurately, the YT take on social media. Even a panel called "Web Video: The New Content Creators" completely ignores this world, and focuses on the web's take on traditional media - web series. While that may be a viable approach, it's not the only approach, and far from the most exciting. Perhaps it's so far out of the norm, and depends so little on the mainstream production structure, that it's beyond their perception.
The traditional media industry remains clueless about the potential of YouTube and YouTube-like content creation. I perceive the sea of YT content creators today as a vast R&D for third platform entertainment. I remain convinced that this will develop into a viable (ie profitable) form, but I suspect that opportunity will not come from the traditional entertainment sources.
Don't look for Fox or Disney to become players in this world. They may eventually create hugely successful web entertainment - but they're likely to remain distant from the ground-level "action." After all, how does a studio fit into a world where a single person writes, produces, directs, performs, edits and markets their work?
Exactly; the traditional concept of a studio simply does not fit the new paradigm. It's why they are unable to grasp it, and will not be getting it. And that's just fine.
ReplyDeleteI'm really not surprised by this. But I think one of the stumbling blocks is that there's so much footage going up on the tubes... most of which is not commercially viable. "Mainstream" needs to really tap into the platfor, like Old Spice did and use the stars like Michael Buckley (as Fox did). Then they need to really search for those diamonds to make them stars on their platforms.
ReplyDeleteI can't say that i'm surprised by this either. The "Entertainment", for the most part, just don't "get it". Maybe as Ken said, it's actually good that they don't. I quite like being on the periphery.
ReplyDeleteI do feel though, that there a couple of reasons why they think like they do. One, is that they just don't understand the huge shift that Social Media has made in the entertainment world & the other, is that i really do think they feel threatened by us, in some way. Possibly again because they don't understand it all.