Archive for December, 2007

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27
Dec

Top 10 Media Shifters of 2007 - Part 2

By Drew 0 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized

Welcome to the second half of my top ten list of the most seismic events in the media landscape over the last year.

You can find Part 1 right here.

 

1.The iPhone
With this device Apple has once again changed the landscape by not only taking an existing device and making it what it should be, but more importantly, redefining what it can do. While it may not change the rules of the game in the same way that iPod did, it’s definitely proven that a web-enabled integrated media gadget is something that consumers not only want, but are willing to pay for. And once again, everyone else is reduced to being compared to Apple.

2. The Writers’ Strike
At this point there’s no way to know how long this is going to last, or what the full impact is going to be. But as we reach the end of the year, and the original content begins to dry up, it’s becoming clear that the post-strike world is going to be different than what came before. Even before it began the days of the limited distribution monopoly were coming to an end. Now an audience that was already moving off of the tube and onto the web is now going to be migrating even faster. And with developers beginning to discover how they can monetize web content, there’s no reason that writers won’t start to look for bigger and better deals in a new media marketplace.

3. FaceBook
While MySpace pioneered the idea of using a web community as a content marketing mechanism, FaceBook has taken it to the next level by offering up an API that lets developers and users build content that’s available through their viral portal. It’s not always pretty, or intuitive, but applications like Scrabulous are proving that it’s an idea that works. And the fact that their competition have gathered together to create an open API of their own means that it’s important, even if they had some privacy issues.

4. 300
The film that started 2007 out with a clang. This linear media mashup managed to encapsulate the current zeitgeist from the political to the technological. With scenes ripped straight from the comic book that spawned it, 300 features a casat of impossibly sculpted actors fighting virtual monsters inside insane digital environments with camera effects \ripped straight out of a video game, All set in an ancient Persia that never was. While the story itself may be a little simplistic, there hasn’t been a film that’s landed with this much of an impact since the original Matrix.

5. Bioshock
Although most videogames may seem stuck in the silent era when it comes to telling a solid story, this game managed to break free from the pack by taking the player to an under-sea paradise that has fallen to ruin, and then building metaphors onto the metaphor. From the moment they enter this world, it is up to the player to uncover the narrative of corruption and violence that turned a Randian dream into an objectavist nightmare, and fight the monsters it spawned. Combining a free roaming environment with a carefully layered narrative, Bioshock has raised the bar for the kinds of stories that can be told through a video game.

26
Dec

Top 10 Media Shifters of 2007 - Part 1

By Drew 0 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized

As we head into the New Year I think that now would be a good time to take a look back at what I consider to be the biggest MediaShifters of 2007.
These are the media, products, or events that best showcase the challenges and opportunities that occur when content shifts from one medium to another.

Part 1 is the bottom half of the list.  I’ll put up my top five later this week.

6.
Nintendo DS - While shaking the Wii remote may have been the hot new thing last year, it was reaching out to touch this small portable gaming system that’s really showing the pathway to the future of gaming. With one unit is sold every five seconds in the US alone, this little gadget has managed to become the most successful gaming platform in history, with an audience that runs the from toddlers to centenarians. With the success of Brain Age and other “training entertainment” for aging baby boomers it’s managed to open up new markets and change the equation of both how and what we play for almost every generation alive.

7.
Rock Band - Even as the music industry keeps failing to prop up their tottering business model, great music keeps finding new ways to prove its value. Built on the success of musical rhythm action games that span the gamut from Dance Dance Revolution to the Guitar Hero series, Rock Band takes things to the next level by creating a social activity that not only entertains the players, but can gather an audience as well.

8.
Kindle - Whether or not it turns out to be a success in the long run, the Kindle is at least attempting to bring long-form reading across the digital divide. It’s a big splashy product for a generally mild and cerebral medium, and it’s loaded with extraneous bells and whistles like EVDO and MP3 playing that may make book readers scratch their heads. But whether it wins or loses in the long run, the Kindle is worth watching.

9.
Hulu - Last year the major networks decided to dump both iTunes and YouTube and go it on their own, leaving a trail of abandoned content and lawsuits behind them. It’s easy to dismiss their efforts as shortsighted and driven by greed, but if you’ve made your way into the beta you may be in for a pleasant surprise. The big boys can still line up a roster of top talent when they’re motivated, and with Hulu it’s clear that they’re looking to create a A-list experience. Not only does it have all the bells and whistles that the “folk media” (thanks Doug Rushkoff) sites do, but they’ve managed to integrate advertising and viewing features in a way that actually seems forward thinking. The story is only beginning for this kind of online corporate content, but Hulu is definitely an interesting chapter.

10.
Heroes - Like a shooting star, this television series fell from the heights and crashed down in a fireball of burning ratings in the space of only a few months, Confusing storylines, poor plotting, and missed dramatic opportunities turned the saga of heroes into both an example and a cautionary tale of how a media shift can make and break your content at the same time. It also drove home the point that, even if your property can leap over multiple media (television, comics, internet, cell phones, downloads, etc.) in a single bound, the must be hero content that your fans can rally around, and it must be good.

 

Did I miss something, or get something wrong?  Make a comment and let me know!

23
Dec

Disney Characters Explain Fair Use

By Drew 0 Comments
Categories: Media Wars and Linear Media

There’s a lot of meta going on in this strange little video.

 

The fact that you’re thinking “Can he get away with this?” the whole time is what makes it worth watching.

20
Dec

The Media Wars are Over (We Just Don’t Know It Yet)

By Drew 0 Comments
Categories: Media Shift, Media Wars and Linear Media

David Pogue points out that there’s a crushing generational wave coming:

Recently, however, I spoke at a college. It was the first time I’d ever addressed an audience of 100 percent young people. And the demonstration bombed.

In an auditorium of 500, no matter how far my questions went down that garden path, maybe two hands went up. I just could not find a spot on the spectrum that would trigger these kids’ morality alarm. They listened to each example, looking at me like I was nuts.

Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, “O.K., let’s try one that’s a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don’t want to pay for it. So you download it.”

There it was: the bald-faced, worst-case example, without any nuance or mitigating factors whatsoever.

“Who thinks that might be wrong?”

Two hands out of 500.

I’ll post this without comment, except to say that sticking your head in the sand isn’t a viable business model for the future…

20
Dec

The Writer’s Strike Helps Drive the Future the Studios Fear Most

By Drew 0 Comments
Categories: Media Wars, Internet and Linear Media

Unable to get the studios to pay them a pittance for online content, some writers are trying to do it for themselves.

I can’t say I’m surprised by this at all, and hastening the demise of the current system seems like an inevitable outcome of the strike.  The studios still don’t get that they no longer own the sole means of transmission, and they don’t seem to understand that their ability to package and market content is at risk when you can get all your services ala carte.

There’s already some interesting independent web-centric production that started to show up before the strike began.  Accelerating this trend won’t be good for the studios in the long run.

But I’m guessing the current mentality is, for some executives anyway, basically built around logic that begins and ends with “screw those guys”.

At the same time it looks like that some producers are starting to realize that they’re in competition with each other, not the writers.  And some of them have more to lose, it turns out.

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