Ten years ago, the internet was still a novelty and mobile phones had dimensions similar to those of the few people who owned them. In 2008, mobile phones contain the internet and slide into your wallet where the photos of your kids used to be. Fortunately these are now also on your phone.
We are urged by mainstream news networks to record unfolding catastrophes on whatever digital device comes to hand and leaving the house sans camera results in the sin of having nothing to show of your day at its end. In the midst of such a frenzy of self-documentation and citizen journalism, former U.S. Vice President and reigning Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt noticed a considerable gap in the market.
The idea for a peer-to-peer news and information network was in fact spawned following the U.S. presidential election in 2000, long before the user-generated content explosion was even ignited. Gore and Hyatt felt increasingly disillusioned with existing media networks, in particular their neglect of the 18 – 35 demographic. While to most networks, the disinterest of this age group in current affairs was – and still is – accepted as immutable fact, Gore and Hyatt took it upon themselves to consider why this was, and how it could be altered.
By 2005, the internet was clogged with devotees of MySpace, Flickr, blogs and the then-newborn You Tube, the majority of whom slotted neatly into the audience Gore and Hyatt felt the mainstream networks were failing to capture. Spying their route to a media presentation alternative, the pair took advantage of the fevered climate and their network was officially launched as Current TV on April 4, 2005.
Ezra Cooperstein, Current’s Vice President of development and production for VC2 (Viewer Created Content), was one of the founding team members and has watched the company grow to follow the guiding principles outlined by Gore from the outset.
“[Al Gore] asked us to democratise television and be transformational”, he explains.
“We had a very small programming team at that point and… were taking those two very high-level concepts and trying to figure out how to reverse-engineer a 24-hour television network.”
Cooperstein himself came equipped to the role, having joined Current TV fresh from RKO Pictures in Los Angeles. He quickly assumed control of all facets of the development and production of the network’s content.
“We really believe that [18 – 35 year-olds] don’t watch news because no-one creates news for them, in their voice and from their point of view,” says Cooperstein.
“You can program to 60-year-olds, but there are a lot of people who do that really well and spend a lot of money doing [it], so it wasn’t really interesting for us to try to create networks [like] CNN or Fox News. What we really thought was that there [was] a big gaping hole.”
How to fill it? Cooperstein has been described as the chief evangelist of user-generated content, and deservedly so, with his emphasis returning consistently and with considerable zeal to the voice of the viewer.
“The idea of democratising television is perfectly lined up with… the promises of the digital revolution finally coming to fruition,” he says. “People had talked a lot about the age when small cameras and digital cameras and edit systems would change the landscape of content creation and streaming video online would become ubiquitous. Those tools would create a new literacy for content creation.
“All three of those things combined to form the perfect time for Current to take this mission of democratising television and basically open up a platform… to our viewers.”
“Democratising television” could sound to many like an empty yet menacing catchphrase, yet the reality is far more vivid and flourishing than those not tuning in might believe.
“How do you democratise television?” Cooperstein prefaces rhetorically. “Basically you open it up and allow everyone to participate in the creation [and selection] of content. We really thought that we could redefine what news could be to a certain demographic, by giving everyone the opportunity to tell stories that are fascinating to them or … give perspectives from people who have been disenfranchised [by] the media.”
Furnishing neglected demographics with an accessible and accepted voice is a hallmark of Current TV and one which defines their mission to create a peer-to-peer forum for a more rounded view of world affairs.
“We believe that there [is] a worldly, smart, engaged audience out there that actually wants to be both part of the process of telling the stories, but also be informed about the world around them,” Cooperstein continues.
Flagging down this fast-paced audience along the information superhighway required a considered strategy. Cooperstein explains that every aspect of this audience’s digestion of information is accounted for, “from the way it is presented to the people who are presenting to the types of news we cover to the way stories [are told], to make it more experiential and less reporter-driven. [There’s no one] with a stick mike telling you what just happened; [this] lets you engage with characters rather than [have] a passive experience.”
A significant contributing factor to the success of Current TV is the required length of its “pods” (3 – 5 minute segments), and its open nature. While it hopes to also provide a convenient and supportive forum for aspiring journalists and filmmakers, its raison d’être remains its role as a mouthpiece for the common man, woman and teenager.
“We had to make it an accessible platform for all these new viewer-creators, so we didn’t want to ask them to go out and make half-hour shows,” he says. “We gave them the opportunity of short-form content, which… fits perfectly with the new platforms that are available, but it also fits what we thought the attention span of our viewers would potentially be.”
It is easy to criticise the user-generated content revolution as a subjective, unqualified free-for-all masquerading as hard fact, and fuelling an already media-addicted and flighty generation of viewers. Yet it can also be argued that the purported objectivity of the mainstream media can be a far greater and more autocratic manipulation of information. Forums such as Wikipedia and Current TV may be a rigorous exercise in vigilance, but as Cooperstein observes, “the threat of misinformation obviously is a valid one, but in this new open system you also have these incredible filters; people are very quick to call [errors] out and this vetting process happens organically.”
“We can’t be scared of having more voices as part of the conversation [alongside] authoritative ones,” he continues. “We wanted to reinvigorate conversation and open up this idea of a dialogue in a marketplace of ideas where every [person] can participate rather than just a few.”
The encouragement of individual viewpoints may indeed bring a subjectivity seemingly lacking in mainstream media networks. However, this collage of reportage coloured by diverse backgrounds and experiences – when coupled with open discussion and commentary – results in a rounded resource from which users may draw information as they wish and reach their own conclusions. Should they then choose to contribute these to the pool, the cycle continues.
So to what degree does Current’s success stem from its participants’ genuine interest in current affairs, and how much of the glory can be claimed by the pervasive and rising fever of get-kitsch-quick?
The cult of blogger/vlogger-turned-celebrity has been championed a thousand times over by writers, pouters, posers and shouters, with results evincing mixed levels of integrity. Cory Kennedy, an 18-year-old Californian who was talent-spotted as an intern – her talent being “the potential to be famous for doing nothing, à la Paris Hilton” – is now a style and lifestyle icon described by one magazine as an “Internet It girl”*. Chris Crocker, 20, an “American Internet personality and self-described ‘edutainer’” shot to notoriety following a distraught turn on You Tube in defence of the beleaguered Britney Spears. The viral video garnered over four million views in two days**.
While these examples may not auger brilliantly for the outcome of a user-generated content revolution, there are tales of a similar ilk whose protagonists were plucked from obscurity to realise their ambitions at an unprecedented speed. Former journalist and stripper Diablo Cody’s debut effort won this year’s Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Juno. Cody had gathered a devoted following through newspaper columns and her successive blogs Red Secretary, Darling Girl and Pussy Ranch, before her sharp wit intrigued the man who was to become her agent. A publishing contract and an Oscar later, it seems unlikely that Cody will take to the poles again. Australia’s own Marieke Hardy followed a similar trajectory after her blog Reasons You Will Hate Me attracted attention, complementing a growing portfolio of other writing and media credits. She now co-hosts the breakfast show on Triple J, the ABC’s youth radio station.
Just as extremes of opinion and quality can be borne of the vast arena that is the internet, so it can be argued that empowerment should be the principle to which potential detractors refer. The empowerment of apparent narcissism and opportunism has its place alongside that of discussion, information and enlightenment.
The essential component in any disseminated thought or knowledge, says Cooperstein, should be authenticity: “I think there is a responsibility from everyone who is pushing information outwards,” he says thoughtfully. “Our demographic is captivated by authenticity. They don’t want to have a top-down media [network] project what they think young people want to watch; instead they want to reflect the media and see themselves in the very content they’re watching.”
A fear of encroaching homogenisation has crept in the wake of mass media for decades, but for projects such as Current TV, the emphasis remains on the celebration and appreciation of differences of experience and perspective, alongside acknowledgement of our essential similarities.
“I think that [we] really want to see people like [ourselves] and… learn about people who share common ideas. That’s what we’re offering our viewers: anyone can go out there and create a piece of content and get it on television. Anyone can see themselves or learn about something they’re fascinated by, created by people [who] are just like them from around the world.”
Pick your best angle before the world starts watching.
*Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Kennedy
**Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Crocker_%28Internet_celebrity%29
Portable Content: portablecontent.com
Portable Film Festival: www.portablefilmfestival.com
