Global Culture

Nothing like finding hidden connections between ideas, specially when they seemed so distant. My post lonelytv seemed a good exercise in interpreting McLuhan, which is a worthy cause in its own. It also seemed a good way to discretely reveal facts about me: I don’t watch TV; at least not in the same way that most do. I count it among my favorites posts, yet it also seemed to be out of place in this blog. Up until now.

One of those connections I was referring to has surfaced in a very unexpected way: a discussion about the need for sound to create a very specific atmosphere within our application reminded me of the word acoustic used in the post.

McLuhan had established decades ago the consequences of TV as a new medium that would return society to its tribal ways, pushing the literate man back to an “acoustic” world where oral tradition is the preferred mechanism for cultural transfer. “Acoustic” was mostly used as a metaphor for “many things happening at once”. I believe that his position is even more accurate today to describe the transition from TV to a more fluid medium.

However, while reading it I realized the relevance was higher. A couple of days ago Stan had reminded me that interpretation is key when conveying a message and we had to account for the fact that everyone could interpret our message in different ways.

However, for a new generation of viewers, viewing is not enough. Participation is a must. The Lonelygirl15 phenomenon provides a preview of the type of interactivity that the audience is demanding. Unscheduled snippets of action, very short, cuasi-serialized but easily interchangeable, many different levels of stories that may appeal to different participants, alternate channels to get involved whether providing comments or producing additional snippets of content and endless hooks to plug-in their own ideas into the story. In this new medium there are no rules on how to consume the message, which distorts the message itself and provides creative license to the audience. Assuming there are smart producers listening to all the feedback, the evolution of such a venture is largely based on what the audience wants.

Hidden connection. An acoustic medium requires the user to consume it partially and obtain the full picture by means of active participation in it. Interpretation is not only good, it is encouraged as it makes the discussion more interesting. By presenting vignettes of reality apparently disconnected one from the other we can convey the illusion of reality as long as there is space for that active participation that compliments the act of viewing them. The net effect should be more powerful than having a single long feature narrating our story linearly.