“It’s been a great year with Amanda — a great experiment for both of us. We thank her for her many contributions and know that she’s about to embark on new endeavors and expect there will be times in the future that we can again work together.”
ABCNews.com statement
I wonder if the news that Amanda Congdon and ABC have chosen to part ways isn’t emblematic of the diminished value of “celebrity” in media. Congdon, whose efforts with former Rocketboom partner Andrew Michael Baron pioneered the emergence of succesful new media brands, deftly positioned herself as a crossover talent after her split with the Rocketboom creator. Big media took notice and soon she was videoblogging for ABC News. While that relationship may have never been a perfect fit for either party, it was notable that big media had validated “new” media. I think part of the problem that big media still struggles with is that in many respects, they simply try to ape and replicate what is happening in emerging social media platforms. For instance, on a number of occasions, I’ve heard television colleagues talk of making things “look webby”
Talents aside, it’s not simply an Amanda Congdon or Joanne Colan that make Rocketboom cool, it’s the fact that the entire experience is built around participation and involvement. They are simply the facitlitator or custodians of community. Their “celebrity” is merely a net effect of the interactivity of the show. I don’t know whether ABC may have failed to take this fully into account, or simply wasn’t able to replicate that participation, but it appears the end result was an experience that wasn’t entirely what fans had hoped.
Katie Couric in Iraq
Celebrity’s fickle nature isn’t limited to the new media crossover talent. Just look at Katie Couric’s less than stellar transition to CBS News. I was recently with her in Iraq as she was reporting from the region. Despite her notoriety, and the timeliness of the reporting, the CBS Evening News tied for its lowest ratings (5.5 million viewers) since she took the helm. Now, CBS has given all kinds of explanations for the shows lackluster performance since she took the job, but in my mind they made a bet on her celebrity and it simply isn’t panning out.
I think we’re entering an era where celebrity in media is of far less value then the quality and authenticity of content. There is unlimited choice in how we get news, information and entertainment. We seek content that speaks to us, engages us, and gives us avenues for interactivity and participation. We want to speak with, not simply listen to the messenger. There are so many avenues now for robust discourse, that one-way media is simply having a hard time getting through. As I always say, none of this is zero sum, but certainly the shifts are pretty obvious. There is tremendous opportunity for established media to learn from emerging media and vice versa.
There are some examples of these disparate forms of media drawing on best practices learned from one another. Big media companies are are empowering their workers with new storytelling tools. My current employer, NBC News, has embraced blogs and video blogging and is making plans to do more. Just this past week they featured the enterprising work of my friend and colleague Amna Nawaz. Amna produced this web-only video about the under-reported story of land mine victims in Columbia.
Young victims of landmines
MSNBC.COM has such a thirst for original, unique first-person content that they encourage everyone to produce original video and blogs, not just re-purposed broadcast stories for the web. I’ve even gotten in on the act.
Just as old media are taking cues from new, emerging media are drawing from the experince of their corporate counterparts. Take the webisode drama “35″. “35″ is a dramatic web video series that is shot with three cameras and switched and fed live via Ustream to the web. To me the strength of this project is that it combines the ubiquity ot the internet with the spontaneity and unpredictability of live TV. “35″ was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article, so once again we see mainstream media taking notice of creative, upstart, emerging media. “35″ runs from September 19th through the 30th, live at 9PM EDT. The show has a post show chat where fans talk with producers.
Who knows where all of this is going, but from my vantage point this is at once daunting as it is exhilarating. But for someone who makes a living in media, it’s vital to keep on top of trend. Seeing what resonates with audiences, what do they ignore, what engages them -these will be the measures of success in this dizzyingly changing media landscape. This seems clear though, treat your community, your audience as a valuable partner in your media and youll likely have a winner. Celebrity in and of itself is of limited value.
