Super Tuesday = Super Risk
Posted by Anthony LaFauce on February 5th, 2008 2:15 PM
I will never be one of those people who criticizes MTV for no longer playing music videos. I understand what MTV does, really I do. MTV is focused on doing cutting edge entertainment, and music videos are no longer the leading edge.
Think about it. MTV had reality TV before everyone else, they had prime time cartoons before everyone else, they had celebrity news long before it became the staple of six o’clock TV. MTV is about trying things that haven’t tried before.
That is why I am not surprised to see MTV video blogging this Super Tuesday. MTV has armed a group of attractive young adults with the amazing Nokia N95, the same camera/phone/awesomeness that Reurters’ reporters are armed with, to take to the street and do some in the field reporting.
MTV is uploading the videos directly from the phone to the web in a very bold move. These videos are unedited raw opinions of people on ‘the street’. Sure, the MTV reports will most likely seek out a certain type of voter, but the effort is noble. MTV is trying to cut out the journalist from reporting.
This is experiment is a fine example of using social media in the mainstream. MTV is using mobile technology to bridge the gap of time that is normally very prevailing in main stream media. Simple things like production time cause news to be old before it even hits the air waves.
I would like to see more media companies try this. I would really enjoy seeing CNN or Fox news start broadcasting on Seesmic or on their own websites. Real time news or op/eds might be something that could draw me back to mainstream TV.
Could this new form of reporting work as a way to get you to watch more television? Or do you think this tool will remain a technique of websites and new media? Let me know.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I think right now all this is an experiment. One big hurdle that has to be overcome is how to deal with the deluge of new information that’s going to be coming in. When you have a dozen young people running around with N95s, you’re going to have a lot of video which is just noise but some that is signal. Just gotta find the good stuff…