Back to the Campfire Media

For most of the history of media it was done by people, live people, in front of an live audience. Long before anyone even invented the stage people sat around campfires, told stories, sang songs maybe did some dancing. It was also the birth of celebrity. Everyone wanted to be the storyteller, the best dancer but it was interactive. Everyone knew the storyteller, everyone got a regular opportunity to be the best dancer. People could ask questions, make points, give suggestions...

The stage separated audience from performer to an extent, but not alot. The performers were still live people, a few feet away and were real people that you could know (if you associated with that sort.) If you had the bug you could even try your own hand at the stage. Books came next, but until the last few hundred years it was primarily the bible and few could read anyway. There were few 'famous' authors and part of what print accomplished was giving people new stories to tell and subjects to talk about.

Electronic media significantly shifted the paradigm. With film, radio and television the performers were not there with you. Chances were you didn't know them, would never meet them and (outside of Kings, Popes and a few Generals) we had the worlds first true international, household word kindof celebrities.

But people don't change as rapidly as technology does. People still want to be the storyteller, the best dancer and if they can't be they do want to interact directly with the people who are. The international, household kindof celebrities do not lend themselves to this (how could they)? This leads us to the cult of celebrity - the obsession of a great many people with those they will likely never meet and the obsession to become those people themselves. People want to, at the very least, believe these people are like them, or they want to become like these people. They want to believe that this people share their thoughts, their beliefs, their tastes and their experiences.

Then along comes the internet and things are suddenly headed back to where they started - people now can interact with celebrities, what's more they can become the storyteller and the best dancer and the hit counter, the myspace friends list, etc., will tell them how they are doing. You may not actually meet your favourite movie star, but by signing up for one list or another you can get messages from them (ok not personal ones, messages that go out to thousands of others at the same time but still...) Whoever you are, whatever you're like you can find people around the world who share your thoughts, beliefs, tastes and experiences.

If you look at what's been working in media for the last decade or two I believe it bears out my theory;

Reality Television: real people in real situations (at least that was the promise) and for a time people bought in. Canadian Idol, for example, promises to take someone from obscurity into pop stardom - an 'idol' of the cult of celebrity. admittedly this is starting to wane as people realize just how little reality is involved in reality television.

Talk Radio (and television) especially call in shows. Whether it's someone you agree with or someone you love to disagree with these people are on the air actually talking with, interacting with, their audience.

Myspace: As mentioned above, you can rack up thousands of 'friends' around the world, put your favourite famous people at the top of your 'friends' list and use the various features to try to become the storyteller and best dancer in the tribe.

Youtube: Now you can be a movie star or great director at least in a micro-way - ok you might now win an oscar, but having thousands of people watch the video you made with your cell phone is a good start.

Blogging/Vlogging/Podcasting: Same points really - storytelling, interactivity, hit counters...time to stop repeating myself.

I'm not a psychologist, or a cultural anthropologist. I do not have a long term study or even a focus group to back me up, it's just a theory but one I think people in media may want to think about when deciding what to send over the airwaves, and especially when building web sites (because they offer more opportunity for interactivity) to support that broadcast content.

On Edit: An afterthought to illustrate this point further: (and this may just be me but...) Put me in a pub or a coffee shop with a handful of intelligent, creative people who like to talk and I will have far more fun than I have ever had watching anything that has ever been on television.