dotTVrevolution

by Alexander Scott

 Compulsive Traveler Web Site

“The revolution will not be televised” but it may be streamed over broadband Internet.  It is not the revolution that throws wrenches in the gears of capitalism but in a sense it may plant the seeds that loosen the bolts.  I’m talking about a content revolution. Not a “TV” revolution but a “dot  TV” revolution. 

            Since the dawn of moving pictures television has been one of the most powerful mediums for drawing in audiences and delivering messages.  However, due to the high cost of the technology to create it, it has remained until recently a medium managed exclusively by the rich and powerful.  It has been controlled and manipulated to serve the means of corporations and propagandists, in order to shape the values and ideas within popular society.  Television has served to sell a range of ideas from JELL-O to war.

 It diverts the consciousness of the public from the harsh realities of our world and settles our attention on game shows and talent contests.

            So, what is the position of “the viewing public” within this media machine?  We have been seated, planted like couch potatoes, spending quality family time together, as receptacles to what has been delivered to us through the world famous “Boob Tube”.  However, in this new era of revolutionary technologies, change is in the air.  However, it is not the first time technology has brought a revolution to a medium.  The Catholic Church used to be the only institution that published books, holding a monopoly on hand transcribing in monasteries.  That was until “The Gutenberg Press” was invented, making book printing a fast, efficient, and inexpensive process.  Martin Luther’s Reformation Movement was in a sense only a series of printed pamphlets made possible by the new press.  Those pamphlets brought a new idea of religion to an audience, who like us in the “Couch Potato Age”, were only receiving the information that was force-fed to them.  And it didn’t just stop with religion.  The new press revolutionized politics, philosophy, and entertainment.

            So if it was Gutenberg’s press that was the catalyst in a print revolution, the Internet will be the catalyst in our still-to-be-defined revolution.  More and more people are turning to their computer screens as a source of quality video.  However, the real shape of the revolution is not where they are turning to view videos; it’s what is defining those videos as quality.   The most viewed video site on the web “youTube” is based around the amateur filmmaker.  In the youTube world a video containing two kids lip singing in a dorm room has the potential to reach a mass audience of over a million views.  Why? Simple, it’s funny.  One person emails a link to another and the effect is viral.  In this same way filmmakers of all types, first timers to seasoned veterans, are beginning to produce content specifically for the web.  With a broadening market of viewers whole sites are beginning to pop up solely based around the specific interests of the expansive viewing public.  From sport, politics,music, health, or travel, I’m sure there is a video site dedicated to your interest.  These new channels are the revolution of television, not because they exist, but because the viewers are participating.  If you like a video you can comment or email it to a friend.  If you don’t like a video you can comment or make a better one.  In the “new television” people determine how they access the content, and that access is what defines quality and defines the revolution.

Author: Alexander Scott

I work in marketing and content development for the website www.compulsivetraveler.tv

On this site I also promote, under the username Zscott, my own project highlighting music from Bluefields, Nicaragua “The Bluefields Sound System”  www.bluefieldsound.com . 

I’m a graduate of Hunter College of the City University of New York with a degree in Media Studies. I currently live and work out of Bluefields, Nicaragua where I can be close to the music I am working to promote.

Thanks to the power of the web I’ve also set up a marketing branch of www.compulsivetraveler.tv in Nicaragua from where I can enjoy a less harried view of the video travel world and a much better quality of life.