When I read The Hunger Games, for a moment I had hopes that our children where angry. Angry enough to realize what was happening around them. To realize what it meant. Perhaps it’s a quiet revolt stewing in places I don’t see.
Writers and actors want these stories to change us. I commend their bravery to speak out loud, to fight the ancient Leave-It-To-Beaver guard, to try and spark some form of action.
But I fear catharsis.
By the time one hour is up, my anger, fear, desire to act has been purged and released with the scrolling of credits. I know how fiction makes me feel. This feeling has to be because of the show I watched last night. Not because I’m urged to change my world.
What happens when the world isn’t stranger than fiction?
This post was originally published on one of my old blogs. I backdatedthis to the original publish date.
Over the small history of news, editors and journalists have come up with determinants 12345 that define “newsworthiness”. Check off more than 1 and bam… it’s “News”. The more checkmarks, the hotter it is.
Proximity: The closer to you the better
Prominence: Famous and well-known people
Timeliness: “This just in…”
Impact, a.k.a. Consequence, a.k.a. Significance: How many people are affected
Human Interest: Think of these like stories which can be broken down into the same things that make any good story
Oddity: The WTF Factor
Conflict: Good vs Evil – a classic
Emotion: A good tear jerker.
At first glance, these mostly seem right. However society has been changing drastically and with Infotainmnet becoming more informational that our traditional news sources, maybe we should at least take another look?
The Rules
Thought exercises need some form of rules. Let’s compare the past and future. Then, look for the gaps.
For the future, because McLuhan seems to be hitting things on the nose, we’ll imagine what his Global Village could become and use that imagined place.
Let’s Begin
Proximity
Historically, proximity was the ultimate indicator. Pre-telegraph, information was only as fast as the courier, and that was only as fast as the latest transportation. So of course the best, most accurate, most available, most intriguing, was what was happening around the city – your city.
In the Global Village, geographic proximity is all but irrelevant. Proximity is in the content, context, and culture of the individual/village. These could be deep-seeded villages based on genetics, heritage, sexuality, religion, or they could also be superficial self-elected communities like Craft Beer Lovers, Mountain Climbers, Political Advocates.
The Difference is instead of physical proximity it’s cultural.
How does one easily find and decide? Stop targeting demographics and target psycho-graphics. Or even better, be a part of the village you’re reporting on.
Prominence
Historically, how many famous people were there? The Mayor, The King, maybe a few Lawyers? If one of the small handful were involved it was a no-brainer to call it worthy.
In the Global Village, everyone has a moment or more of fame. Sabrina Pasterski, is just as famous, if not more in some villages, than Elon Musk.
Those important to all villages are important not because of who they are, but what they do.
The Difference is Prominence and fame are decoupled.
If that’s the case then perhaps Prominence could be taken out completely? Prominence is the person – Impact is the increasing and continued significance of a person’s actions. This doesn’t remove Actors and other celebrities. Just shifts focus from the Actors who only act – to those who make movies that make a difference, who use their name and status to impact people’s lives.
Timeliness
Historically, making any form of publication or media took time. A lot of time. It made sense that scooping a story right before production deadlines made it a hot commodity. Maybe another newspaper couldn’t get the edits in before starting up the presses, meaning you were the only media channel in town to have it. That meant people flocking to you for the info.
In The Global Village, all is instant, to everyone. There are no physical barriers to hit “publish.” Meaning like when the telegraph started destroying space, time to is irrelevant.
The Difference here is that it no longer becomes a journalistic decision.
Time becomes a commodity to charge for: immediacy, journalistic effort and history 6.
Pay more for by the second; pay a little less for once a day, and free whenever a blogger reposts ( which also come with the risk of being false )
Pay more for a full-page expose; a little less for a half-page; and free for a tweet.
Pay more to access the last 100 years or related articles; a little less for the last 5 years, free without anything related – you can go to the library of congress right?
Impact
Historically you could go around the room and simply count heads. An explosion? How many people in and around it? How many people travel by it. Multiply it by 4 or 5 and maybe you get the number of family members related. Headcount. The more involved or tied – the easier the decision.
In the Global Village, the rules still apply. However, journalistic institutes need to take more effort to uncover the villages that apply. They work to give context and educate the importance or impact.
The Difference is as society fragments, the full impact on a village may be overlooked. Work, effort, tribal knowledge is more important to uncover the real impact of events.
Human Interest
Historically these stories are the filler. When nothing is really going on find something odd, emotional, or conflicting to grab attention. Non-Fiction.
In the Global Village, everything is human interest. Yes, it has proximity, impact & prominence – each moment can spin out a multitude of varying human interest stories – and they do. It’s no longer just a car accident on the corner causing morning traffic. It’s the struggles and emotions of the person driving that distracts them for just a moment. The system forces them to have to go to work in such an emotional state.
The Difference is that Human Interest is the perspective and details. It’s the flavour of each community.
I think somewhere in the monolithic systems we’ve built around “new” we’ve forgotten that Human Interest is not a determinant, it is “the determinant” that makes a real difference. It’s the root of why we ask who, what, where, when, and why.
This post was originally published on one of my old blogs. I backdatedthis to the original publish date.
Footnotes
A nice powerpoint on Newsworthiness: Google promoted this, so it’s got to be good, right?
I’m liking this whoe micro blog in github thing. Only thing is, when not at a fully prepped system, or on the road it would be nice to edit. So I’m on the hunt.
Not too shabby – I like the presuggested file with date. Would have liked prefilled metadata – or something to help suggest ( let’s more honest – remember ) it.
ok. Hitting save – to see what happens.
update:
The publish flag is a nice add on – but wasn’t visibile enough so had to take a second. And titles… not 100% sold on how those are working. Wasn’t as intuative. Still does the trick though.
update 2
So many updates before the blog is even published. You know that title thing that wasn’t intuative – well it wasn’t a title, it was a full filepath. so… really not intuative. Meta Data it is.
The following, I think, is a plausible story around the invention of the printing press. Media has a darker business side. Perhaps it always has and always will.
The Gutenberg printing press was made to sell bible knock-offs. It was the ultimate as seen on TV product.
The year was roughly 1450 and Gutenberg had a brilliant idea.
Why have monks pray in silence hand copying a book that could take months, when this “device” could knock out hundreds in the same time and sell ’em for cheaper.
Most of the schmucks buying these things can’t even read ’em. It’s latin! And those who can, are rich folks who want to keep their money. Who cares if the thing doesn’t have gold flaked pictures.
It’s the deal of the century.
But how will he pay? Easy. Borrow it.
If Gutenberg had the gift of the gab to convince someone to pay him to learn how to polish gems, he can surely convince someone to give him money for this.
After all, it’s like printing money!
He found a nice shylock, sorry, “rich financier”, Johann Fust, who was kind enough to lend him 800 guilders.
Although he had most of the machine figured out the additional equipment and tools where a bit harder to get right. By roughly 1452, he had run the clock out and it was time to pay his debts.
Now, Gutenberg was probably crapping his pants a bit by now. You don’t owe money. You know that Shakespeare’s “pound of flesh” thing? That was a real thing!
It was a real shame, because he had figured out the kinks, but hadn’t printed any books yet to sell.
He shows the potential results to his financier praying not to be skinned and thrown into Debtors’ prison. Fust, decides not to break anything, gives Gutenberg a few extra guilders, and oh, one more thing, takes a cut of the score.
In the end it works. Making the bibles is going great, but this is where the Breaking Bad like story really starts.
Gutenberg brings in an apprentice to learn how to “cook” the books, a guy named Peter Schoeffer.
A few years later, roughly 1455, Fust, finally makes his play. Schoeffer wasn’t as talented, but who cares. It’s letters on a page what does quality matter.
Fust probably offers Schoeffer a whack less. But by now Gutenberg thinks he’s the Walter White of making books.
Rather than just whacking him — he takes everything from him, legally. Partners with Schoeffer and the press keeps printing.
It took 10 years for Gutenberg to be recognized as the inventor. He was 67. Died at 70.
If I could open a store, I think it would be a beer store. And like wine, it would
have beer organized from region. And the first I would make sure is to have all
of Canada.
I would have no idea where to begin to do this, but it would be nice.
But to start with – I’m at least going to start sharing what I have tried.
