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Posts Tagged ‘them’

Copyright 2006 Matt Canham, http://marinerblue.com

More, more, more for less, less, less is what the networks are saying about reality television because the popularity has staying power that is here forever.

There will always be a new reality show coming out, with new ideas coming from every aspect of life and there are even television stations dedicated to reality TV 24 hours a day.

But how long can this golden run go on? The short answer is indefinitely, as there is something of a stand off in place. The viewers ask that question, and the producers also ask that question, and both sides continue to watch and create the programs.

Who will crack first? When will they crack? With the huge success of many shows, it is not going to be anytime soon. But what about this huge success?

In terms of the individual success of one show, it will have little to do with the overall popularity of the genre. The run away success of The Simpsons didn’t stop others producing animation, just as the wild success of one Reality show won’t stop others from being made.

The big attraction to Reality TV is the audience involvement. They are watching real people and invest in them emotionally. Anyone who invests their time emotionally, isn’t going to just walk away, so they stay and keep watching to see the eventual outcome. And we already know there are no limits to the behaviour and emotions of human beings.

For this reason, I feel the next wave will be even wilder that the what we are seeing now. It’s going to get kind of weird folks, which in turn makes for great television. Sorry to all my buddies in Hollywood that act or are so called real writers.

In my opinion reality TV show writers are just that; “writers” but they are also creators as well which is an interesting duality that is really unique to them. Everyone has got an idea but who is able to lay it out so a producer can envision their show idea, who knows the ins and out and which hoops to jump through. Who knows what will be a colossal waste of time and at the same time knows exactly the proper path to take? The path that can lift your idea from just an idea to a simple proper one page treatment across the right desk of the right person, in the right fashion, without smacking of desperation and looking as if it has been put together by someone lacking experience…

The big consideration these days is the potential market for advertising. If you can clearly identify the target age groups for your show and the companies who might want to advertise to that market, you will have a very powerful pitch. The Contender was a great example – Everlast and Toyota Tundra broadcast to an audience of millions. Reality shows are about Entertainment, but they are also new vehicles for advertising!

Instead of just being involved in the breaks between the show, Reality TV allows advertisers to become part of the show. And any adman worth his place on Madison Avenue will know that being in the mind of the consumer for the whole show, not just 30 seconds of it, is a very worthy exposure for his client.

For this reason, the role of potential advertisers in the show should be of paramount importance to writers. Reality TV is not just about entertainment – it is also about selling products to the shows target audience. Never forget that.

If your idea is good, you might want to move ahead with it NOW. There are 150 top production companies that do reality shows and are waiting for the next big idea.

There is only question left you need to ask yourself. Is it going to be yours?

Blogging about your ex will not bring them back, but this secret will for all the loneley people looking for love

I have a confession to make. I am lonely. Painfully so. I didn’t realize this until today, but thankfully, I had University of Calgary academic degreel Keren decided inform me of this through an article on Canoe about his new book, “Blogosphere: The New Political Arena.” I admit that I did not like the feature the book, but if the article accurately depicts its thesis, then it is painfully stupid.

While it’s true that many blogs are cursive about personal topics, Keren’s description of the blogosphere seems to equate every bloggers as a homogeneous mass. The set of blogs that he follows and chronicles for the purposes of his mass consumption seem to be what we would refer to as “cat blogs” as in someone that blogs the minutia of their lives, including what their cat did today. To then apply this type of blogger to the rest of the blogosphere is not only ridiculous, it’s academically irresponsible. His description of these particular bloggers as depressing and lonely will all be correct, but his extraneous filler can sure not be extrapolated onto the blogosphere (which, remember, is the title of the book) as a whole.

Beyond being reductive, this analysis ignores the core reality of the blogosphere as a major social change. Individually, bloggers do not matter, this such is true. The actual social change comes from the realization of the tools of distribution, once only held by a few. Together, bloggers represent the potential for a major force of change. To equate this force to a some bloggers who live in the woods and talk about their departed cat is the same someone in the fifteenth century saying that the publication press is by a bunch of weird monks making bibles.

I’m not naive to believe that every blogger is making a social change – they’re not, and frankly, there is a lot of crap out there. The great thing about the scheme is that not everything has to be good, but the crap can easily be filtered out. Another, better articles touches on the veracity of blogs: Although the medium offers seemingly unlimited freedom of expression, Keren said bloggers too ofttimes appearance public instrument by reporting distorted versions of the facts.

Keren does hit a valid point, however, about not believing everything you read. The thing about the blogosphere is that it has an superior bullshit detector. If I were to indite something blatantly false, someone (probably Joe) would call me out, either in comments or in added blog. The more important I am, the larger this effect. Again, individually, the credibility of blogs is suspect, but in the aggregate, most errors will likely be found out and titled out. Furthermore, the natural partiality of an unedited personal instrument is evident, and it should come as a surprise to no digit that nothing suggestive in any blog should be considered above suspicion. To me, what is far more harmful is the facade that anything in the mainstream media is true and unbiased. Anyone employed in the media knows that this is ofttimes far from the truth, but sadly, many study the print and television news as the unbiased truth. The reality is that there are good bloggers and intense bloggers, PR bloggers, cat bloggers, semipolitical bloggers and a full lot more. Some are self-interested, some are as unbiased as any newspaper. Some, I’m sure, are lonely and some advance rich lives and are among the most important and intelligent grouping in the country. However, as long as we’re toting out stereotypes of lonely, ineffectual individuals with no relevance right their small and insulated peer group, I can think of a some about academics.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention about that secret to get back with your ex, check this out.