Strategically Communicating

Much of Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows reads like a transcript of the ongoing dialogue I have with myself about the pluses and minuses of my Web use. Or rather, it’s more like the ongoing lecture of a nagging parent toward a recalcitrant teenager.

Since the mid-1990s when I was a college freshman, I have enjoyed almost unfettered daily access to the Internet. This access has become even easier with the advent of the smartphone (and how endearingly quaint that term will surely seem in another few years). Digital ubiquity and dependency characterize my waking existence and, thanks to my new electronic sleep monitor, even my nocturnal one. In fact, I couldn’t help but check my e-mail and favorite sites several times while doing the reading.

For all the wondrous things the Internet has enabled me to do, it has also been an impediment to my attempt to be healthy and productive. My Internet usage has affected my sleep, study and exercise patterns, and even the way I relate to others. It all comes down to habit, the outward manifestation of neuroplasticity. I have tried, and mostly failed, to reform my habits to better serve myself, from adopting B.J. Fogg’s methods, to reading this book, to purchasing a “wearable tech” device (one step closer to the merging of technology and biology that some say is in our future). And so I ask you: how has the Web helped or hurt your efforts to live the life you want to live?

The second installment in our speaker series comes courtesy of Brenda Buratti, Director of Marketing and Programming at KGW, a Portland television station.

Buratti spoke about the breathtaking speed at which media are transforming, driven largely by the digital revolution, namely the growth of mobile technology. Even websites are an example of legacy media now, she said.

With this change comes new ways of measuring market share. The Nielsen Ratings, for decades the industry standard for determining who is watching what and at what time, are quickly becoming passé, supplanted by services better suited to the multiple ways users access television. An example of one of those services is Rentrak, a global company with headquarters in Portland.

Portland is a unique and challenging market in which to compete, Buratti pointed out, because while it has the 23rd largest television audience by population, its total available advertising revenues are equal to only those of the 36th largest TV audience. This is due to a number of factors, such as a faltering local economy and a less-consumerist culture than some other comparably-sized cities.

As part of her work to make KGW more competitive in the hunt for those scarce advertising dollars, Buratti and her team conducted extensive market research and identified several objectives for the company, including achieving brand consistency (logos, etc.) across various media platforms (including social media), as well as changing the brand’s tone to more closely reflect the values of KGW’s audience. Buratti and her colleagues are reaching out to students and other young people to learn how they can use social media more effectively.

Buratti then turned to a discussion of the roles and responsibilities of local news stations in society. She said the staff at KGW takes its duty to inform the public very seriously, citing the station’s coverage of the recent tornado in Longview, WA as an example of a service it provides that entities such as Comcast or Google or even network television cannot. The relationship between a community and its local news station is one built on trust, she said.

I’ve produced more than 200 videos for the City of Portland. YouTube analytics shows that the ones I had highest hopes for weren’t always the highest viewed. Creating my “Citizen Kane” doesn’t matter if the video doesn’t find an audience. I was thought view count was the only way to measure success online but it turns out it was relevance all along.

Views usually happen within a day. After that views crawl to a halt like opening weekend for a film. If the video is time sensitive or about a passed event, it loses relevance and not a good use of my time. On page 196 of Spreadable Media, we’re introduced to “The Uncertainty Principle”. Incorporating critical elements like availability, mobility, frequency, variety, and relevance can boost spreadability.

I learned this lesson the hard way. Now I focused on evergreen stories, about people not buildings. I added local music, dramatically increasing spreadability. I make videos shorter and so they look good on an iPhone. Our total view count is over 200K now, good compared to relatively sized cities. Its still important to hit your target audience despite the view count. If its still only 300, is it the right 300?

So, Kate Beaton has a marvelous online comic called “Hark! A Vagrant”. Beaton’s comics largely manipulate and parody historical events and figures (note the colorful depiction of Queen Elizabeth below, which will also link you to Beaton’s site), literature, etc. The content on her site is free, and yet she keeps producing content, consistently quality content. Her works are funded by book sales (a combination of new works and reprints from her website), calendars, other merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, bags, etc) bearing her prints, and donations from fans.

This brings to mind animator Nina Paley’s argument that the more shared something is, the large the demand becomes. Beaton’s works became widely shared which made her, in turn, a profitable entity. This demand prompted the publication of two books (“Hark! A Vagrant” and “Never Learn Anything From History”), as well as allowed her to expand as an artist. Recently, according to her website, she had been commissioned to illustrate a children’s book and likely has more work on the back burner. I think this is one of many excellent cases in support of the potential profitability of free distribution and content sharing.

Comic by Kate Beaton

Chapter 7 of Spreadable Media focused on the ways “spreadability may enhance diversity.” (Jenkins et al., 261) The authors provide examples throughout the chapter to explain how different cultures perceive transnational media, like the Makmende/Chuck Norris comparison (262), or anime fans seeking out goods for their “Japaneseness” (275).

While I do agree that “spreadability” has promoted cultural diversity and awareness, I can’t dismiss this opportunity to bring up a “heated [discussion] about the impact of globalization and mass media” (285) that hits close to home—Asian girls are trying to look “white.”

“Whiter skin is being aggressively marketed across Asia,” reads a New York Times article from 2006. Today, this is still true. On a recent trip to the Phillippines I couldn’t help but notice advertisements for skin bleaching products—on TV, billboards, flyers on the street. I even heard comments about how “much prettier I’d be with fair skin.” Huh?! Where did this obsession with “being white” begin?

(Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera)
Maybe it’s because most Filipino celebrities are much more light-skinned in comparison to their general audience?

An even more extreme level is blepharoplasty, an eyelid surgery some Asian women undergo to achieve a “double eyelid.”

While some cosmetic surgeons argue that the surgery “accentuates what [Asian women] already have,” Dr. Kim Byung-gun, head of the biggest plastic surgery clinic in Seoul, says, “The Chinese and Korean patients tell me they want to have faces like Americans.”

What could this say about mass media’s influence on culture?

From Chapter 7 of our book Spreadable Media by Jenkins, Ford, and Green, we learned about what they term “transnational spread of both mass and niche media content” (p. 259). One key aspect of this chapter was the way cultures all across the globe share, borrow, steal, adapt, and build upon one another’s media. For example, I love the television series “The Office.”

What I did not realize or take time to think about previously is that The Office was first produced in the United Kingdom in 2001. It was not until 2005 that the U.S. adopted and adapted the show for a U.S. audience. Germany, France, Chile, Israel, Sweden and others have made their own adaptations of The Office and aired it on their national television stations.

While the country that the show is aired in and the culture surrounding its nuances differ, some themes remain the same. For example, look at this clip from the Chilean “office” show. The boss is a crazy, egotistical man; gender issues are blatantly shown.

Although The Office may sometimes seem very lighthearted, it is a platform to discuss important issues, such as gender equality, ethnicity, sexual orientation – while also having some comedic relief from the stresses of office life as many of us know it.

For Donna, specifically, I’m including this snippet of The Office, where Dwight talks about his love of the online virtual world Second Life: