The Multimedia Maven

So often, if the television set is on, I’m watching it alone.  That’s not a problem.  It’s just the way it is. I typically don’t have my computer on at the same time. But now that I finally have a wireless router, I can use my laptop anywhere in my home.  When, the 2009 BET Awards came on, I just happened to be on Facebook and quickly realized that I was not alone.  There was a group of about twenty of us critiquing the show from start to finish in real time.  Many were watching the entire show for the first time or for the first time in years.  After all, the show was a partial tribute to the late Michael Jackson. I forced myself to write the word “late. ”

With record numbers of communication using Twitter and Facebook not to mention email and text as people shared the news of the King of Pop’s passing, we all must take a pregnant pause long enough to really understand the impact of the seismic shift in media usage and consumption. We know people are not passive and that they want information any time, any place, and any way they want it.  We know more people have mobile devices than computers. And we know that there are more than 200 million people on Facebook.

As more and more people joined the conversation about the BET Awards, from the opening number featuring New Edition including Bobby Brown, I slowly realized what was about to transpire.  I didn’t have to watch the show alone or make a phone call. I didn’t have to text. All I had to do was remain on facebook and participate.  I thought about how ideas spread, a notion Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell and others discuss at length.  I reflected on the power of peers.  I even pondered the First Amemdment, the notion of Free speech as the folks at BET bleeped inappropriate language so many times, I truly lost count.  The key here is that I’m thinking about how to facilitate and improve the way that we interact.  And, thanks to crowdsourcing, I don’t have to think alone.  I posed this question to those who were on Facebook watching the Awards show:

Hey, before everybody goes. Tell me about your experience discussing the Awards show on FB. Have you done this watching any show before? About how many people in your network are participating? What does this mean? How can we innovate, build apps and do thing(s) with this tool in the future? I will post comments to my blog using first names only.

Tonya said:

“Actually, I think there needs to be a better way to respond multiple discusson threads…I have been corresponding with multiple ppl, and I have to keep scrolling back, click on the notifications (which are sometimes delayed) and must keep refreshing ’cause the network keeps freezing…”

Colleen said:

“when I saw one particularly fun FB friend commenting quite a bit about the show, I tuned in to watch, even though I wouldn’t normally and even though I was supposed to working. I enjoyed the experience. And one other FB friend was also commenting about the show, so that was interesting to compare their comments. I wanted to somehow get them to communicate w/ each other.”

Mardell said:

“I didn’t do it the entire time like you all did but had fun when I did. I was checking to see what you all were saying even when I wasn’t participating. I had only one more person in my network comment.”

Angie said:

“I had fun commenting the entire awards show. It was great to see what others had to say and the comments that were discussed. It was funny because many people were thinking along the same line. I did get a good laugh.”

Based on these responses and my insight, here are some suggestions for media, marketing and many people who want to maximize their opportunities virtually.

Any event can be interactive. You can live blog using coveritlive.  You can cover the event live on your website using sites like livestream or ustream.  You can add a Twitter feed, just use the # (hashtag) and the word and you’ve created a separate strand through which to communicate.  You can record interviews on Skype by using Jing or Snapz Pro.  The possibilities are truly infinite in many ways. Just take the time to think and to experiment.

Be tuned into your audience. There were audio difficulties throughout the show.  The producers seemed to be aware of them, however, if an associate producer or even an intern can monitor social networking during live taping, it would be a wise use of resources.

Allow your audience to interact in real time. I know this is a terrifying proposition but with all of the new media tools,  a show could Skype some people in just like Oprah Winfrey does on a regular basis now.  She is saving thousands, if not millions of dollars by not having to bring in all of the guests and not to have to purchase satellite time. You have to have Twitter and Facebook available at all times.

Just like the Open Source movement which allows computer programmers, designers and others to compete on different projects because the source code for the actual computer program is free and available, any show can post a rundown on their website and get ideas from the audience about how to improve the show.  It’s called shared control.  You still have the final say as the producer, howver, you have many more ideas from the audience. Only a few people will typically contribute.  You’ll see the cream rise to the top and may be able to recruit future employees this way as well.  Transparency is beyond essential in the virtual age.

Learn how to create and build applications for platforms like Facebook and the iPhone.

Know that people will stumble onto your site or show because their friends are there. That means you need to have extra information for people who are less familiar with the show, product or information.

Always offer additional online resources, on the Awards site there are plenty of extras.

Let me say, that the highlight of the show was Janet Jackson. I was absolutely stunned yet beyond happy that she appeared. She looked absolutely beautiful and spoke just as well. She was the best representative.  The second highlight was the O’Jays.  They sang and danced marvelously.

Last words, don’t worry about anything or anyone else, be original. I wanted to get this written before I fell asleep. Please excuse any typos.  Like Jamie Foxx on the Awards show, I’ll make a shameless plug, if you need help, I’m happy to help by doing a seminar, workshop and/or consulting session.  Just email me at drsyb@drsyb.com.  THANKS!

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It was a little after 4pm CST on Thursday, June 25. I was editing a manuscript and decided to take a break and check out my friends on Facebook.  As I scanned the news feed, I read this post “my goodness, what a day. Now, it’s Michael Jackson….prayers for sure!”  The post was a bit confusing. Of course, I knew about the death of actress Farrah Fawcett.  She was an “angel” in American history.  I reminisced about playing Sabrina (Kate Jackson’s character).  And the passing of Ed McMahon was fresh too. So the FB post was unsettling. Shortly thereafter, I sent a friend who was at the MJ rehearsal site in LA a text to find out what was going on. At that point, “he” didn’t have any information.  He asked me to keep him posted via text.  Then, I went back to FB and found the link to TMZ.

As a journalist, I looked for the source for the story.  Initially, TMZ did NOT attribute the story. They mentioned “a source” WITHOUT naming someone.  However, I knew that TMZ would NOT have posted the story without confirmation. It was just too big.  The website is run by journalists who worked for mainstream media and is owned by Time Warner. They had too much at stake to risk any credibility. Traditional media question TMZ until TMZ is useful to the traditional media. Ironically, it is becoming more and more common for mainstream media to interview TMZ staff on big entertainment stories.

As for the speed of information dissemination, with Twitter, Facebook, text, email and let us not forget the cell phone, news organizations have nano seconds to confirm stories. I was watching CNN for further confirmation. I was hoping that TMZ was wrong but I knew that they weren’t, they couldn’t be, it would have been website suicide.  Soon after, TMZ’s report, CNN  put this on the screen: LA Times reports Michael Jackson Dies.   That still meant that they had NOT confirmed the story. CNN did not confirm the story until 6:25pm CST.

The credibility of online news sources has been catapulted into the spotlight once again and this time TMZ is standing on solid ground. However, one wonders how long it will take for the masses to genuinely trust sites other than CNN, FOX, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS.  This is the digital age.  Information is going to be sent whether the audience or the mainstream media are ready or not.  It’s a new day.  In addition to the media, private citizens, were using every resource they had to confirm the story.  The mainstream media must lose the notion of competition because now they are competing, potentially against millions of people. The role of the mainstream media needs to be putting stories into context, organizing and indexing them.

Focusing on “breaking” news is an effort in futility. Claiming that stories are exclusive is also counterproductive unless you can scour the millions of websites and confirm that the story is indeed only yours.  And when does breaking news stop, when one news agency breaks the story. And does that agency have to be one of the “big” ones. Why expend your energy and resources to be first. Focus on being the best, the most thorough, the most educational and the most engaging.

This is a moment in World history for many, many reasons.  Michael Jackson was my generations, big brother. Yes, he was quirky, questionable and quacky.  We accepted him for who he was.  We wore the one glove. I had a jheri curl with one strand on my forehead.  We did the moonwalk and rocked with Michael all the way.

He was raised during a time when his race was not appreciated. He was compared to Donny Osmond and told repeatedly by his father (as portrayed in The Jacksons: An American Dream) that he had to be better than him. Michael was surrounded by a culture that did not initially embrace him.  Think about it, it was 1983 when MTV finally added Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean video to the on air rotation.  As one who has studied Black Identity Development, I wrote an article years ago and sent it to an editor of a popular magazine (it was not published, if I can find it, I’ll post it) talking about how when a person is forced to accept an identity that he/she did not choose, they can experience an identity crisis. If you can’t be who you want to be, be accepted (Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, sense of belonging) and be secure in yourself, you cannot be sound mentally.  There’s so much more to be said and explored but I’ll leave that for another day.

For now, rest in peace, Michael, your music was and is phenomenal.  Your songs are my life’s timelilne. I was a teenager when the album Off the Wall was released.  This is so surreal and so sad. I just don’t remember so many losses as a child.  With all of the media, everything is so public and in a strange way so much more personal.  It doesn’t directly affect my day to day activities. I’m perfectly fine yet somehow affected by this existential change.  In such a short time, Bernie Mac, James Brown, Gerald Levert, Isaac Hayes.…gone.  Like Jill Scott, I’m Livin’ My Life like its Golden.

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