Evolutions and Trends in Digital Media Technologies

1. Towards New Storytelling Models Evolutions and Trends in Digital Media Technologies Tom Farmer University of Washington November 4, 2003

2. 3 Key Questions About Everything Represented as Fact How do you know? Who says? Is that the whole story?

3. Information Provenance ME Old Model YOU

4. Information Provenance ME Old Model YOU New Model YOU

5. Declining Credibility of Web Information “The number of users who believe information on the Internet is reliable and accurate continued to decline in 2002… 52.8% of users believed most or all information found online is reliable and accurate, a decline from 2001 and 2002… 39.9% said only about half the information on the Internet is reliable and accurate.” The UCLA Internet Report – “Surveying the Digital Future” UCLA Center for Communication Policy January 2003

6. Importance of Web Info Channels The UCLA Internet Report – “Surveying the Digital Future” UCLA Center for Communication Policy January 2003

7. Free-Market TV Fails on Public Affairs Local public affairs programming accounts for less than 0.5% of local TV programming nationwide Most frequently aired type of locally originating broadcast: paid programming (infomercials): 14+% of all local TV There are three times as many “Seinfeld” reruns as local public-affairs TV shows on TV stations nationwide There is a “near blackout” of local politics on TV Alliance for Better Campaigns, Washington DC October 2003 Study 7,560 hours of TV programming analyzed from 45 TV stations nationwide October 5-11, 2003

8. Importance of Brand as Trustmark In the early Internet boom years, the visionaries told us cellular, communal journalism – millions of real witnesses with pens and camera -- would supplant traditional reportage. ABC News, CNN, and The New York Times would be unnecessary – their “packaging/presenting” function made obsolete. But in fact: Not everyone wants to create content Many who do have nefarious agendas There is too much information to absorb Trusted information brands as synthesizers and verifiers are more important than ever

9. Hijacking Trusted Brands An online “CNN news generator” permitted thousands to create their own real-looking CNN stories before lawyers shut it down. It was responsible for a widespread belief that Dave Matthews had died of a drug overdose.

10. Hijacking Trusted Brands This fraudulent email was sent to millions of PayPal accountholders requesting credit card data. It was easy to manufacture and legitimize with PayPal’s widely trusted brand. To the untrained eye it’s indistinguishable from real PayPal communications.

11. Hijacking Trusted Brands This email sent to Citibank customers directed them to a branded, official-looking site where they were instructed to input account data. The site was located in Russia and those who followed the link had their PCs paralyzed by spyware.

12. Hijacking Trusted Brands Anti-WTO political action page, co-opting the look and feel of the “real” information environment

13. The Storyteller’s Dilemma There’s inherent power in being a shaper and teller of linear stories. Writers, directors, and documentary producers – even TV reporters – manipulate audiences via compelling, well-crafted narrative arcs. Traditional storytelling is about control and seduction… Memorable narrative lines seduce/conquer their recipients. Early digital/Internet design was no different. But now an evolved interactive ethic enables a power shift… from “broadcast” one-to-many storytellers… to recipients/story consumers. Non-linear, consumer-controlled interactive environments strip away much of storytellers’ power.

14. Emerging Types of Interactive Journalism *Pew Center, July 2001. Online, simple storytelling – “disseminating the facts” – gives way to the different, sometimes more complex jobs of editing, synthesizing, and explaining news and “catalyzing conversation”* in communities “With ever decreasing attention spans of our potential audience, educators, writers, [and others] are forced to reinvent their strategies to communicate their intent… a subtle movement [is] taking shape in online journalism, borne out of the desperate need to engage and excite news consumers in the post-information age.” -- Rajamanickam, V. & Nichani, M., Interactive Visual Explainers – A Simple Classification. eLearningPost, September 2003.

15. Nichani and Rajamanickam identify four categories of effective visual “explainers” being produced by news organizations for interactive environments. Emerging Types of Interactive Journalism Rajamanickam, V. & Nichani, M., Interactive Visual Explainers – A Simple Classification. eLearningPost, September 2003.

16. MSNBC Baggage Scanner Interactive The user is exposed to a short orientation speech on the difficulties of screening carry-on bags at airports…

17. MSNBC Baggage Screener Interactive

18. MSNBC Baggage Screener Interactive MSNBC says more than two million people have sampled this experience online.

19. MSNBC Baggage Screener Interactive Pros: It justifies the medium – it’s not just TV online It’s an effective role-playing simulation It’s highly usable and difficult to duplicate cheaply Cons: There’s not much information in it It’s ironically more sensory than editorial So… is it news? Does MSNBC want to be a game provider?

20. The BBC View Thousands of streams of content, some indistinguishable as actual “channels” Audiences “will want to organize and re-order content the way they want it” “The traditional ‘monologue broadcaster’ to ‘grateful viewer’ relationship will break down” “We should create more programmes that come with the meta-data, the tags in the programme that allow it to be chopped up and consumed piecemeal by the viewer” Ashley Highfield Director of BBC New Media & Technology “TV’s Tipping Point: Why the Digital Revolution is Only Just Beginning” Speech to Royal Television Society, October 6, 2003

21. The BBC View: Highfield’s 4 Trends Ashley Highfield Director of BBC New Media & Technology “TV’s Tipping Point: Why the Digital Revolution is Only Just Beginning” Speech to Royal Television Society, October 6, 2003

22. Costs of Information Fragmentation? Will citizens really engage and co-create as Highfield envisions? The fallacy of the New England “Town Meeting” Does “dim sum information sensibility” reduce our capacity as a society to absorb complexity? Would Tim Eyman be as successful in a less fragmented information environment? What is the cost to society of ceding the shaping of information agendas completely to consumers? Do we miss the old, elite, Cronkite-era agenda-setters? Must editorial content be increasingly gamelike, or fun, or otherwise “sexy” in order to succeed?

23. Worst-Case Scenario Media Mission Stratification Digital/Interactive Media Specializes in non-linear narratives, instructives, exploratives, simulatives Layers of detail available on demand Provenance/trustworthiness wildly variable Broadcast Media Specializes in emotion/sensation, linear narrative, live spectacles Little/no complexity Dominated by trusted media brands and “editor figures”

24. Best-Case Scenario Pragmatic, Brand-Led Media Convergence Seamless access to complexity/detail on demand Technology that is: more usable more reliable less expensive less vulnerable Cross-platform strategies and content Strong brands as legitimizers/trust markers Trustworthy, counterfeit-resistant digital design Vigilant, empowered consumer base Professional editors/information synthesizers are the new rock stars – and guardians of the narrative form

25. Thank You