Seeing as how I check CBC.ca everyday, it’s really no surprise that I keep finding articles that make me think about media.
Web TV is something I’m going to touch on again in a future post, but I think that it is a really cool phenomenon of remediation, and deserves a focus on itself. The article in question that got me thinking about this focuses on the show We Need Girlfriends. While I have not seen it myself, from my understanding it is a fairly well produced show that garnered the interest of CBS into making it a network television show.
As audiences shift from spending their time in front of the TV to online, not only spending time but also watching shows, I think CBS is really at the forefront of the change. While they may see We Need Girlfriends as something that would be still successful in a different format, CBS also produced Clark and Michael starring Michael Cera for internet only. It’s a really funny show, and the episodes are short, which plays into a generation of users with short attention spans and little time to devote to shows, or no patience for commercial breaks.
I don’t know if anyone doesn’t know about internet TV, specifically shows written and designed for distribution on the world wide web, but it’s a growing format that should not be ignored. It’s often cheaper than a TV show, mostly because those involved do it for the love of the art, and it doesn’t always have to conform to a networks ideals. Like it or not, almost anything can be done or said on the internet, so swearing and sex don’t have to be censored because of a higher power. This could change however, as more and more networks hop on the internet TV bandwagon.
The more I think about it, the more the issue of corporate control of a medium comes up in my mind. Maybe it’s reached that point where the masses are getting hooked on internet TV, and it’s lost its purity and fun. If that’s the case, get out and see as much of it as you can now. That’s all I can say.
