Before ABC managing director takes his organisation down the path of the so-called pro-am model (no-one knows what this means but the words sound ‘inclusive’), he should have a chat to film-maker Oliver Stone who told Terra’s Orbita US 2009 conference in New York on Tuesday night:
“I’ve heard the democratic argument [for the internet] and I’m not an elitist, but Winston Churchill did make some kind of sense when he said the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter. Let’s not kid ourselves. A mashup is not a movie. It’s offensive.”
“The internet is a [...] tool. If everybody just wants to jump on the tool and say I, hey I can [...] make a mashup, or I can create my own news show, or show you my gymnastic ability, what is it about? We’ve got 6 billion people showing off. I don’t understand. How do you judge? What is life for? Is there a hierarchy of quality or not? Or is it all the same?”
Let’s not abandon quality for the false god of participation.
My fear is that the pro-am model will become just another way of dumbing-down our media environment further while under-paying (or not paying) the new “content” producers for their efforts.
As for the Winston Churchill’s point, you only need to read the comment streams on many big media sites to see how valid that remains.
