thestig, poster

“ ‘Every day, those who can afford the computer equipment and the telephone bills can be their own producers, agents, editors and audiences’ (Katz)… it is cheap, flexible, readily available, quick” (Poster 543).

We’re growing up in a very exciting time, in that the possibilities are truly endless for a small price. This has been an ongoing dialogue in all of our CMC classes, in particular international media. What I find to be most important about the advancement in technology is its ability to enable grassroots organizations to spread their word. The benefit to this is important to our CMC studies because of the importance of a grassroots organization. A grassroots organization typically is exposing a story about something that mainstream media either doesn’t pick up on, or doesn’t report fully on. The grassroots organization makes a film that is a first hand account of a social problem, whereas mainstream media would not get as involved with the problem, or may take a political position that is in the interest of the owners and shareholders.

Technology can have quite negative effects, too. Now that people can become their own “producers, agents, editors, and audiences,” we have a lower tolerance for quality film. Youtube is a universally accessible film viewer that anyone can upload film to for free. For the most part, the quality of films on youtube are junk, but people enjoy it. This is problematic because the film experience and one’s perception of what is “good” changes. It may also have effects on attention span. I met an academy award winning documentary filmmaker several years ago who used to make documentaries that were hours long. Now, he only makes films that are under three minutes. This creates an extraordinary challenge for the documentary filmmaker, and can cause a problem for the grassroots organization who has more to tell the viewer than two or three minutes allows.