I watched the Grammys last night, and while I really liked most of the performances, I am not writing a review of the program. I am, however, interested in highlighting the participatory nature of this program – the producers took engagement further than I have ever seen. Engagement is the buzzword in media circles these days and it refers to the ways in which consumers engage deeply and in a sustained manner with products, media included. Simple examples include fan groups on Facebook and Twitter sites. This year’s Grammys had these and much more. For example, you could vote right up to the time Jennifer Nettles announced live the winning song that Bon Jovi would sing. Viewers were also able to submit videos of themselves as they danced to a Black Eyed Peas song; those selected were viewed on a wall behind the actual performance. You could also download a pdf file with all the nominees and their categories in order to fill out your ballot and measure your ability to guess the winners against the actual selections. Then there was the dedicated Grammys.com website that, among other features, had a live feed of the Grammy awards given prior to the evening’s program. The producers pulled out every trick in the book on this one. On the one hand, I think engagement is a good thing, especially when it allows--that is empowers--consumers to co-produce content. But I wonder if at some point we won’t tire of this process. After all, entertainment was about relaxation – whatever happened to good old vegging out? If it becomes a requirement of viewing that I participate in the event through consumer generated content, voting, uploading videos of myself, Tweeting, Facebooking, and on and on and on…It’s exhausting. Makes me yearn to be a couch potato. All I want to do is watch and enjoy. Media producers, pundits and scholars will be using all of these ancillary activities in order to create sophisticated measures of engagement, and to use those measures to determine the success or failure of a program. The need to measure physical behavior, whether it is the way consumers click-through websites we visit or physically connect by voting or generating content or by some other means, engagement is the rule of the day. I think engagement can take place deep inside us as we veg-out in front of the TV, getting lost in our thoughts and daydreams. It’s certainly more difficult to measure our internal musings, but the kind of engagement that takes place inside us is a valuable part of our meaning making system. As we process media content, I believe we are making sense of the world in which we live. All the other means of measuring engagement are based on what’s out there and measurable, like click-through rates or Twitter posts and the like. These are experiences, but they may not be meaningful. And, that leads me to think that media consumption is becoming a series of experiences without much meaning. From a critical view point that suggests we are living in an increasingly shallow world that beckons us to have more and more experiences, when what we yearn for is meaning in our lives.
5 comments:
I really agree. I recently wrote a paper where I expressed my concern that as technology grew and ability to constantly be doing something or be in touch with everyone left me feeling dazed and in the dust. I have never been a good multi-tasker and the more than I am able to do leaves my mind buzzing. Yet, during the Grammys, while my friends and I sat around, I stayed on Twitter and was looking through all of the posts that people were making. My friends got involved and it was funny to see how our conversations and criticisms and questions were reflected, duplicated and answered by strangers on Twitter. Once I closed the computer and just started watching it was a whole different kind of enjoyment. Like you mentioned, I was able to mentally process what was going on and just completely enjoy what was going on. Contemplations turned into a twenty minute argument after a cell phone commercial. It told boyfriends that cell phones are a great Valentines day gift.
Pause.
Pause.
"Who the hell would want a cell phone on valentines day?" My friend and I stated aloud. Then the discussions started...and it eventually ended on Google, with the search worst Valentines day gifts. The amount of media and participation often leaves me with a split mind. There are good things but I often feel the same way, why can't I just sit on the couch in sweatpants and ponder gluttonously.
Sometimes, I feel as though I suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. I am unable to direct all of my attention to one, individual task. Then, I realize it is simply just how I carry out my life—on overdrive.
I think we are all guilty of this. I mean, who sits down and completes an entire homework assignment in one sitting? Very few of us, I’m sure. We are easily distracted. We lack focus. Instead, we have Facebook and Twitter accounts to log onto and update. We have our cell phones, which we obviously refuse to put down because we are constantly in the middle of multiple conversations. We also have our television sets to stay “in the loop” of our favorite programs and to begin watching new ones. We even have our iPods to update and our Smartphones to charge. Oh, the assignment? What assignment?
It’s interesting to observe how involved we are in . . . just about everything. We love to form our own opinions, share our thoughts, and hear our voices out loud. We don’t even care about what it has to do with. We just want to be a part of the “scene.” This is why programs like “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance” have such high ratings. We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and they provide us with many opportunities to make this possible.
As full-time consumers of media, we use every outlet available to us every second of the day. It’s almost disgusting to realize how much we do—or attempt to do. Are we even doing anything? It seems as though we are all standing still . . . simply taking in what is around us as we constantly voice our thoughts. Are we just regurgitating information? I wonder if we actually make a difference anywhere. On a small scale, I’d say we do. Our friends and family, at least, enjoy our spontaneous revelations and expressions (for the most part). However, does someone you are not familiar with really want to see you attempt to dance to a Black Eyed Peas song while the Black Eyed Peas themselves are actually performing? Probably not. It seems to me we need to remove ourselves from unnecessary areas. Otherwise, we may just all become mindless, robotic beings.
I think one of the reasons that such participatory exercises ring hollow is the motivation behind said exercises. The Black Eyed Peas didn't seem the slightest bit interested in the barely visible fan-made videos screening in the distance. Bon Jovi's possible song choices were crowd pleasers but also songs he's played probably thousands of times in his career. While the fan-vote did engage the audience, what purpose did it serve other than to suck viewers in for the duration of the vote/performance? One of the girls I was watching it with shouted excitedly "I hope he plays "Living on a Prayer", it's my all-time favorite Bon Jovi song!" before adding "But I love all the other two songs too!"
As for the 3-D Michael Jackson tribute, call me a cynic but I saw it as lazy and manipulative. Lazy in a sense that it took one small part of Jackson's legacy, "Earth Song" (color me surprised that celebrities still care about global warming), tinted an accompanying music video in 3D whose third dimension I'm willing to bet was seen by a fraction of the audience, and featured four renowned artists singing along between Jackson's vocals. For such a lavish event, this tribute seemed ho-hum, if not a total manipulation of Jackson's work to boost the PR of the music industry. Where was the spectacle? Where was the homage to his revolutionary dance moves, his groundbreaking music videos, or his overall musical creativity? Not everyone who watched the Grammy's has seen This Is It. On the flipside, seeing Beyonce rock some vintage red and blue 3D glasses was pretty priceless. I would continue to say that all of these gimmicks were a shameless attempt to improve ratings and further dilute the relevancy of the actual awards, but the Grammy's haven't really represented the critical landscape of the music industry for some time. For more on that tangent I’d point you over to this Philadelphia Inquirer article by Dan DeLuca, who breaks down the worth of the Grammy’s better than I ever could.
I have never been a fan of participatory culture. I never voted on American Idol (even though I always had a favorite)and I am never drawn to create something of my own. What I enjoy so much about watching television is that I can just mindlessly sit in one spot without having to think very much. However, I decided I wanted to vote for Bon Jovi. I am a huge fan and I wanted to hear Living on a Prayer. I went to go online and the web site was so crowded that I could not even get through. I was disappointed and probably won't participate in something like that again.
I personally love shows such as American Idol and Dancing with the Stars where participatory culture is so vital. To me these shows are exciting and extremely entertaining. This year I did not find the Grammy's all that thrilling. Some performances were good, and I was thrilled with Bon Jovi's performance, but by the end I was bored and found myself on Facebook ignoring the rest of the show. So I wonder if all the participatory culture was used to mask to boredom of the Grammy's this year.
I definitely agree on this one! It is just exhausting to participate in so many activities. As if life is not busy enough...now we have to participate while we try to relax.
I often find myself dedicating my free time to sleeping. The reason behind this is because I can rest without being bothered. I turn my phone on silent, shut my door, and curl up for a nap.
My main go to was to sit on the couch and tune into my favorite stations and watch some quality television. Nevermind the fact that it is difficult to come by "quality" television but when I am watching television I am distracted by other activities. I may get a text that I feel the need to respond to right away or see something on televsion and then feel the urge to google more about it. Then you come across the commercials or shows that want you to participate. How can I enjoy the show if I am sitting their tweeting about it or texting a vote to a number?! I spend more time focusing on the other activities that I don't even enjoy the show. The television becomes more of a background entertainment that is playing while I am surfing the web or texting away.
Now, uploading your own videos is something that I disagree with. To be honest, although some of the videos are entertaining, I do not want to watch teenagers or other people dancing around their bedroom.
I just want to watch television in peace!
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