Respectfully Remediating TV
Rewind to 1999. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin both academics and media critics publish a theory of mediation challenging the assumption that new (digital) media must “divorce themselves from earlier media” in order to produce a new set of “aesthetic and cultural principles.” Remediation argued that all new media forms refashion, repurpose, rival, and are therefore intrinsically linked to previous media in their permanent quest for their own identities.
According to Bolter and Grusin there are a number of possible “strategies for remediation,” from “respectful to radical.” The definitions are almost self-explanatory. In the specific case of multimedia on the Web, the authors saw a case of the radical form when compared to the more traditional remediation of print: “Web and Internet applications refashion the newer perceptual media of radio, television, and telephone more aggressively than they refashion print.”
Fast forward to 2006. The advertising industry struggles to crack the code of net video. As an emerging medium its potential generates a high level of anxiety among professionals in the industry. On the other hand, sellers are aiming high when pricing it “because they offer an engaged, actual audience rather than a passive, estimated one.” So far the formula is very “respectful” of the TV model, so respectful that both formats are competing head to head.
Were Bolter and Grusin wrong in their video-web remediation assessment? Let’s assume their interpretation was right. In which case, it means the industry might not be going in the right direction.
The current frenzy to leverage net video might be preventing us from taking a look at the whole picture. The ability to stream video on the web does not automatically transform the computer in another TV set. The non-linear nature of media consumption on the web has tremendous implications on how we use this medium to communicate. The application of the linear TV model (serving ads before content) is flawed in the sense that it’s insensitive to people’s relationship with the medium in which control is essential to the true experience. Take that control away by imposing any type of content and people will feel annoyed.
Trying to navigate against the nature of media is not only naïve but useless when it comes to generate any value to people in the other end. Remediating TV on the web should be as disrespectful as possible, leveraging the strategic advantages of the web of which “choice” is at the top. Any form of content that is not transparently user-initiated is probably going to push the wrong buttons. In the case of advertising, the British motto “if it’s not welcomed, it’s not working” should always come to mind.
