21.08.2009
Talks about the demise of big budget original TV productions.
The time of TV being the writer’s medium is over.
Adalian, J ~ Television – As We Know It – Is Finished (21.08.2009)
Talks about the demise of big budget original TV productions.
The time of TV being the writer’s medium is over.
Adalian, J ~ Television – As We Know It – Is Finished (21.08.2009)
“Marketers don’t understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time. Like one of those maddening not-full-duplex speakerphones where you can’t interrupt somebody, this is what drives customers nuts. Think about it. None of those talking channels allows a response. None of those listening channels encourages actual feedback from the company.
The marketing industry’s idea of a two-way communication is to put an 800 number or a web address in an ad and take orders.”
Bernoff, J ~ Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology (20.08.2009)
Shows very nicely how arrogant Hollywood is actually in no position to be that arrogant. TV has overtaken film as perhaps the best visual storytelling medium.
Film stars all show up in TV series.
“TV is a writer’s medium. It’s the place to be for writers!” (not verbatim)
Some good (if QUT-centred) references for storytelling.
Woolly Days ~ Digital Storytelling (17.08.2009)
Interesting, but VERY much use of “they”, “corporations”, “controlling the masses”, etc.
Says we have been fed 3-act narratives for 2 millennia and it’s enough. We need new ways of telling a story:
“They [the Hollywood majors?] want to participate but they don’t know how. They all think they are much better at this stuff [storytelling] than they really are.
What you have to do is create a call and response, where you open the dialogue, they [the consumer?] respond, then you come back and you can open the window for their response as much as they are really ready to respond. So that’s one model. The church used it in the protestant era and it really worked.
The second thing is to think of yourself in some cases rather than as being a storyteller to be a tool creator. Create the tools and rules through which people can interact more meaningfully, through which people can create narratives together. Right? It’s like the dungeon master in an old DND [Dungeons And Dragons?] game. The dungeon master was the sort of person who sort of helped guide a story through time. And he did have absolute authority over what happened, but really what he did was created and manipulated rules to help a group of people get to the most interesting story places. Of course this story structure is different. It’s not this [three-act] narrative structure. The object of the story is not to get to the teaching moment and sleep. Right? The object of the story is to keep it going. Rather than games with winners or losers we’re looking at infinite games. The object of the game is to keep getting to play the game. That’s why they come back.
And finally, and this is the hardest thing but the most necessary thing, is for us as the professionals to create safe spaces. The job of the storyteller, instead of guiding people over that arc, is really to create the sacred circle. And that’s a hard thing to do in our society. That’s the only thing you can do with your skill. That’s the only thing really left as we evolve as a society past the teaching story, past the programming story, past solely using the male narrative arc to get to sleep or to programme ourselves to death. What we’re doing as professionals is we are creating the boundary condition through which people can go from whatever unconscious life is into this space that you’ve created, this sacred space, this trusted place, where now they can develop narrative, where now they can do story together.”
DIY DAYS Philly: Keynote DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF
The porn industry is collapsing!
Since it’s often seen as a couple of steps ahead of Hollywood, will Hollywood collapse?
Fritz, B ~ Tough times in the porn industry (10.08.2009)
Info about various recessions and their influences on the film industry (and Broadway) in the USA.
Film is NOT recession proof.
Neither is Broadway.
Hofler, R ~ Showbiz not always recession proof (10.08.2009)
In the future “different forms of entertainment are created by a single “entertainment designer.”"
“Imagine we had a group of people who designed houses and that’s all they did, and another group of people who design skyscrapers, and another group of people who design factories — but we did not have the concept of the architect. In entertainment, it kind of feels that way. We have filmmakers over here, game designers over there. Musicians down here.”
“”mood management theory” gives a hint at how entertainment works at the deepest level.”
“There is some artistic pushback, where a lot of the people working in this fields say if you’re not seeing my movie on the bigscreen, you’re not seeing my movie. But I don’t think consumers really care about that.”
They differentiate Humans (homo sapiens) and Econs (homo oeconomicus).
Chapter 1 – Biases and blunders (traits of people)
Automatic and Reflective System of thinking
Rules of thumb:
Anchoring (compare with something we know: population of my city, etc.))
Availability (how present is sth. In our mind/memory: recent flood, etc.)
Representativeness (certain characteristics make us expect sth.: 7inch African-American is good at basketball)
Optimism and overconfidence (we nearly all are both of these)
Gains and losses (we fear losses more than we appreciate gains)
Status quo bias (inertia)
Framing (we will do things we normally wouldn’t if they are phrased the right way)
Chapter 2 – Resisting temptation (people have trouble resisting it)
Temptation (definition: being in a “hot” and not in a “cold” state)
Mindless choosing (most of the things we do work via our Automatic System: we don’t think)
Self-control strategies (examples of them)
Mental accounting (a specific and good example)
Chapter 3 – Following the herd (how group dynamics can be nudged)
Doing what others do (everybody does)
“Consistent and unwavering people, in the private or public sector, can move groups and practices in their preferred direction.”
The spotlight effect (we always think everybody is looking at us, that’s why we do what we expect them to expect us to do)
Cultural change, political change, and unpredictability (we do what others do and they do what we do)
Social nudges as choice architecture (by telling people what other people are doing, we can make them behave in a certain way)
Priming (if we prepare all the steps people have to take to do sth. we can raise the probability of them doing it)
Chapter 4 – When do we need a nudge? (the preconditions of situations that might require nudges)
Fraught choices (5 preconditions)
Benefits now – costs later (costs and benefits don’t happen at the same time)
Degree of difficulty (difficult situations)
Frequency (how often are we confronted with this situation?)
Feedback (we don’t see the effects of what we do immediately)
Knowing what you like (we don’t have a clear preference)
Markets: a mixed verdict (markets are sometimes disadvantageous for Humans)
Chapter 5 – Choice architecture (advice on how to design choices)
iNcentives (price and other)
Understand mappings (understand how a certain choice leads to higher welfare)
Defaults (the more complex the choice, the more important a good default selection is)
Give feedback (implement direct feedback into the choice)
Expect error (anticipate people to err and make fool-proof systems)
Structure complex choices (see what people did before and suggest accordingly or suggest new things)
Chapter 6 – Save more tomorrow
People don’t save enough money for their retirement, so nudges are necessary:
1. Make enrolment the default option.
2. Make enrolment automatic.
3. Education and forced choosing is nice in theory.
4. Save more tomorrow (contribution rises automatically with salary raise)
5. Governments should perhaps adopt this approach for the general public (at the moment in the USA it’s just specific companies that do this)
Chapter 7 – Naive investing
Retirement investment is long-term oriented. There was no 20 year time frame in history that didn’t show growth on the stock market. Loss seems to occur only short-term. Therefore everybody should invest at least part of their money in stocks, not just bonds. But they don’t do it. Nudges are necessary.
Chapter 8 – Credit market
Examples: mortgages and credit cards.
Both should be made more transparent and feature nudges, because especially lower-educated people get bad deals.
Chapter 9 – Privatizing Social Security
USA should do what Sweden did but with nudges.
Chapter 10 – Prescription Drugs
Automatic enrolment and nudges would help with the new medicare system in the USA.
Chapter 11 – How to Increase Organ Donations
Change the laws so that people can be nudged towards being organ donors.
Chapter 12 – Saving the Planet
Feedback and transparency would make people save energy without really changing or costing anything.
Chapter 13 – Privatizing Marriage
Legallly the term marriage should not exist anymore. Then the state wouldn’t have to fight with various religious and other institutions about laws governing it. Marriage should become a term solely used by private institutions, religious and other.
Chapter 14 – A Dozen Nudges
12 more examples for nudges.
Chapter 15 – Objections
They discuss several objections and explain why they are irrelevant.
The Slippery Slope: once you allow nudges, they will become more extreme with time.
Evil Nudgers and Bad Nudgers: lobbies will decide on nudges.
The Right to be Wrong: if somebody wants to be wrong he should be able to.
Of Punishment, Redistribution, and Choice: richer ones should not have to support poorer ones.
Drawing Lines and the Publicity Principle: when are subliminal nudges OK and when not?
Neutrality: government should be neutral.
Why Stop at Libertarian Paternalism: why only nudge if you can force?
Chapter 16 – The Real Third Way
This book offers a real alternative to the unnecessarily divided political landscape.
Postscript: The Financial Crisis of 2008
Great 4-page account of the reasons behind the financial crisis! It should be in my sources folder.