Online Video Revolution: Just Beginning Or Already Over? Will It Be Ruined By Commercialism?

Are we at the beginning or end of the online video revolution?

In a Huffington Post essay, TED Conference curator Chris Anderson argues that Web video is igniting a massive cycle of innovation.

However Savage Minds contributor Adam Fish claims that the pioneering era of Internet video was 2005-2009 -- long behind us.

They both make good points.

Essentially Anderson credits Web video for accelerating the global communication of new ideas, techniques, technologies.

Fish says that the media corporate beasties who have been lurking in the wings while amateurs beta-tested Web video are now about to pounce, wiping out the free-spirited pioneering grit and replacing it with TV-style slickness and canned laugh tracks.

Here's Anderson:

Hidden among all the cute kittens and pirated TV shows, online video is driving astonishing innovation in thousands of different fields ranging from the ultra-niche to the sharing of truly world-changing ideas.

Explosions in innovation have happened in music, photography and animation, to name but three fields. The reason online video is so significant, is that it is now allowing the rest of the world's talents to be shared digitally.

Dig under the surface of today's visual web, and you'll see an explosion of grassroots-driven innovation and experimentation everywhere you look, both trivial and epic.

And here's Fish:

We are entering a new era of professionalism -- gone is the wild Darwinian kingdom of video memes, the meritocracy of the rabble rousers, the open platforms equally prioritizing the talented poor as well as the rich. The upcoming golden age of ‘quality’ professional content will be ruled by Steve Jobs and his ilk at HBO, Pixar, Hulu, LG, and Vizio.

The pioneer age of the free and open culture of internet video is ending... The wild world of amateur video -- its production, promotion, and distribution procedures -- is moving from the realm of prototyping, beta-testing, and experimentation to expert production, algorithmic optimization, and alpha release five years after its debut on YouTube and Current TV.

This professionalization is a historical result of 5 years of industrial development, individual trial and error, and profit-focused talent agencies and creative thinktanks. It is also a product of the historical convergence of the internet and television hardware, as well as the corporate consolidation of content and software around the idea of the app -- a professionally designed hardware/software/content peephole into a small fraction of the internet.

More anthropological however is the historical transformation of the subculture into the culture... The “golden age” to follow this pioneering phase will be as innovative as the golden age of television as we welcome the equivalent of I Love Lucy, Friends, and Lost and along with it the return to spectatorism, canned laughter, and the proliferation of middle class values.

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What do you think? Will the "professionalization" of Web video benefit or hinder its pioneering spirit? Videojournalists strive for the highest standards of video production and journalism, but they've also been buoyed by an aura of fierce independence -- the rough-hewn lone-wolf 'backpack VJ' maverick vs. the slick TV news crew with its coiffed anchors and groomed correspondents. Is it any wonder, given the economic state of the news biz, that some of the better in-depth videojournalism projects are increasingly produced by solitary practitioners for non-profits and NGOs?

While you're mulling that over, watch Anderson's own TED talk on this subject (below), and stay with it all the way through. The last two minutes drive home his point with emotional intensity -- and make you wonder if high-quality, high-minded video from independent non-corporate sources isn't here to stay, and even lead the way.

How About Investing in Videojournalism?

"After a protracted drought," the New York Times reports, "money is trickling back into the professional Web video industry."

Excerpts:

The promise of Web video has risen and fallen over the last few years. What makes the current round of interest more compelling is the realization in the industry that Web video will not supplant television viewing anytime soon, just complement it. That partly explains why the companies have stopped labeling themselves “TV on the Internet.” ...

"We realized we were putting a burden on Web-original programming by trying to make it like TV,” said Lance Podell, the Next New Networks chief executive, who now calls his company a provider of “Web original programming.”

The Web video industry flies under the radar, but together, the major players rack up hundreds of millions of video views each month. As people spend more time online, producers are betting that video viewing times will keep growing in tandem...

Reaffirming its belief in made-for-the-Web programming, YouTube last month announced $5 million in grants for online producers...

Despite the evidence that viewers are eager to watch more on the Web, the recession was an ugly reality check for purveyors of such programming, and many start-ups were closed...

Web video companies say that advertisers are starting to make million-dollar commitments — hardly a threat to established television networks, but a big improvement for sites that started out making $5,000 at a time.

OK, here's the fly in the ointment. All this refers to entertainment video. All those online ersatz TV-but-not-quite-TV shows. Mini-soap operas. Goofy comedies. Game shows. Music videos.

Now, how about videojournalism?

Isn't it about time that major news organizations took a cue from their entertainment counterparts and started recognizing the power and potential profits in online video stories?

Read that New York Times story again, and be aware that all the facts and figures apply to the time and energy that audiences can and will spend watching non-fiction featurettes. True-life reality mini-documentaries. Not the home-movie video slop that's currently polluting most newspaper websites, but high-quality visual stories that are professionally told.

Imagine if time, talent and appropriate resources were wisely invested in creating online versions of TV newsmagazine segments -- minus the unnecessary slickness.

Remember -- "60 Minutes" has run longer, drawn a bigger audience, and made more profit for CBS than any of its sitcoms.

So where are the networks and investors for videojournalism?

Hello?

PBS Launches Web Video Channel

PBS has launched an online video channel featuring thousands of full-length episodes of its top TV series, complete seasons of current shows, and archives of its classic series. Among the offerings: American Masters, Antiques Road Show, Masterpiece Theater, Nature and Nova.

While some PBS series (e.g. Frontline) had been previously available online, they were scattered throughout the site; now they're all conveniently under one enormous roof.

According to MediaWeek, "PBS plans to create programming packages for the site featuring compilations of episodes from various shows that touch upon a common theme, starting with this week’s environment-centric package, which is being launched to coincide with Earth Day. That collection includes snippets from Frontline, Nova and Nature, along with the classic Jean Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures."

Here's the most exciting news:

PBS is also planning to roll out original Web series at some point down the road, according to Jason Seiken, PBS senior vp of Interactive.

Currently, PBS is offering a full-length "Web exclusive preview" of "Time Team America," a new science/reality series (debuting July 8) that sends archaeologists on a race against time to excavate historic sites around the nation.

Looks like we were prescient in creating our "Got an Hour?" channel on KobreGuide, which already includes excellent PBS programs.