Making the Jump From Web To TV

PreacherTom writes, "No stranger to the tech-savvy, video bloggers are the next phenomenon to go from online to the mainstream. For example, Internet celebrity Amanda Congdon just finished broadcasting her cross-country relocation from New York to L.A. on the Web. The former host of Rocketboom, one of the most popular of the video blogs, with roughly 211,000 daily viewers, has a new gig as a contributor for ABC. She's not alone. In fact, major movie and TV studios are increasingly looking to the Web for new talent for both on- and offline projects."

Non-representative sample

[tkrotchko]

"Amanda Congdon"

I asked the twenty people around me if they'd ever heard of this person. No one has.

I went to her site. A lot of bandwidth to tell you that she's famous and will be on TV soon. She points you to her own entry on Wikipedia (which looks suspiciously like her web site). The web site says that she's famous and will be on TV soon.

I suspect one of the editors of /. just met her and is smitten with her. Now he can call and say "gee, I hope we didn't [nervous laugh] slashdot your site [more nervous laughter]"

Eh?

[fyngyrz]

Making the Jump From Web To TV

Ew. I mean, why "jump" backwards?

TV (I'm not talking about the art of making movies here, I'm talking about television programming) is 99.99% meaningless mindsturbation. Of all the technologies humankind has come up with, surely television is the one that has almost completely failed to reach the potential it offered.

The web, on the other hand, is able to actually be endlessly engaging and at least does contain enormous amounts of worthwhile content available at any hour of the day if you simply seek it out. We can interact, as we do here, we can study endless hours, we can create content for others to study, we can visit other places and societies, we can search out reviews and counter-opinions. The web strongly defies the pressure from commercial entities to reduce it to its least common denominator.

Television... that is not the case. Television, as near as I can tell, is constantly reaching for the least common denominator, and what's more, getting there without any trouble at all. Faux News. Lost. Survivor. Infomercials. Religious broadcasts. Medium and Psychic Detectives. Blind Date. TV is like a sewer of the mind; all decayed, toxic matter, nothing suitable for human consumption.

Honestly, the most valuable thing I've seen on television in the last few months was an HGTV show that gave tips on how to go about room renovation. The only worthwhile news show on the box is the bloody daily show, and "science" on television seems to simply mean Yet Another UFO Show For Rubes.

Jump from the web to TV? No, I think the correct phrase might be "Fall from the web to TV", or "Slip from the web to TV", or even "Television claims another victim."

Re:There's another way

[Chineseyes]

Although I hate the way the host tries to question people about why they decided to come and have sex with a 12 yr old because it's pretty pointless I actually believe it is one of the few programs that actually does a good public service fear of public humiliation will definitely deter some of the potential pedophiles out there, not all, but I'm sure a few will think twice before they try picking up some 12 yr old on the internet.