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Former US Vice-President Al Gore was in London yesterday for the British launch
of the cable channel that he co-founded with entrepreneur Joel Hyatt in
2005, with the aim of "democratising the medium of television."
Current TV is the first channel where one-third of the channel's programming is supplied (and voted for) by the audience.
"This is not going to be a political or ideological
channel in any way, shape or form. It is far more revolutionary than that."
The channel shows 3 to 8-minute videos, or 'pods', on a non-fiction subject, which have been uploaded to the Current TV website
by viewers. Viewers also have the opportunity to make adverts, which,
as Gore admits, "our sponsors obviously have to look at and approve
of," and then "we make a small payment to the maker."
There is also a 3-minute Google Current news round-up every hour,
featuring the top search items on Google, giving what Gore calls "a
faithful reflection of
what the hundreds of thousands of mouse-clickers are searching for, an
X-ray scan of what they are searching for in any
given hour." Recent top searches in the UK have included 'Helen
Chamberlain', a Sky Sports presenter, with 'Helen Chamberlain naked'
coming in just behind, and the list is topped by 'Tamer Hassan' (make sure you turn up the sound before clicking that link), of ITV's The Bill, and the film Layer Cake. Looking at the rise and fall in popularity of such searches provides the background to the news updates.
The channel will also have regular instalments of travel experiences,
hosted by Lonely Planet's Blue List. Additionally, Current TV is involved in a project with the British
Library, 'The Current Diary of Great Britain', where one video each
month for the next year "will be voted into a body of work that will be
preserved by The British Library for future generations to see."
However, it is the user-generated videos that are the main draw of
Current TV. The term 'viewer-created' littered Gore's speech yesterday,
as well as 'new generation' and 'conversation'. The emphasis is very
much upon the younger end of the television audience, who are familiar with the
internet, mobiles and an over-abundance of digital channels, doing it
for themselves instead. As Gore put it: "It is creative content from people who have been shut out in
the past. We make it easy enough and accessible enough so that the creative
person can express a point of view, and it can be seen by millions of people."
Gore explained the generation gap between himself and the 18-34
year-old target demographic of Current TV by looking at how attitudes
towards watching television has changed: "My generation of young
people saw television as such a magical new medium." Now, however, viewers are far less passive.
Gore's view of traditional media is that it is inherently centralised
and closed to audience response; in an interview with Times Online, he
called it the 'feudalism' of television.
In contrast, when referring to the input of the channel's producers,
Gore says, "the filter we impose is one of quality." When pressed on
whether extremist views would be aired on the channel, such as a pod
made by BNP members, Gore said that nothing deemed so offensive to the
audience would be screened: "You will find a general set of assumptions
in favour of tolerance and opposition to hatefulness towards any
particular group."
The
selection of films shown at the launch was eclectic. It began with a
'Current Rant' by 32-year-old British journalist Sam Delaney, who
complains that he has fallen out of love with all things British: "Royal
Family, binge-drinking, alcoholism, Bob Holness, misery, rain,
saveloys…" Despite the comic opening, this pod is not without its
political dimension, showing Delaney looking at a story called ‘Schools
‘must teach Britishness’.’
on bbc.co.uk, and asking people in the street what Britishness means to
them, prompting one answer that he later (half-jokingly) calls racist.
The next film is a jarring change in tone and subject, exploring the
harrowing experiences of Kenyan prostitutes facing the spectre of AIDS.
A few shuffles along lead to a film by Bono of U2, and then to a short
look at the activities of 'guerilla gardeners' who roam London at night
to plant flowers in run-down areas.
 When questioned on how his political background might influence programming, Gore insisted: "This
is not going to be a political or ideological
channel in any way, shape or form. It is far more revolutionary than
that." Nevertheless, the topical animation series 'Super News' must
amuse him a little, especially the episode portraying the White House
as a parody of The Office, The (Oval) Office. Other victims of the show's broad humour include Kevin Federline, Lindsay Lohan and Osama Bin Laden.
Gore added that the British launch was just the first of many in
Current TV's expansion, so that "people can join the global
conversation." The 39 million American homes that receive the channel
could be the just the start.
Current TV is available on channel 29 (Sky) or 155 (Virgin). For more information, see the Current TV website
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I would like to cite another TV personality without hyping her too much, namely Jeanie Blatchford Greene of Anchorage, Alaska, USA, another American, (tho she may be a wee bit on the other side of the aisle politically). He has broadcast Heartbeat Alaska on public TV (RATNet) sinc ethe early 90's, and she seems to have single-handedly invented viewer-generated TV, going out as she says "to the tribal lands of the bush" and getting film clippings from Inuit and other Native Americans for broadcast on her show.
This is a program that has been picked up internationally to a degree (Asia anyway) and in Candada as well as some regions of "the lower forty-eight," that is, the rest of the USA.
I learned about this wonderful program in part by visiting her studio, and, of course visiting her website (which I will not post here). Heartbeat Alaska has been celebrated in People Magazine and in Columbian Journalism Review (Charles Wohlforth), for this very concept--grassroots journalism, a democratizing force that brings ordinary people's interests forward as the real news!
Alan Naslund
Louisville, Kentucky