Emerson Arthur

Despite a plummeting cost of entry, most aspiring new media participants have much bigger dreams than budgets to make them a reality. Ambition and talent can make up for lack of funds, but is also helps to have a cheap aesthetic. One can achieve huge impact with very low production values. In fact often an overproduced aesthetic is a liability on the web. Check out this PSA produced by a young MTV animator for the Break the Addiction campaign. Its a good example of how cheap can have impact. The illustrations are just enough to hold your attention and the music and simple messaging get the point across and get you curious. It works for broadcast but also has online potential. No actors, no video, no voice over, no animation; just some illustrations and some music.

[ifilm=2850563]

People are starting to get the buzzwords down and are increasingly investing time and resources into new media, but are they getting the point. The significance of the internet is not in its ‘newness’, but in its ‘youness’. If you talk to people in the trenches of the netroots you don’t hear the talk of trends and technology, you hear words of revolution. They get it. If democracy is a battle of ideas, and I certainly hope that it is, new media is nothing short of a revolution. Broadcast, cable and print are largely shut off to the average citizen, creating a one directional bullhorn controlled by a handful of mega-corporations. This leaves many voices shut out of the public square. Hit particularly hard are anti-commercial, pro-consumer and anti-war voices that are in conflict with the interests of the biggest media advertisers. Enter the internet, an even playing field with low cost of entry and largely people powered content and content filtering. Its yours, and it is a revolution.