I find the subject quite fascinating! First, a little story you already know:
Once there were ordinary websites (okay, there were other things first, but that’s beside the point). After a while, the media people caught on, and made sites about their products. But by this time, media pioneers and bored teenagers had started blogging. Blogging was different for a while, but soon many of biggest blogs were written by corporations. So the bored teenagers et al moved to myspace and facebook, but the media companies followed them there, too. Around this time (roughly), online video caught on, and the line between producer and consumer began to blur.
Anyway, myspace wasn’t so cool anymore, or at least was too much trouble. So the bored teenagers moved to text messages and twitter. And now, twitter is being adopted by online and offline mediaish personalities. And the president. Not to mention every celebrity ever. Since I thoroughly hate twitter, this makes me sad… but I guess I’ll have to get used to it.
The latest twist: Anyone but Me, the best web series yet is twittering live from the set. And I’ll bet others are doing it too. Which is… cool, I guess, but I can’t help but feel we’re a long, long way from those ‘making of’ segments on the tail end of VHS movies. Or even from, say, Lord of the Rings special features. Where will it end? How close will the media get to the consumer?
I can see it now:
autowin: @MamaC: thefarmmakeup just said Betty showed up on set. Make them leave!
MamaC: what does everyone else think?
The Entire World: DO IT!!!
Okay, maybe that would be rather awesome…