Authenticity
There were a few different themes to come out of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, but the one that stuck with me the most is the concept of authenticity. Television, as a product, is groomed and worked over many times before it finally hits the air. We spend a lot of time getting every detail just right over many revisions before the show is ready to go out. At the end of the day the television show looks better, and the quality of the on-air product is increasing all the time. But through that process, television is robbed of much of the spontaneity and humanness that occurs in real life.
Audiences are aware of this, and have now turned to reality TV to try to gain some of that back. The popularity of reality TV comes from that finely-tuned illusion that what we’re seeing is really happening. Reality TV production is now a fine art of maintaining the reality illusion while still putting together a show that is dramatic. We don’t see the off-screen producers, prompting the on-air personas to act and talk a certain way, and the careful editing of a show to shape a story and create the outcome that producers want. Most of it is not malicious, producers want what they think will create the best show for the best chance of ratings success. That’s true with any show on television. But that spontaneity and genuine warmth of Life with a capital L is nowhere to be found.
So at a convention of video podcasters, there was lots of talk about one of the main selling points of what they do, which is authenticity. Because it’s often just a person in front of a camera, online video is much better at cutting through that wall. It’s much easier to identify with that person on camera in an online video, because you know there’s not an army of handlers and executives vetting every word. It is what it purports to be, and cuts much closer to what is real than any reality TV show can.
In that vein, we all in many ways create a public persona, especially when we create the public face of a business. We try to put our best foot forward, say all the right things on the websites, create the most professional outward appearance we can. The problem with that is, like television, people are expecting that and can see it for what it is. Everybody tries to create that image. It’s not to say that we at upNext Media are not professional and polished, I am very confident in the videos that we create and how we serve our clients. That being said, the actual experience of working with me and my team of producers and technicians is something that isn’t being properly conveyed in our public persona. What’s behind the example videos on the website is still a mystery.
The danger in being authentic, in trying to strip some of that persona away, is that our company would then be seen as different. You may be saying that’s a good thing, but it’s still risky, or more people would be doing it. But in being different, we would then become more real, and perhaps a little more remarkable.
Your comments and thoughts would be appreciated.