In the future, we will all be famous to 15 people
The Internet is fucked. I’ve just decided that it’s a lost cause. Of course the problem is pretty soon it will be all that’s left in media, so if any writers, photographers or filmers hope to have jobs in the future, it’s time to have some standards.
As the purveyor of multiple low-to-no budget boutique websites, I hate to say this, but stop giving your content away! This weekend I had a videographer send me a video for possible publication on AWS. I checked it out and emailed him back saying I would love to use it and would like to get additional assets to make it really strong. Of course this morning when I check the message boards (a bad habit I can’t seem to break) I see he’s posted a link to the video, the same video he wanted me to publish, on what is basically our only competition.
I get it. People are impatient. They want to get famous and see their name in lights, but would you rather be published on a site with theoretical standards, or a site where any one can post anything? The thing people have to realize though, is the reason many websites fall into the low-to-budget category is why bother spending money, when you have to compete with something like YouTube? It’s just not worth it. Why pay if you don’t have to? And since everyone seems to have this “gotta have it now” attitude, its almost impossible to have any standards of quality on the web.
Last week the wake community suffered a casualty of the economy and the state of print media as The Standerd pulled the plug. The high-quality photo-heavy mag had already stopped paying for photos months ago, and it really came as no surprise that it didn’t last. Of course I immediately sent out emails trying to get whatever content I could out of it. I got an email back from one of my favorite wakeskate site contributors, Gavin Jocius, who happens to be in grad school studying media, confiming exactly what I am talking about and my greatest fears.
“I was reading ‘The Long Tail’ for one of my media classes. In it, the author mentions Tim Wu of Columbia University’s notion of ‘The exposure culture.’ It reminded me of AWS.com and the Standerd, i.e., in today’s digital realm ‘exposure’ has become a substitute for currency. It is much easier to get people to send stuff for free because of the exposure that they get. Many online magazines can get good content for free because of the exposure culture that fuels the Internet. The days of getting paid for freelance work are long over….IMO. Enter the era of the ‘exposure culture.’ In the future, we will all be famous to 15 people.”
Because wakeskating is new and small, and there aren’t a ton of publications about it, its easier to see this happening, but it’s obviously going on everywhere. I don’t expect people to stop posting videos on YouTube, and obviously if you are just starting out, you have to come up with a way to get your name out there. But if you are doing something good and worthwhile, you should try and get paid for it, or at least give it to someone who needs the help and you want to support. Otherwise we’ll all end up having to sort through a ton of crap just to find something remotely worthwhile.
Yep… Amen Geery
http://magazinedeadpool.com/
Dear Brooke, I find this article fascinating. Envy is not a color you wear well, perhaps people participate in things because they have true love for the sport. Sometimes it’s not about getting paid, I know you might struggle to understand that, but some of us actually wakeskate and contribute because we love wakeskating. We love spreading the good word of good shredd.
It is disheartening to hear you slight those people who make up some of the most caring passionate people in this industry. When have they ever slighted you?
Furthermore, please do not EVER try to compare your efforts to that of the Standerd, a mag put out with love and passion. (Not profits.)
Wakeskating.com, has grown and represented wakeskating for longer AND better than Alliance Wakeskate has. Dave Barousse was the creator of wakeskating.com. His efforts gave wakeskaters a open forum for dialect. The amount of “Hate” you show towards the forum is really a slap in the face to wakeskating. Dave was posting up riding profiles and spreading the love long before Alliance Wakeskate, it was there for riders, it was there for wakeskating.
So my question is, Brooke, why are you doing this? Is is for the love of the sport or the love of the advertiser’s dollar?
Thanks for your input Richard. While this post was not actually about who cares more about wakeskating, or even really about wakeskating at all, I can see how you would feel that way. Please excuse me for doing my job and wanting to be able to make a living and pay my bills for all my hard work. I love what I do and will enjoy it while it lasts.
dear brooke,
you’re a dumb bitch and if i ever see you im going to pussy punch you so hard a dick will come out your ass
Wait, your hand is a dick? that must make it awkward to do daily tasks. But I wish you the best of luck with that!
Honestly, more than 15 guys in puka shell necklaces wakeskate? You can build a business on that and media? Holy crap it’s rollerblading the sequel. Can you print up a guide to cashing in on this new level of lame?
you go brooke!!!!!
wow dude. intense. that is some serious ws.com love right there. pussy threatening. i think the human race as a whole has just hit a new low because of this kid.
Brooke- I believe. Never let go. Never let go.
interesting theory however I will say this people who give away their efforts for free are undoubtably noble and undoubtably foolish as well however; they are doubtfully a threat to the freelance film and photography industries the difference I have found between the recreational and professional in these two fields is the Hallmark of QUALITY the stuff getting given away on the net is usually 75-80 percent suck. Also there are people who are swooping up the good stuff off the net, they are the ones responding to emails in a day or less to get the footage/photo before its published. Ultimately it sounds to me like a lot of logical fallacy set off by frustration over the loss of The Standerd which is understandable, yet hardly a jumping off point for waxing philosophic on the state of freelance artistry on the whole. Ultimately in business you have to move at the speed of your customer, so if you are marketing “cool” to the kids of wakeskating you’d better be moving at the pace at which your medium changes, just some food for thought.
P.S. opening statements like “The Internet is Fucked!” are always gonna bring people like your buddy Richard out of the woodwork not to mention it’s just bad form
This is the best thing on the internet right now…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/business/media/20mag.html?_r=1&ref=technology
PC mag switching to Digital version only.
It should not tax your system too harshly, but it offers a nice array of new features (Snow Leopard
might be too harsh for some older models). The most common type of failure is due to the operating system, which is
generally the easiest and cheapest recovery scenario.
There are several companies these days that provide
computer repair services.