It’s always interesting to see a flurry of articles loosely relating to the same topic and that’s what I’ve seen in the past couple of days around the topic of content creators connecting with their audiences.
I wrote something recently about how movie makers should respond to reviews of their products.
And then this weekend the New York Times wrote an article about how TV show fans and creators are connecting on the Internet. An excerpt from the article:
“…television viewers are migrating en masse to the Internet, looking not only to watch their favorite shows online but also for ways to discuss and engage with those shows.”
The same New York Times writes about how theater producers are using the web to connect reach and galvanize their audiences:
“…the Internet has provided a new and, some say, vastly improved set of tools to generate [word of mouth]: not just e-mail blasts but also Web sites, banner ads, search-engine pop-ups and blog coverage. In the last few years these tools have reshaped the way the theater reaches its audience.”
And then, as the pendulum swings the other way, the legal department at Paramount works overtime to alienate their audience, as reported on LostRemote earlier this week.
People who are creating media are beginning to interact with their audiences — it’s such an obvious thing. It’s happening in software, where small and large developers alike rely on getting direct feedback from customers on their products. It’s happening in music, as Ethan Kaplan talked about at Gnomedex. And there’s no doubt that conversations about TV shows, movies, theater, and all other types of media are happening and will continue to happen regardless through the blogosphere and through various online communities. But, the exciting and new thing here is that the content creators are starting to participate so those conversations are about to get a lot more interesting.