So now there’s this big hullabaloo about the sms (text) voting for preferred candidates on reality talent shows in India --- more examples of people power controlling the world – my 7 year old has already depleted the household coffers a bit by impassioned voting for her favorite “awesome” contender on a singing show…there were recently very unseemly incidents because one state’s contender did not win a show, and a rival state’s contender did…Telecom operators (I am assuming so also the channel/ TV program producers – because they MUST be sharing, right?) are raking in the moolah due to frenzied smses sent in by supporters for their favorites…
The question really is – are we, in a bid to offer people ‘control’, at some point in time, effecting a compromise that is undermining “true” talent? Is this even about giving control to the people, or just about clever marketing harnessing people’s myth of control? (The director of one of these talent shows recently said at the ouster of a talented youngster from a singing program – “even though I am the one who devised this format of selection of the final winner, I am now deeply repenting it!”)
In answer to this dilemma, let’s not forget that the 12 members of a jury in the U.S. are completely drawn from the general public – every citizen of the U.S. can be called upon for jury duty ..now that’s an old existing form of consumer controlled decision making for you!
Well, it’s a delicate balancing act, isn’t it? Web 2.0 (or, in this case, Mobile 2.0), vs. an ‘expert’ deciding a person’s destiny? Which side are you on?
Friday, November 30, 2007
The Flip Side…Reality Shows - User Generated Voting, Or Marketer’s Myth?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
we're already sick of watching reality shows like nach baliye which includes more of drama just to catch attention of viewers! rakhi is entertaining in that show but highly dramatic !
Viwers vote should not be taken into account...they do not judge properly....Take for example Amit Paul, who was not entitled as Indian Idol 3 in spite of he being such a gr8 singer...he is a struggling singer, who quit his studies to pursue music. He can sing in six languages.He is a dreamer and believes that dreamers are the biggest achievers. He is more talented than Prashant Tamang who won it
wen krishna and kashmeera left the show..nach baliye 3...i really felt so bad
I remember a quote by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for Propaganda and National Enlightenment of Adolf Hitler’s Government, who said ““If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it”. I see parallels of this in the so called “Reality Shows”. This is a new form of marketing technique to attract the buyer’s attention, and to position their products better. The companies build up the hype around the competitors, to promote the visibility of their brands, and we the consumers buy it at very expensive prices.
i agree with wat mr.ravi has told
So, to justify this original post, I was witness to a recent reality show - a singing competition for kids, where some kids got elimintaed on basis of the votes they did/ did not receive - the irate father of one of the contestants then questioned the awards, testifying that he and a group of his friends had sent via the net, and also via sms, a number of votes for their child, that would have justified her selection.
Leaving the ethics of this 'rigging' aside, the interesting clarification given by the TV channel was, that, only one vote per computer was allowed, though an infinite number of votes per handset/ connection were fine! Obviously, this is because, there is no revenue coming in on the online voting, but every sms means greenbacks!
This totally means that the spirit is not User Controlled Opinions, but Marketing Moolah!
Post a Comment