NAB/RTNDA: Fear Of The Frog

TVNewser NAB blogger Scott Baker sums up day one:

“By this point in the night I had talked with a legion of news directors about their list of priorities. All of them said, some version of — the Internet.

Nearly all of them, when pressed, indicated a general sense of — what the heck do I do now?”

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The digital convergence seems to be like a giant frog.


I was still trying to process “The Shape of things to Come” session
from Monday afternoon as I listened to a stalwart challenge to
be…hmm…authentic from Charlie Gibson as he accepted the Paul
White Award at the big dinner Monday night. By big I mean the people
on the dais nearly outnumbered the people in the audience.


From the dinner I hurtled to a loosely organized gathering of the
digerati at a nearby hotel. By nearby, I mean ten bucks to go two
blocks in cab. By digerati I mean, people who want to be digital and
cool.


At this particular hotel there are sister gathering locations.
Parasol Up and Parasol Down. The plan was to gather at Parasol Up.
But upon arriving, attentive hostess/agent Betsy Mueller redirected
arrivees to Parasol Down. Fitting.


Up could not accommodate the fluctuating group. Down could. By
Parasol I mean a decor that involved umbrellas.


And so we stood. And talked. And ordered drinks. And watched through
a glass wall a vista that included a waterfall or waterwall or
somesuch. It seemed comforting. A landscape that seemed familiar and
inviting.


And then at some point nearing midnight a giant frog suddenly
appeared atop the waterwall. Now we had a scary wonderwall (hat tip
– Oasis).


By this point in the night I had talked with a legion of news
directors about their list of priorities. All of them said, some
version of — the Internet.


Nearly all of them, when pressed, indicated a general sense of –
what the heck do I do now?


It’s like you have a world that you know and then a weird creature
suddenly dominates your attention.


Like a giant frog popping up atop a pleasant waterfall at a place
called Wynn.


You just don’t know quite what to do with that. It interrupts the
knowable world.


The confused, I would submit, did not get much help from the
afternoon session on The Future.


Not to say that it didn’t have merits.


But I, like many it seems, expected more.


For a session devoted to “The Shape of Things to Come,” it seemed
awfully focused on how things are now.


Not to say that significant issues had moderate airing. New
“containers” for content. Untapped diversity elements. Much
handwringing over blog inclusion in station web content.


But even the blog element, which seemed fraught with fear and
indecision seemed to miss the point. Seeing blog inclusion as a
content contribution that would keep legions of lawyers busy instead
of a window on process that stations and and networks can use to bind
their viewers and fans into a deeper investment into their product
and people.


Yes, I was fascinated by Dan Rather’s hesitant endorsement of Katie
Couric. But I was more fascinated by The Fear of the Frog.

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