Thursday, February 17, 2011

New Media and Funny Or Die Events Blog Post--Bhanu Chundu

“Content creation” seems to be the new buzzword that constantly defines and surround internet media these days. After hearing about the industry and discussing new media issues with Mike Farah, as well as other Funny or Die executives via Skype, the notion that content creation was the goal of new media providers was definitely affirmed. Yet, what seemed to most critical to success, especially in a world where everyone continually pushes out content, was how to platform, advertise, and categorize this content. This issue was particularly interesting when Mike, along with other FoD executives, talked about the value of metadata in increasing video hits and helping their content reach more outlets. Since metadata on viral videos primarily consists of “tagging” and therefore is not “directly” linked to content (only denoting participation), it plays an interesting role in the divide between consumers and producers. Much like a price label or nutritional facts table, it appears that consumers of new media must rely on metadata to find and evaluate content. This is especially true when companies like FoD use metadata to differentiate their products by tagging certain subjects or celebrities. The way in which social media and advertising parallels these strategies was another fascinating point, chiefly in how FoD relies on celebrities promoting their own videos to raise awareness about the connections that Funny or Die product has to celebrity. Ultimately, the way in which the culture and product of Funny or Die relies so much on social media and metadata, two items that are user generated and not part of the content itself, once again highlights new media as a unique form of production and consumption.

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