re: "Is Anybody Listening?" TV piece
1. Great piece
2. Getting Obama to hear you - and acknowledge you in a speech - isn't scalable. And re: 11:38: Obama is NOT "the guy who runs the whole country" -- that kind of thinking is a big problem.
3. Why does it take a camera to get people to tell their story? People looking at camera, people looking at screen. There's an odd, passive aversion to actual, vulnerable human f2f confrontation. People telling their story to other people is infinitely scalable. F2F conversation & story-sharing is the most powerful medium. (Not really a medium -- nothing in "the middle".)
4. While the kids talk about the threat of not reaching their career dreams, the video shows the closing of a Circuit City (2:55)... Who cares about Circuit City? Are we to be depressed about the death of Circuit City? Death of bloated retail is not death of human dreams. I'd like to see video of crowded schools, crowded ER & doc office, smog ... that's the threat of not enough nurses, docs, teachers, engineers because these kids don't get education.
5. It takes awhile, but thankfully the story shifts from the theistic "Is Anybody Listening?" to something like... Are we listening to each other? What can we build together? What can we do together? What can we do to fill our fridges? They say... "pledge to help each other", "students helping students", "students helping each other together"
6. "Their's is a powerful voice" is crescendo to the piece, but... Voice ain't everything. Everything isn't media. Their's is a powerful ACTION, their's is a powerful mutual support, their's is a powerful community entrepreneurialism. Video gives you voice, you get lots of hits, but then what? Washington, policy, and public opinion DOES play a role in helping, YES, but there's MORE POWER & SCALE IN CREATING, MAKING, DOING than fishing for gatekeeper attention.
1. Great piece
2. Getting Obama to hear you - and acknowledge you in a speech - isn't scalable. And re: 11:38: Obama is NOT "the guy who runs the whole country" -- that kind of thinking is a big problem.
3. Why does it take a camera to get people to tell their story? People looking at camera, people looking at screen. There's an odd, passive aversion to actual, vulnerable human f2f confrontation. People telling their story to other people is infinitely scalable. F2F conversation & story-sharing is the most powerful medium. (Not really a medium -- nothing in "the middle".)
4. While the kids talk about the threat of not reaching their career dreams, the video shows the closing of a Circuit City (2:55)... Who cares about Circuit City? Are we to be depressed about the death of Circuit City? Death of bloated retail is not death of human dreams. I'd like to see video of crowded schools, crowded ER & doc office, smog ... that's the threat of not enough nurses, docs, teachers, engineers because these kids don't get education.
5. It takes awhile, but thankfully the story shifts from the theistic "Is Anybody Listening?" to something like... Are we listening to each other? What can we build together? What can we do together? What can we do to fill our fridges? They say... "pledge to help each other", "students helping students", "students helping each other together"
6. "Their's is a powerful voice" is crescendo to the piece, but... Voice ain't everything. Everything isn't media. Their's is a powerful ACTION, their's is a powerful mutual support, their's is a powerful community entrepreneurialism. Video gives you voice, you get lots of hits, but then what? Washington, policy, and public opinion DOES play a role in helping, YES, but there's MORE POWER & SCALE IN CREATING, MAKING, DOING than fishing for gatekeeper attention.
