Do you ever talk back to the TV? OK, dumb question. Well, now you will get your chance--and everyone else can know about it, too, thanks to Twitter, and Current TV.
The Cable Gamer has never thought much of Current, which always seemed to be sort of a vanity project for Al Gore, and his rich friends, as opposed to being a real business, but now Current is doing something interesting--it is going to Twitter the presidential debates.
Here's the word from the Associated Press, outlining the basics:
Current TV is handing over feedback on the upcoming presidential debates to those who make up so much of the network's programming: its audience.
During the debates, the network bent on viewer-created content will broadcast Twitter messages -- or "tweets" -- from viewers. In close to real time, Current will display comments on the screen while John McCain and Barack Obama face off.
It's an all the more interesting new kind of interactivity in political discourse given that Current was co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Joel Hyatt, CEO of Current, said the technique -- dubbed "Hack the Debate" -- was not Gore's idea, but he and Gore both share a dim view of post-debate punditry.
"He certainly shares the belief that the punditry aspect of the process has not been enriching to American democracy," Hyatt said. "We're trying to empower young adults to participate in the process, to have their voice heard, to join the conversation."
Hyatt lamented the limiting nature of debate coverage, populated by experts with axes to grind and predictable partisan arguments to make: "We want our audiences to take over the process," he said.
Comments will be filtered, but Hyatt said they will be filtered only to suit broadcast standards.
The first presidential debate is planned for Sept. 26, with two more debates and a vice presidential debate to follow. Current, partnering with Twitter, will have a similar live stream on its Web site, Current.com.
It's easy to make fun of Twitter, but in fact, silly and narcissistic as Twitter might sound, the idea of the "Now Web" is extremely powerful, and fully backed by some of the biggest vc's in the biz.
Yes, people want to hear commentary, but they also want to be commentators. That's what Twitter has going for it, and that's now what Current.com has going for it.
In a sense, most blogging is a kind of Twitter. Genuine scoops in the blogosphere are rare; what we mostly see is people commenting on the news, or an anything else that strikes their fancy. Fair enough: nothing wrong with self-expression. But blogging about the news presupposes that people know the news. That is, people know that there's a war in Iraq, or a presidential election, or a financial crisis, and then they react to that news, hopefully adding some value.
Thus TCG's "Twitter" on this news: We are going to see more of this in the future.
