The Web's Arab Spring: How "Do" Media Beat "View" Media - Tom Cunniff

Unless you39re under a rock you39re probably aware of the online protests against SOPA the Stop Online Piracy Act If you actually are under a rock sorry to hear it but you still need to read thisI39m completely against SOPA for the reasons outlined hereBut this post isn39t really about SOPA It39s about how the protests against it demonstrate an essential but poorly understood difference between traditional and digital mediaTraditional Is A quotViewquot Medium Digital Is A quotDoquot MediumThe difference between screens is blurring fast TVs have apps We watch TV on iPads Only a truly dumb phone isn39t a handheld computerBut at heart there is an essential difference between TV and digitalTV is a quotViewquot medium for the most part we turn to it for entertainmentDigital is a quotDoquot medium for the most part we turn to it to do somethingWhat We Forget At Our Own Peril User Intent MattersTV is an unmatched ad medium for brands because huge numbers of people turn to it for entertainment As a user I39ll give my attention to whatever entertains me If what happens to entertain me is an ad that39s OKWhy It39s part of what I came to the medium forA challenge in digital media is that people are often trying to do something Every user knows that the important quotdoquot stuff is in the middle of the page and the unimportant quotviewquot stuff the ads is at the periphery This leads to Intentional Blindness butamp8230 that39s a different postWhat Traditional Media Got Wrong About SOPATraditional and digital media each have unique strengths But for mobilizing people to act digital trounces traditionalThe entertainment industry went on TV to make their case to the public But they forgot everything they know about what makes good TVThey forgot talking heads are boring They forgot complicated stories fail They forgot to entertain It was a numbing fog of corporate quotpity mequot and legaleseThe entertainment industry was Hosni Mubarak on state TV explaining why oppression is actually good for you The digital industry was the Egyptian peopleBut even if you thought they right what were you supposed to do How They forgot to harness the power of quotdoquotWhat the Digital Industry Got RightBy contrast the digital industry kept the story simple censorship will break the internetThen they harnessed quotViewquot and quotDoquotFor quotViewquot there were videos and blogposts everywhere instantly outlining the issuesFor quotdoquot digital distributed tools everywhere to fight back Craigslist offered a stunning range of online protest tools as did Google and the ACLU There were iPhone apps and sites to track the members of Congress for or againstYou couldn39t swing a dead computer mouse without hitting a free online tool that made it fast and easy to protest And social media made it easy to spread the word Reddit created an entire SOPA subReddit And at its peak there were 270000 Tweets about SOPA and PIPA per hourThe LessonWhen fast coordinated action is needed quotDoquot beats quotViewquot And if you need to rally support for a cause nothing beats quotViewquot plus quotDoquot Make me care and give me the tools to act on it Causerelated marketers please take notePostscript AntiSOPA Is Not AntiCopyrightWe can hate SOPA but still support copyright I firmly believe that stealing is wrong and that content owners must have recourse when people steal their propertyThe issue is what kind of recourse Should we empower our government to shut down any American website if someone links to copyrighted contentNo way Imagine a government that feels threatened by quotOccupy Wall Streetquot and worries about an American version of the Arab Spring organizing on Facebook Under SOPA all that would be required to shut down Facebook is to find someone linking to copyrighted content If no content can be found it39s easy enough to upload a piece of content by creating a new accountBetter AntiPiracy Solutions SOPA doesn39t solve the industry39s problems and it creates unintended consequences that put us all needlessly at riskExisting legislation already offers content owners recourse for US piracy For overseas piracy OPEN is not perfect but it39s a good start at a better idea Digital is a mixed bag It incredibly easy to publish creative work and offers infinite points of distribution But it makes it easier to steal and harder to monetizeSteve Jobs proved that most people would not steal if there were an easy inexpensive way to buy the content they want But many content companies continue to get this wrong For example often the Kindle version of a book is just as expensive or more expensive than the printed copy Wrong The production costs of the Kindle version are radically lower No dead trees no truckloads of heavy books And yet amp8211 higher prices Stupid pricing is no excuse to steal But it does suggest content owners are clueless about this stuff or believe that we areWhen Does The Real Revolution StartWe need to make buying digital content so easy and so cheap that it39s easier to buy than it is to stealThat39s the real revolution I want to see I want to get past fighting the things that are bad I want to see the world creating systems that work for everyoneTom Cunniff began his career as a copywriter at traditional agencies founded an interactive agency in 1994 and now works on the marketing side creating and integrating traditional and interactive All of Tom39s opinions are entirely his own Tom can be reached at tomcunniffnycgmailcomRead all Tom39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Radical Common SenseCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all 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