She continues: "It doesn't change the fact that all you have is
minutes, but what it does is uses a new interface and adds an
interactive component that gives you more in the frame of that
30-minute newscast. If you want to keep watching after the news is
off, you can, because that footage lives."
Exactly how Ball State's bold foray into the future of television
is being played out off campus is hard to tell. More than a year
ago, the instructors presented the findings of their first
interactive class to the Radio-Television News Directors
Association convention in
Las Vegas to mostly amused, curious
attendees. The trade magazine
Television
Week published a story for a media-and-technology special
report under the headline "Future of TV News Taking Shape as
Viewership Drops," as though the concept was a kind of cute
phenomenon.
The problem is, it's tough to take interactivity seriously when the
technology infrastructure is not in place to make it doable
now. In order for interactivity to work,
you need to have software that people can develop and distribute to
a mass audience. The people who control that software, and the
hardware, are your individual cable operators and satellite
companies - and they are all on different systems.
Plus, not knowing what this seismic shift to interactive television
means is unnerving to some. With TV and the Internet blending more
each year, this marriage will mean major changes for companies that
distribute content, for advertisers trying to reach consumers, and
for viewers.
"As we go across multiple platforms, it's not a broadcast network
or a
cable network anymore; it's a network of people," says Albert
Cheng, executive vice president of digital media for Disney-ABC
Television Group. "What we're seeing is sort of an increased amount
of social connectivity - maybe based around shows, maybe based
around brands that have now become what I call participatory
entertainment."