http://progressivesforgore.blogspot.com/2007/03/mr-gore-launches-uk-current.htmlMonday March 12, 2007
The Guardian
Today, Current TV, a network that I co-founded, and helped develop and launch in America launches here in the UK - and I hope it will help to revolutionise media consumption in the digital age. Current TV is part of an inexorable drive from viewers towards democratising the media.
Since the Mayflower left Plymouth in 1620 and arrived on the shores of what was to become the United States of America, the cultures of our two countries have been inextricably linked. America and the UK share a common language and much more besides - we share common ideals such as democracy and freedom.
But there are dangers. Democracy, the founding principle of the United States and a legacy of older European societies, is in danger. Democracy, or government by the people, depends on people being well-informed. As a means of communication, the media are one of the biggest, perhaps the single most powerful force that shapes our ideas about what really matters in our daily lives.
Isn't it strange, therefore, that three-quarters of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was responsible for bombing New York's twin towers in 2001? Isn't it odd that news channels and daily newspapers can obsess about a female pop star's decision to shave off her hair, when our global climate is changing at an alarming pace and people are still being routinely tortured in the 21st century?
Informed citizens are an essential part of a democratic society. Throughout the rich history of the US and the UK, ideas have been fomented by great writers and debated by the people. In the US, Thomas Paine started a revolution with his fiery essay, Common Sense.
The Enlightenment philosopher John Locke, who was involved in the 1688 revolution in England which heralded parliamentary democracy, wrote: "All just power is derived from the consent of the governed."
Today, television is the dominant medium and the means by which most people get most of their information about the world. The UK has an established newspaper industry and the internet is rapidly building its power and influence, but television continues to be the dominant means of communication and is likely to remain so for another decade.
But, until now, television has been a one-way medium. Unlike the printing presses that spread throughout Europe once Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in the mid-15th century, television production in the 20th century remained the preserve of a handful of well-funded broadcasters around the world.
The total number of broadcasters is still small, as in the US. And the market for ideas is distorted: all too often, news is subjugated by entertainment. As long-serving CBS news anchor Dan Rather once said, television news has been "dumbed down and tarted up".
A genuine marketplace of ideas should be open to all. It should be a meritocracy where the best ideas flourish and those operating within the market should have a duty to seek general agreement or consensus.
Today, the model of television as a one-way medium owned by a powerful few is being disrupted. User-generated content or, as we at Current TV like to call it, viewer-created content (VC2), gives viewers a voice. You saw it happening here in the UK during the July 7 bombings in London, where images from people's mobile phones became part of the major broadcasters' coverage of the terrible events of that day.
Viewer-created content puts power back in the hands of the people, allowing them to re-engage with issues of the day, as their voices are heard and stories relevant to them are told. Everything you need to make a film can fit in a backpack, and more and more people are learning how to use this exciting new technology.
This new form of television is different from traditional programming: it is short-form (typically three to five minutes long), surprising and riveting, rather than predictable and pre-ordained by TV executives. Current TV is television for the internet generation: it is aimed at an audience of 18 to 34-year-olds who we hope will contribute much of Current TV's output and decide what will appear on the channel by voting for short-form programmes or "pods" on the Current TV website. The internet is an important part of Current's production and programming infrastructure. We believe that as grassroots storytelling takes off, it will create new and vital discussions about the things that affect people's lives.
What we need in TV, as on the internet, is a multi-way conversation that includes individuals and operates as a meritocracy of ideas. Current TV aims to engage viewers in a conversation of democracy and let them tell their own stories about what's going on in their lives, in the dominant medium of our time: television.
And as the internet comes to rank alongside or even surpass TV as the dominant means of communication, we must ensure it remains open and accessible to all, without a choice of content being dependent on particular service providers. The consolidating forces that have distorted the TV market could yet try to control the internet. With a global conversation taking place on the internet and now on Current TV, too much is at stake to allow that to happen.
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Make no mistake about it, Current tv is indeed the antithesis to the stale media in this country that is more about hype and soundbites than substance... and it is OUR station and our chance to be the news we wish to see. That is what makes this Emmy all the more important to me, because it will hopefully now jumpstart more people into seeing the importance of not only the physical, but the intangible principles that our forefathers wrote into our Constitution. And considering it is Constitution Day, what a fitting message that is.
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