Weak joke - Mainstream Press
This post was written to support a rather weak joke. Feel free to skip it if you'd like as it contains several inaccuracies in order to support the joke. The real story is back here: http://www.lovelymachine.com/Dolmere/2008/01/mainestream_press.html
One thing I learned from listening to Grace/Cyl being interviewed by her CBS friends: SL Musicians really need to learn the art of spin.
First, JueL made a point that is of course correct - this was a great opportunity for Grace/Cyl and not something to be scoffed at. My comments while we were at Artropolis and my comments here on this blog entry were/are not intended to cast a negative shadow on a cool thing. Quite the contrary - it's awesome that the local news team decided to cover the story at all.
However, there are some things we might want to keep in mind when dealing with the press. With rare exception they will attempt to sensationalize if possible, they will not do their own research before hand, and they will take comments out of context where possible.
How does one combat that? SOUNDBYTES! Really, it sucks, but before you decide to sit with an interviewer you should decide what core message you would like to share and stick to it. The reporter, Michelle, set the tone immediately. She started asking questions that I think should have been deflected. I likely would have given a smarmy "f-u" type response to them. Note that both the reporter Michelle and musician Grace Buford were very nice and very cordial. Michelle started the whole interview by admitting that she and her cameraman knew nothing about virtual worlds and wanted to be educated.
Some questions during the interview that caught my attention (quotes are paraphrased from my weak memory):
"Is it true that the Belgian police convicted someone of a rape that happened in Second Life?" Hmmm... don't you know how to use Google? Why the hell are you asking a musician from Georgia about the goings on of the Belgian police? Investigated and dismissed as absurd afaik, but that's beside the point.
"Well let me just come out and ask it - can you have sex in there?" WHAT? WTF? Seriously this is what you wanted to start the interview off with? Again - you came down to interview a musician that uses SL to reach a world-wide audience. So umm... huh?
"What about the new LAWS that they're passing for users?" / "Who makes the LAWS?" / "What are the most recent LAWS?" / "Is it a democracy?" / "Oh, so they're dictators?" This thread of discussion was just making me nuts, hahaa. There is a press contact at Linden Lab who would be happy to explain what the platform is, what the TERMS OF SERVICE are, and how a computer simlulation works. Why spend over half your time talking to this artist about things that you should have known from research before arriving?
"Do people live in their like IT was their first life?" / "Do they get caught up in it?" As with her answer to all these questions Cyl graciously responded as best she could and then tried to steer the conversation to something positive. I don't think I would have given it as much time or been as gracious in my replies.
The crew also seemed more interested in the collaborative use of SL for music than in what Grace/Cyl was doing on her own. Cylindrian was going to show them how she streams by playing a song complete with audience there to adore it. Then she was going to show them what it looks like as an audience member by having JueL and Avvy play a song each for them.
After Cyl played a song for us (lovely) things changed a bit. Since they were running low on time, because they asked mostly inane questions, there was only time for JueL to get on the stream. They asked for Cylindrian to play along with JueL rather than just observe. Go figure. I figure this wasn't all that big a deal since relaycasting is done in-world often enough, so it's only slightly misleading.
Here are some suggestions for steering reporters and interviewers back on topic.
"Is there pornography in SL?" Sure - there are places with adult content. 7-11 has a magazine stand with adult magazines. When I go to buy a chili dog I manage to avoid that content - do you? Now a song I wrote just for my world-wide audience in Second Life called "Reporters are dense" would work pretty well in relating to this idiotic question. I'll perform it for you now...
"Who creates the LAWS of the land?" Linden Lab can be contacted at secondlife.com - they run the servers and create the terms of service that the world runs under. I have an amusing song I wrote called "Mattie's Runaway Train" which is all about the laws, acceptable use, and terms of service that existed in the old west. Here - let me hum a few bars...
"Do people live in there, you know, like IT was their first life?" I'm so glad that you asked this. It turns out that 50% of the residents in SL are, in fact, home bound. They no longer leave the house and are attempting to live off prims alone. One of my songs, "We're all dying slowly" captures their status rather eloquently - let me show you the chord progression.
Comments
For the 3 minute piece on the local FOX affiliate (it's on my YouTube), it took about 2 hours.
I was extremely careful to talk with the reporter before the tapes rolled, get their background, checked around, they were a straight-shooter, and I steered the conversation while avoiding any joke that could have been taken out of context.
Posted by: Crap Mariner | January 19, 2008 10:51 PM