So true and explains, to the untrained consumer, the itchy, can't-put-my-finger-on-it frustration that the content you once signed up for in good faith isn't keeping up its end of the bargain. Presumably, the creators of the cases you mention take for granted the vast, calcified reserves of attention they sit on and will probably stop producing it when they feel like it or, maybe, get exposed. If content is to sustain the high benchmarks it set out with, it should cease to be made when the consumers say so, not vice versa. But the pact we make with it is strong and deceptively one-sided and I'm tired and there's nothing else on so I'll just watch a Gogglebox and go to bed.
Great read, man. Always look forward to these posts. Are there any case-in-point examples of the elements of an idea being switched around, hook to primary appeal etc, that could illustrate the wane of previously prodigious content?
Cheers man - appreciate it. So many examples. First ones that come to mind: The notional "way in" of watching-along, plot-following and "react" moments in Gogglebox becoming the primary appeal in some recent episodes (or at least some of the teams editing) where whole sections are just people saying what they see. The relationships (Joey kissed Phoebe!) in later series of Friends (secondary appeal drifting upstream in the attention journey). Some of recent episodes of Grand Designs focus on the drama of the concrete drying too quickly or the windows' arrival at the expense of being able to more clearly follow the build (way in becoming primary appeal). Top Chef has a hook of being a competition, but the primary appeal might be about the food and the different characters - as time went on, amping up the stressful music and over-doing the tension made the hook into the primary appeal and made the whole thing exhausting and a bit empty.
This is a fantastic read! I'll be sharing it in the Storythings newsletter this week.
So true and explains, to the untrained consumer, the itchy, can't-put-my-finger-on-it frustration that the content you once signed up for in good faith isn't keeping up its end of the bargain. Presumably, the creators of the cases you mention take for granted the vast, calcified reserves of attention they sit on and will probably stop producing it when they feel like it or, maybe, get exposed. If content is to sustain the high benchmarks it set out with, it should cease to be made when the consumers say so, not vice versa. But the pact we make with it is strong and deceptively one-sided and I'm tired and there's nothing else on so I'll just watch a Gogglebox and go to bed.
Great read, man. Always look forward to these posts. Are there any case-in-point examples of the elements of an idea being switched around, hook to primary appeal etc, that could illustrate the wane of previously prodigious content?
Cheers man - appreciate it. So many examples. First ones that come to mind: The notional "way in" of watching-along, plot-following and "react" moments in Gogglebox becoming the primary appeal in some recent episodes (or at least some of the teams editing) where whole sections are just people saying what they see. The relationships (Joey kissed Phoebe!) in later series of Friends (secondary appeal drifting upstream in the attention journey). Some of recent episodes of Grand Designs focus on the drama of the concrete drying too quickly or the windows' arrival at the expense of being able to more clearly follow the build (way in becoming primary appeal). Top Chef has a hook of being a competition, but the primary appeal might be about the food and the different characters - as time went on, amping up the stressful music and over-doing the tension made the hook into the primary appeal and made the whole thing exhausting and a bit empty.