"Fall TV" Online Nation: The CW New Show Will be Like Associated Content's Model for a New Media

AssociatedContent: The Reality Show? This may be the first thing that pops into your mind if you watch the new CW show Online Nation. As I observed in a previous article, mainstream news is coming to look more and more like Associated Content as they rely more and more upon content in one form or another from viewers. Of course, as I pointed out, the primary difference is that mainstream news networks do not pay you for the privilege of doing their job for them. There is another difference as well: unlike as with the news conglomerates, Associated Content doesn't cherry pick which user-generated information best fits in within the constricted confines of their corporate sponsored purview of what deserves exposure and what does not. Don't expect to find true dissent or genuine critiques of big business among the user-generated content that makes it way onto corporate news.

But back to Online Nation. The producers of this CW show promise to scan the entire internet in search of user-generated content. If experience is any indication, what this actually means is that you will get to once again see that video of the poor kid acting like a Jedi, and the infinite airing of the Mentos meets Diet Coke experiments. Doubtlessly there will be video after video showcasing skateboards crashing, movie parodies and all manner of amateur talent that reveals itself to be...amateur. And yet, there is also the promise that Online Nation might just do more than that.