Stephen Colbert Gets It

Want to know about massmedia convergence? Don't look to the plumbing providers ("it's all tubes") who attempt to attach themselves to the hip (think about that turn of phrase as a probe, boys and girls) with content providers. Look to Stephen Colbert, host of the nightly Colbert Report. Today's Globe and Mail frames it as Colbert wanting to be a "viral video star," but there is much more to it than merely remixing Colbert's green screen antics on YouTube. Rather, “This is an exciting opportunity for our audience to participate in the central mission of this program — making me look heroic,” Colbert said in a statement. Well, sort of. Leaving aside the heroic part, it is an opportunity for the audience to participate in the creation of the Stephen Colbert persona which is central to the show. Colbert gets it - the reversal of television in the UCaPP world, from what became a hot medium to one that can be cool again through active participation, filling in the blanks as it were, in the collaborative creation of the Colbert experience. Whether it is the naming of a bridge in Hungary, or the Colbert nation's attack on elephants in Wikipedia, the audience making the show is an indication of television of the future/present.
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