“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-16 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from week of September 5, 2016
This Week’s Podcast:
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Not So Wel
This is one of those stories where I just can’t believe someone didn’t catch this before it goes out into the world and creates an easily predicted firestorm. There is both good news and bad news on this story. The good news is that the mistake was dealt with quickly and appropriately. The bad news is that we live in the age of social media which means we will still be seeing this story eight years from now. So perhaps my work here today can help in two ways. First, to help companies make better media decisions, and second to help us all fight the outdated outrage still to come.
If you haven’t seen the promotional materials for a “Teen Financial Education Day” sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank, you will have to see them online. The furor that erupted after they were issued resulted in the bank backpedaling as quickly as I have ever seen a major corporation move. The materials included pictures of teens, looking all science class with test tubes and stuff, with tag lines like “A ballerina yesterday, an engineer today”, and “An actor yesterday, a botanist today”.
Let me make clear, I am all in favor of young people going into STEM studies. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. I have enormous respect for the folks who do that work, and almost all the stuff they create. I mean, there are bombs and things I am not such a big fan of. On the other hand, the college degree with my name on it is for Theater. I have many friends with degrees in music and art and the like. A lot of folks like me went ballistic when they saw the images.
Here’s the other thing – Wells Fargo has a long-standing pattern of supporting the arts, culture, and education. Last year to the tune of ninety-three million dollars. So how did they approve such an idiotic campaign? That answer hasn’t surfaced yet. I do want to note that the bank DID follow my advice on the art of the apology. They didn’t try to dodge, they didn’t drag the process out. As soon as the issue was clear, they acknowledged that they screw up and promised to fix it. Well done, Wells Fargo. It was a tough week for them, with a much touted deal with Amazon collapsing after a year-long negotiation.
But that still leaves the question. How did the most valuable bank in the world manage to drop the ball so badly? In a world where a one hundred forty-four character tweet can cost people their jobs, you would assume that a multi-national, multi-multi-billion dollar corporation would spend a little extra time going over their presentation materials.
Now I just have to wait till 2019 when one of my Facebook friends goes ballistic over the whole thing.
Next for Netflix?
Ah, the dilemma of success. You begin as a small company, working a particular little niche in the world. And you succeed! So you decide to stretch your wings just a little more. And you succeed again! Suddenly you realize you have become a player, a new power in the media world. What you do next needs to be carefully considered.
In this case, the little engine that could is Netflix. What began as a DVD by mail video company in 1998 has worked its way steadily up the media hierarchy. Streaming as added in 2007 and Netflix began creating original programming in 2013. With shows like “House of Cards”, “Orange Is the New Black” and the hit of this past summer “Stranger Things”, Netflix has shown itself to have some serious game. Backing that up are the dozens of Primetime Emmy, Creative Arts Emmy and Golden Globe nominations they’ve received. “House of Cards” became the first web based show to win a Primetime Emmy.
So the question becomes where do you go from here? You’ve got movies, and TV shows (both old and new). Heck, you’ve even entered common internet slang. It’s interesting to see the areas where some expansion is happening. One is small and the other is potentially huge.
The small expansion is in an area called “slow TV”. If you remember the Christmas morning fireplace on TV (and now available on disc), then you understand the basic concept. In this case, they are videos of peaceful scenes that allow you just, well, chill. You basically see an everyday event from beginning to end. A canal or train ride, people knitting, all very relaxing.
On the slightly more dynamic side is the discussion about Netflix creating its own TV network. Media commentator Wayne Friedman notes that Amazon began as an internet only presence and is now opening brick and mortar stores, so why shouldn’t Netflix consider launching its own old media network presence?
Netflix stock price is hovering just below one hundred dollars (up from just under four dollars about nine years ago). They are always looking for ways to expand their subscriber base. It is a “more eyes means more money” kind of business. Add in that they are already producing some of the most interesting and praised content available and you have to begin to wonder. They have the investors interested, they just added almost two million more subscribers, and they are hot, hot, hot. Let’s face it, most cable channels rely on a base of re-runs. Netflix has shown a deft touch in choosing different and interesting programs anyway, so why couldn’t they offer something unique here as well?
The other side of being a big success is that the business decisions tend to come with a higher price tag, win or lose. We’ll have to wait and see what Netflix does.
Graphic News
In my reading about the modern media, I see more and more stories that talk about the importance of visuals and even predicting that we are about to see more and more video in our news feeds.
With all of that said, there’s a story out of Cincinnati that I find fascinating. The ABC affiliate in that city, WCPO, faced an interesting dilemma. They were working on a story about a family trying to recover from the issues created by poverty, drug addiction, and a broken family structure. The difficulty was that they could not use any photograph that showed an identifiable image of the children at the center of the story. While the writing covered the details in depth, the visuals for the story were lacking.
That’s when reporter Lucy May began working with cartoonist Kevin Necessary. Their idea was to take advantage of the heavy investment that the Scripps owned station already has in their website and create a graphic novel version of the story. Necessary went out with the reporter, taking notes and making sketches of details. He used his art to reinforce the facts of the story. The result was a six chapter graphic novel, available on the WCPO web page.
Newspapers have been around for a long time. The first printed weekly paper was in Antwerp in 1605. For the modern reader, news images have “always” been photographs. Of course, that’s not really true. The first news photograph was published in France in 1847. I’m sure you will be stunned to discover it was a crime photo. For centuries, if there was a visual it was a drawing. We still see drawings in our news coverage today. Most commonly they are courtroom drawings in cases where cameras have been barred. The other aspect that I see more often are the whiteboard video illustrations, called “explainers”.
Setting the “funnies” to one side, the history of news and commentary based cartoons is a long one. On the other hand, the number of papers that still maintain cartoonists on the staff is dwindling even faster than the newspaper industry itself. One estimate says there are only forty left, compared with some two hundred some twenty-five years ago.
This is a story about the vision of the future. The combined vision of the reporter and the cartoonist to find new ways to tell the story. And the courage of the station to think like a multi-media outlet instead of like an old line TV station.
Necessary and May are already discussing a potential second project. That’s a media future I want to see.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2016
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Stories Are My Life 
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