Disintermediation

Ezra Klein published an interesting article in The American Prospect in December. It described former Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore's campaign to excise the traditoinal media (newspapers, magazines, television) from the politician-public relationship. The article describes Gore as especially concerned with reporters belief that they should present alternative positions on an issue, no matter how trite or uninformed, rather than seek to evaluate the veracity and credibility of information and sources.

The article is very positive about Gore's keynote speech at the We Media conference last October. (The speech is available in streaming audio on the conference website.)

Gore started Current TV last summer, intending it to further the disintermediation, and to 'democratise' TV; currently viewers contribute about 30% of the station's content. The Current TV website offers instructions on how to create and upload videos. The Current community then watches and rates the pods online, the highest rated ones eventually are broadcast on the channel. The content includs everything from animated political shorts to reports from the Katrina-devastated areas of the United States. Now the channel is extending the concept of user-generated content to the commercials, and it is reported that Sony Electronics, Toyota and L'Oreal Paris have all signed deals with the station to have it enlist viewers to produce their commercials and then air the best of the spots.

Currently he is speaking occassionally via the Democratic website, MoveOn.org. Each speech under MoveOn’s auspices reaches a guaranteed 3 million MoveOn members, who get the address by email directly and can read it in full.

From there, the speech gets e-mailed around, promoted on the blogs, passed from friend to neighbor via “viral marketing.” MoveOn allows him to speak out on his own terms, and individuals to distribute his speeches on theirs.

This is disintermediation via the new media! Gore reaches directly to an intended audience of huge size, without interference from others who would spin the content, or select and emphasize content outside of his control.