- Was it good for you too? Talking about quality.

Written by Cecilie Stranger-Thorsen | April 29, 2010 | No comments

“Public service broadcasters have traditionally been given the responsibility to guide us through big technical changes, but both the broadcasters and the film institutes have missed the train when it comes to cross-media. The independent producers must be given the responsibility to drive this development, and they need new funds to do it.”

This was the statement of Jakob Høgel from New Danish Screen, a two year experiment funding  fiction, documentaries and games – owned by the Danish broadcasters and the Danish Filminstitutes.

Sharing the stage with Ene Katrine Rasmussen (MEDIA Desk Denmark), Klaus Hansen (Producentforeningen), Nils Stokke (NRK), Dustin Chodorowicz (Nordicity) and Erik Robertson (Nordic Game Program), Jakob discussed the barriers in the excisting public funds for media production.

Inspired by Chodorowicz presentation of the new, 2,5 billion SEK cross media fund, the panel agreed on the need for politicians to  rethink the mandate for the public funds, and that taking cross-media production seriously demands more funding.

Where is that golden cross-media case?
Nils Stokke replied to the demands from Robertson to commission more independent game production by expressing his wish to produce stories and universes for children, not platform-bound content.
-  The risk of cross-media production is high for a public service provider, Stokke explained, and there is no defined ‘cultural value’ in such projects, as opposed to children’s television content.

Jakob Høgel also stressed the need for a golden case – one that is both commercially successful and displays artistic excellence and can demonstrate the potential in cross-media projects.

The need for a quality discussion was a returning subject in the media convergence track, starting with the morning discussion on Defining cross-media. How do we define quality when it is the user experience that is central, not the artistic expression?

Quality is key
As hard as it is to conclude on this topic, I think the quality discussion is an important clue to what the different media expressions can learn from each other, and a clue to how one can nourish the cross-media field.

The games business can teach film and TV to radically re-think their view on the audience /users, as co-authors of content and as the starting point of creativity and innovation. And the game developers should be inspired by the power of an artistic vision and from the film business’ daring to articulate creative excellence, not only focusing on numbers of users and revenue.

Of course, this development has been on it’s way for a long time, but the hinders for cross-media dalliances and marriage is not only the barriers in the funds and organisational structures.

As Klaus Hansen pointed out, the cultural differences between old and new media are so big that it’s like people of different languages. His wish for intermediaries – cross-media guides that can translate and mediate in this landscape is an interesting one for sure. I think an important task for such guides would be to start a common discussion on the outcomes and qualities of what we do and why - based on both artistic and user-defined definitions. That is the foundation for the discussion of how we should tell stories and create experiences in brand new ways.

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