Al Jazeera English is about to launch a social tv show called “The Stream”.
The core idea of The Stream is that it’s not scripted in the ordinary way. Rather than give the hosts a script, typed rundown or teleprompter cues, the producers will make extensive use of tweets, Facebook wall posts and YouTube videos from the most engaged viewers and the web at large. That’s not to say it will be crowdsourced — producers are still making decisions about what topics to cover — but it will be deeply informed by an ongoing conversation with its viewers online.
As Cory Bergman notes on LostRemote:
The biggest challenge for shows that try to integrate social media is trying to adapt an interactive display into a television world. Tweets and YouTube clips and Skype interviews can often look a little ugly and disjointed on the air, but it looks like The Stream won’t be overly concerned with attaining TV perfection. They’re also letting social media drive the show, instead of trying to tack it on.
I find particularly interesting the fact that the show won’t be crowdsourced. TV has to be scripted and produced by professionals; there’s no way we can let everyone make TV. Still, the core of the show will be content gathered from social networks. This is what I call “user-powered content” as opposite to “user-generated content”.
