Why don't we burn and distribute our own news DVDs?

[StefanX]

If the media won't cover Cindy Sheehan and other news enough, why don't we just cover it ourselves and burn a few DVDs? Hand 'em out at work, on the subway, on the street corner - or maybe even sell them for a buck or two and create some jobs in this stagnant economy!

WillPitt is interviewing Cindy Sheehan - but don't hold your breath for CNN to run that interview. And people are wild about this Flash animation from Ben Cohen at http://www.truemajority.org/fun .

I just got a 50-pack of DVD-Rs at Staples for about 20 bucks. What's that - 40 cents a DVD? Lots of people have DVD burners nowadays - and even more people have DVD players. (We could also do audio CDs - even more people have those, including Walkmans and car stereos.)

If we had a website where we could upload and vote on "Today's Top Videos" (like the way we recommend DU threads for the "Greatest" page) then we'd have some high-quality stuff that people would love to watch. I bet DemocraticMediaUnderground would become a hot item and give cable a run for the money! Station programmers and news editors get paid big bucks to do what sites like DU and Kos already do - track down stories and figure out which ones are "hot". (And frankly, the "netroots" is starting to do a better job at it than all those high-paid media execs are.)

Lots of people are too busy or whatever to be reading and typing all day, and that's ok. For most people, audio and video are always going to be more interesting than text. There's nothing wrong with that, and we should accept it and leverage it.

Rather than donating millions of dollars so that we can just hand it over to buy ads in the media (who really aren't our "friends"), why don't we just use that money to BE the media?

Remember during the Soviet days - they had "samizdat" where people painstakingly typed out carbon copies and distributed them underground. (Xerox machines were prohibited!) And here we are today with all these CD burners and DVD burners, complaining that the media won't cover the real issues - while we're all sitting on the most massive pile of media equipment the world has ever known.

[cheezus]

1. this hits the newmedia message

dvds, great... how about a vodcast (video podcast). The future of the media is the consumer.

[StefanX]

2. The key to quality is "netroots" voting

We already do this on DU (nominating for the "Greatest" page) and on Kos (rating stories up or down).

If 100,000 people all got together (which we're already doing) and contributed material (which we're already doing) and rated their favorite stuff (which we're already doing)... then the really hot stories would float to the top. (Which is already happening too.)

The final step is just setting up a system for getting this stuff off the web and onto paper, CD or DVD.

People would go wild about this, I'm telling you. Remember what a discovery it was for you when you first found DU? All these like-minded people? No corporate bullshit?

There's a few hundred million Americans who have yet to discover DU. It's time to bring it to them.

[AgadorSparticus]

3. And for people on the go, do a weekly one for people to get caught

up with the news effortlessly. FANTASTIC idea!!

[dissent1977]

4. good advice, but very costly

forty cents a DVD adds up to a lot when you put them into mass production. If you can charge for them that of course makes up for the cost, but you also are generally only going to sell to people who are already pretty informed.

The internet is really our best tool because so many people have access to it, and are able to view content for free. We just have to find better ways to advertise the really good sites.

[5X]

7. Podcasts, vidcasts, and PDA text stories is the way to go,

virtually free, just time and effort involved.
Well, there is the web space required but that could be shared.

[StefanX]

8. You're right, 40 cents ain't cheap

But airtime isn't cheap either.

How many millions of dollars do we spend running ads?

A million dollars would buy 2 or 3 million blank DVDS (I'm sure the price drops when you buy them in bulk).

If the content on the DVDs were really good (and I bet it would be WAY better than the junk on cable) then let's say each CD would get passed around to maybe 3 or 4 people.

So you get about 10 million viewers for a million bucks.

How does that compare with buying airtime in the "mainstream media"? (Maybe someone who knows more about this can help out with this info.)

Plus We The People would have total control over the content. No more bullshit from the networks about a MoveOn ad being "too controversial."

I don't really like the idea of raising millions of dollars and then turning around and handing that money over to the media to buy airtime. They've already shown us who's side they're on. I think it's time to starve them, and use that money to build our own distribution network - and maybe even create some new jobs.

[Generic Other]

5. Firts lesson of DU: Become the Media

:thumbsup:

[Pam-Moby]

6. This is odd.

my husband and I were just talking about doing that last night and we talked about leaving them in shopping carts saying free to anyone. That would get the message out.

[StefanX]

9. That's a great idea!

Just think how many millions of CDs AOL gives away.

DU can start doing the same thing. (I wonder if there's any way to recycle old AOL CDs???)

[Pam-Moby]

10. I am not sure about that.

we have a lot of new ones. Office max runs these rebate days and you buy them and get 100 back in rebates. So I buy them to just keep in stock. :crazy: