JACK and the Trend towards “Train Wrecks”

But by “they” I do not mean the various research company converts to the JACK cause – at least one of which was a staunch and vocal UNbeliever – up until the day he became an “expert.”

By “they” I mean…the audience!

Check out this incredibly well formulated post where the writer poses the question: Isn’t this the format we always said we wanted?

And then check out this one which makes some great points about the “train wreck” programming strategy that is JACK’s calling card.

The author sees JACK, iPods, and the incredible shrinking box office as related trends:

We now have several indicators (mash-ups, etc.) that suggests that we have not just loosed the bonds of genre but that we are now actually actively anti-generic. We want things that were not meant to go together to be brought together. We like to break things open and see what’s inside. We like to cross the currents and see what happens. Everything else is fast becoming a little tedious….When we are banging away at the remote [control], it is sometimes because we are searching for something better, or trying to monitor several programs at once. But I think our motives are sometimes of the train wreck variety. We are splicing together several feeds, perhaps, so to create a new, higher level of discourse.

I only wish I had written it first.

If the trend favors the anti-generic, where does that leave YOUR station?

[thanks to Tom Asacker for the link]