The Splinter of Our DisContent

First to Work: Dubai

You remember…

Walking down the street in Paris, early morning, passing a bakery and being enveloped by the light, buttery aroma of warm croissants wafting through the doorway. Turning, entering, eyeing the slightly steaming trays of fresh baked delicacies as they are being placed into the display cases; one caught your eye.

Pain au Chocolat!

Must…have…

Standing in the brisk morning, leaning against the stone façade of the bakery, lifting this fluffy, flaky, melted chocolate-filled treasure to the lips, inhaling the sweet, lush, steamy aroma and then biting off that first morsel… Powdered sugar coated your lips as warm, viscous liquid chocolate flows onto your tongue; the entire experience was heavenly, and you said to your companion, “mmmm, this content is delicious!”

“Content”?

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Content.

This morning I received this email:

Hi, my name is <redacted> and I am a content-manager. If you are interested I would love to write a post for your website that I think your audience would really love.

I have a list of content titles I can send you and if you like any of them I will write a blog-post of about 500-1000 words including images and video.

 The more high quality and relevant links we get the more Google loves us right?

 Please let me know if you like this post idea or if you would like me to write about something else and I can get started right away.

Best Regards 

<also redacted> | Content Manager

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A “Content Manager”?

What does that even mean?

As though one can simply put a dollar into the slot marked “Cats & Dogs,” “Summer’s Over,” “Underage Drinking” or “Managing Creativity” and out will come Content That One’s Audience Will Really Love.

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Let’s roll this one back and stop calling Art “Content.” It’s demeaning; it lacks dignity.

This one’s been on my mind for awhile.

Do we say, “wow, that video content was excellent!”?

Does a writer of story say s/he “creates content”? (And if s/he does, how does that affect self-image and billing rates?)

Calling creative work “content” flattens it, implies that it’s interchangeable, existing simply to fill a box and that it’s the box that has value when fundamentally it is what’s in that “box” that offers value.

Throwing writers, storytellers, architects, filmmakers, lighting designers, set designers, producers, actors and all the other professionals who collaborate to create something meaningful together into this ambiguous catchall basket of “content creators” seems to me to be dismissive. Commodifying. Thoughtless.

There’s a lot goes into that to which Some Business Sorts refer as “content” – similar to sales people referring to “units” whether they’re speaking of automobiles, tickets, desk sets or fur coats…”units.”

Especially in our own industry; let’s refer to one another as the hard-working, sleep-deprived, creative artists, artisans, craftspeople and technicians we are.

You are a filmmaker, an editor, an experience designer, a creative director, a producer, a costume designer, a set designer, a choreographer, a storyteller of myriad possibilities. Neither accept nor be guilty of tossing off and applying labels such as “content” or “content creator” unless you’re talking about corn flakes…

…and I’ll bet the people who make the corn flakes don’t refer to themselves as “content creators” either.

Words are important. Let us use them wisely and well to communicate, enlighten, honor, respect.

IMHO.


“IMHO: Creating Compelling Experience” is a free downloadable eBook on the tenets and methodologies we use to…create compelling experience. Read, shared and quoted throughout the Milky Way Galaxy, it can be found in the iBooks app on any Apple device or in iTunes at this link.

3 thoughts on “The Splinter of Our DisContent

  1. What came to mind after reading the article, was that the word content implied that directors, artists, actors, writers, as well as photographers and any individual with the creative mindset who puts his/her work out there to the public, lack talent and that what they do can be done by anyone. It makes it seem as if these individuals, who happen to be highly skillful at what they do and put their time, hard work and effort into their individual crafts, do nothing to make and impact on others, if not the world and demeans us all as artists and it is very unfair.

    Avery James

  2. Great post. This has been a pet peeve of mine since the 90s when the great emerging wonder of the Web was immediately swarmed by the maggots of the advertising sector who were looking for “content” to attach their banner-ads to. As someone who was busting my butt to both learn the technology and help make cool sites, I always found this reductionist term emblematic of a shallow, rapacious mindset. Well said, KO!

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