NASA doesn’t think Spacevidcast is media… So… What are we then?
Almost 15 years in broadcasting and I’m treated like I have no idea what I’m doing. I should just let this go, but I have been trying to get media passes for the last 3 NASA launch events now, and each time we’re denied. This is a snippet of our latest denial letter:
“Requests from online orgs must be from a previously established, independent site that contains regularly updated original news content above & beyond links, forums, troubleshooting tips and reader contributors; a readership of more than 1,000 per month, and has covered the space industry before. Fan sites, Web logs and personal web sites do not qualify for media badges. Links to two bylined articles clearly displaying publication title published within the past six months AND EITHER a copy of your current masthead or business card with name, title and media outlet’s logo OR a copy of your online pubs home page and the masthead page with your name and title appearing in an editorial capacity OR an official letter of assignment from your media outlet. The web material must go through an independent editor before publication. In other words, you’re not media if you’re independently writing and editing your own material. That is what defines a blogger”
I won’t go in to how ***THIS*** is a blog and Spacevidcast isn’t. Fine. I won’t go into what defines a blog because clearly NASA has their mind made up there. No, let me go in to where people get their news from now.
Traditional television is dying. People don’t go to CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, etc., etc. to get their information all that much anymore. They go online. If you want information on space you go to SpaceflightNow.com, NASASpaceFlight.com and yes Spacevidcast.com. In fact over 3,000 people get their dose of Spacevidcast every… single… day…
It’s not that NASA isn’t trying, they really are. In fact STS-129 saw their first ever space shuttle TweetUp at KSC which looked to be an awesome event. We would have gone, but unlike media the Twitter users didn’t have access to the HD video feed, so I would have been SOL if I wanted to bring the world awesome coverage. NASA allowed 100 twitter users to come in and get a personal tour of the launch itself. Very awesome and I really do think they should get kudos for that.
However, it is just a start.
Maybe NASA thinks that all they need to do is allow 100 people in each time for a total of 500 more Twitter users until the end of the shuttle program. Maybe NASA wants to control the information flow and they are simply not used to the new media instant access. Or maybe NASA thinks that Spacevidcast getting a press pass would create a rip in the space time continuum to the peril of all humanity. No idea. I can say that 100 twitter users isn’t enough. Great start, but now lets start to take notice that sites like Spacevidcast don’t fit in to NASA’s nifty little categories. We are something new, something different but not something less valuable. We stream to tens of thousands of people during launch events. Don’t discount us because we are new, different or making change in this arena. The fact is that for STS-129 we had 73,814 people join us for the launch (based on the Ustream.tv viewer metrics). I don’t know what SFN or NASA.gov got but I would be willing to bet we held our own against both of them.
Anyhow, my rant is done. If NASA won’t allow us press passes, that’s fine. I don’t need NASA to bring everyone amazing coverage of a shuttle launch. In fact I would say to this day we have the best launch coverage of any media outlet, online or offline. We’ll have people at Space View Park, we will have moles within NASA and we’ll have people at the STS-130 TweetUp if NASA decides to do that again. We don’t need NASA to bring you the coverage, we’re big enough now where we have people everywhere to make that happen. No, what gets me is that NASA doesn’t seem to care enough to look at not just Spacevidcast but all the other people out there who could be game changers in the space industry. Hey, we don’t fit in to the NASA “broadcaster” category, so what good could we ever accomplish?
Other than, you know, changing the world.
[Corrections: I have updated the time I have spent in the industry to reflect 15 years not 10 as originally posted. I just realized that I have spent nearly 15 years in broadcasting. In addition I made note that this was the for KSC TweetUp. NASA has actually had a few TweetUps before but the STS-129 TweetUp was the first at KSC and the first for a shuttle launch]
Please know that change isn’t without pain. Those out front get the best views and most bullets. The “rip in the space time continuum to the peril of all humanity” already happened with social media. It will only get bigger. Hang on….
Ha! Holding on for dear life! I’m all about creating change, which is why I posted this in the first place… Heck it is why we started Spacevidcast! My hope is that NASA will realize their err and embrace new media and stop fearing it.
I should also say it’s not all of NASA, in fact many areas of NASA are doing great with new media. KSC seems to be the one big area that is lagging behind, in my opinion.
I completely agree Ben. SpaceVidcast may be one of the better things that has happened to NASA in the last decade or so. Seriously, 6,000+ viewers for shuttle launches online? That’s pretty sweet. No idea why NASA feels they have to ban you just because you have to support SVC with your day-job and aren’t gung-ho producer/editor all the time. Of course, you do a great job and should just keep asking for your rightly deserved press pass.
Actually, our launch coverage usually brings in a total viewership of over 50,000, usually closer or above 100,000 viewers. That doesn’t mean unique, but the unique ranges from 30,000 to 75,000 or so. The 6,000 you see is concurrent views that moment, but if 10 people are watching for 30 minutes, 5 leave and 10 more join and watch for 30 more minutes then you’ll see a peak viewership of 15 concurrent whereas we really just had 20 viewers over the last hour.
I get better coverage of NASA from Spacevidcast than from traditional media. Comcast TV refuses to carry NASA TV at all, even on launch day. But thanks to Spacevidcast, I can watch launches in HD over Comcast internet. National news channels barely cover launches or news. My local newspaper ran a half-page photo of the WISE launch with 6 column inches of text. That was more than they gave STS-129. And yet still less than I got from Spacevidcast.
I have yet to see STS-130 covered at all on any news broadcast or in any newspaper.
That’s enough evidence for me. Traditional media has abandoned NASA coverage. I go to you guys to keep up on things going on in the sky. That’s why I signed up for Epic.
I’m sorry NASA has not yet realized this, even if their supporters already have. I guess this is one of those disappointing “NASA is too risk-averse” moments.
Let’s see — 73,814 people online to view a launch, live coverage from the field and a live chatroom filled with space enthusiasts who are more than happy to help in answering questions. What’s left for the NASA KSC PAO folks to do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Spacevidcast rules, traditional media drools.
Here’s a suggestion: forget asking for the press passes. If you and Cariann want to go see one of the last launches (and I think you should), request launch passes from your congressman. Set up SVC to run with a minimum of hands on needs for that launch and go enjoy yourselves. We can certainly hold down the fort and entertain ourselves for one launch.
Oddly enough the passes are not for Cariann or myself. We are planning on going to see STS-132 (and possible have a SVC meetup for the last flight of Atlantis) but these passes are for someone who would be bringing us extended coverage from the press area. He has done this for SFN before, I’m just trying to snag him. However, since we as an entity are denied, I can’t get him a pass.
Have to disagree on TV viewership – overall, it’s actually rising. Nielsen’s Q3 ‘09 “3-screen report” says 31 hrs/wk on average, vs. 4 on internet (:22 of which is watching video which is, of course, also increasing). On Individual network viewership, though does continue to suffer as viewership grows more fragmented. That said, I’m not surprised at your KSC experience and share your plight – we’ve been trying for months to convince NASA to collaborate on a new channel that would extend NASA TV’s reach tenfold. With “the gap” fast approaching, the emergence of the international space programs and private space, hopefully they’ll see the value in proactive PR, online and on-air, soon.
Well I should clarify that I don’t think television as a whole is dying. No old communication medium dies, it just changes with the industry. Look at AM radio which FM radio was supposed to kill. Look at FM radio which XM was supposed to kill. So forth and so on. Heck, we even still have morse code!
My point is that people don’t turn to the TV for information first anymore, they turn to the Internet. They may go to the TV to get more pictures later, but the Internet and more specifically tools like Twitter, Qik, Ustream, Facebook and Google News bring much faster access to information than does traditional television. People don’t even turn to big brands as much anymore. Why wait for CNN.com to report on a story when you can get it in real time directly from the people there via Twitter? TV is morphing in to an entertainment outlet and less and less an information outlet, with a few exceptions (Discovery Channel, Science Channel, etc.)
That’s partly why Spacevidcast was designed from the ground up *not* to be a TV show on the Internet. We are a social community video show that can be viewed live or on-demand. I would actually like to get syndicated on TV, but don’t rely on it for our format, viewership or income. A really easy way to fail at new media is to take what worked on traditional television and try and put it online. Those old methods no longer work, we’re living in an era of real-time two way communication between not just one and one parties but one to many parties.
Anyhow, just my $0.02
Totally agree with you. Media has to adapt, and no category has been more revolutionized by technology than news. Save the old theater rewsreels, I can’t think of any news outlet that has totally disappeared – quarterly/monthly print, daily newspapers, 24/7 cable news or local newscasts. But they’re all losing their traditional business models – ads, subscriptions, or both. That’s why media congloms continue to grow, building or acquiring properties across multiple platforms they can cross-pollinate and distribute revenue along with consumption.
What’s great is that it allows folks like you, Miles and others who do such a great job covering space (or any other niche) the opportunity to syndicate across all these platforms. (Monetization at that level, of course is the big question. Great discussion on Free vs Paid at http://2.ly/dcv)
With regard to space – and it’s technological predecessor and sibling, aviation – we intend to create a platform to bridge the gap between old (to the extent you call TV old) and new media, getting it to a hugely underserved (or we wouldn’t all be doing this, would we?) audience regardless of their preference for media format. It’s being successfully done with many smaller niches – of little interest to us, though.
News and Information is key, and its timelyness lends itself well to Internet. Myself, I’m a multi-consumer – I surf the news channels while making breakfast, flip through the papers while eating it, and head to the office to hit the newsfeeds, checking Twitter on the way. By adding *quality* entertainment (i.e. not reality – unless, say it’s astronauts or something relevant to the genre) to news/info, you reach a much broader audience. That’s where the TV part comes back in – even a modestly distributed and entertaining TV program – much less a dedicated channel – can drive millions of new viewers/e-readers/streamers/downloaders/tweeters/FBers, etc. *That’s* what we need to get the public fired up about this stuff again!
Spacevidcast is one of the primary reasons I started tweeting about space on Twitter! The 24/7 chat room on SVC, the live shows, last-spacetweep-standing launch/scrub/delay/cargoship live HD coverage and the taped dailies/news briefs are what made me realize I wasn’t the only Space Tweep out here, and made me start reaching out, making connections (read: friendships) & sharing my passion for space exploration, particularly manned spaceflight.
If TV viewership’s rising, it’s because people are drowing out their minds & sorrows by watching trash TV (the endless slew of throwaway “reality” television of people behaving horribly), not because more people are tuning in to news & science/tech documentaries. Numbers don’t tell the whole story, it’s *what* people are watching. We are a heavily tech oriented household, both of us have college degrees, and we have 2 TVs, yet one only exists to connect our Wii to it and the other remains switched off unless something on the Discovery Channel catches our eye. Our cable system doesn’t even offer NASA TV as part of its basic cable package… Epic FAIL. I don’t even watch the local news — I get ALL my local news by following local media on Twitter and elsewhere online!
Meanwhile, I’ve watched the past four or so Shuttle launches on Spacevidcast.com/live instead of NASA TV because SVC’s broadcast is full HD, approachable & fun (Ben & Cariann do an amazing job & the regulars & visitors to SVC are an engaging and informative lot!) and, most of all, their love of and/or interest in space exploration is evident. And lately I’ve been making sure I have free time to watch their live shows because the quality of their interviews with guests such as Sy Liebergot (Apollo EECOM) and SVC chatroom regular Emory Stagmer (@Vaxheadroom; LCROSS software engineer – http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/bios/NG_stagmer.htm) are so fascinating and entertaining, I want to be part of the live discussion rather than just catch their videos on spacevidcast.com / YouTube / etc.
If they’re not “space media” — new or otherwise — I don’t know who qualifies.
Spacevidcast was born with the mission to “get the human race excited about space travel” and it is comments like this that simply make me grin ear to ear. I’m glad to see that what we’re doing is starting to work and even more glad that you’re excited about space again, more specifically getting your awesometacular passion spread across the Twitterverse! Shannon, you continue to amaze me! Glad to have you in SVC as a regular!
That’s frustrating. Spacevidcast provides better NASA coverage than any “outlet” around, traditional or otherwise. Your HD feed got me back into watching launches as they happen; it’s great to share them with all those other people.
I wish I had advice for you, but their policies just seem stacked against you as an independent news source. Seriously, what are you supposed to do? Make Ben the editor and Cariann the reporter? Run everything through some other news source to give it a seal of authenticity?
All I can do is hope NASA comes around sooner rather than later. They could use some relevance right about now.
The beautiful irony is that we actually do have people checking facts, editing content and making sure what we say is on the up and up *besides* Cariann and myself. I would say we do a better job of fact checking than the news programs in traditional media I worked for. C and I don’t know everything, don’t pretend to and have people that help make us look a lot smarter than we are.
And yet somehow, someway, we’re still classified as a blog.
Nevermind us, what about the other game changers in the industry? What is EvaDot wanted to attend a launch as press? He should be able to, IMO.
I’m not sure I understand NASA’s reasoning, either. Spacevidcast offers fantastic launch coverage, as well as great news, interviews, and other content through the shows. The opportunities to meet and interact with the hosts and with other space enthusiasts make it that much more appealing.
I don’t have cable or satellite, and even if I did I’m not even sure I’d be able to get the NASA channel. And why should I even bother when I have SVC?
Just keep on doing your thing and opportunities are bound to open up.