Brainstorming on improving the Oscars

Posted by Chris

February 27, 2008

There are a bunch of posts around Ye Olde Interwebs today on how the Oscars, either as a broadcast or as a ceremony as a whole can be improved in light of this year’s Lowest. Ratings. Ever. Yesterday I got an email from a contact at the L.A. Times asking for my thoughts on that same subject and the resulting story, including my quote as well as thoughts from other online folks is now up.

As is usual for me, my contribution is half snark and half actual constructive thinking and, also not unusual, focuses on increasing online engagement. Making that Oscars.com site into something that can serve as a hub of interactivity – including pulling posts from elsewhere on the web, facilitating viewer chat and allowing for embeddable video – is really the only way you’re going to get a new generation of viewers to pay attention to what’s going on. They might not watch the broadcast on TV, but I’d bet dollars to donuts they’d put their favorite song clip on their Facebook profile.

Anyway, check the story out and see what everyone had to say.