Digital Commons at Penn State

I consider myself something of a political junkie. So needless to say as a creator of digital content I was very intrigued by the YouTube presidential debates. The general public would finally have a voice in the debates, or so it was advertised – but is that really what happened?

After watching the second debate last night I realized that in trimming over 5,000 questions down to around 20 to be asked during the broadcast, CNN often chose the questions which had high production values. Choosing the best looking questions rather than the best questions makes sense; television is after all a visual medium. From an animated Dick Cheney, to a head super-imposed on a dollar bill, the people who took the time to make their presentation unique were the ones rewarded with having their questions asked on air. That is not to say that the questions with high production values were the only ones asked, or that they were bad questions, but the best way to get your question noticed seemed to be having a great presentation.

This is another reason I think having the Digital Commons available to all students, faculty, and staff at Penn State is so important. Having a good presentation is just as important as having good content in a visual medium and the Digital Commons provides the technology and the training to take your videos to the next level. Anyone can point a camera at something and push record, but it is what we do above and beyond that gets us noticed.