Making It A Mobile Broadband Oscar Night

Recently the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held its annual televised awards ceremony, or the Oscars, as they are commonly known. This was the first Oscar ceremony since Twitter and other mobile forms of communication have really come to the forefront of our society, meaning that this year's Oscars were thoroughly dissected and discussed in real time using wireless Internet and other similar services. This year's ceremony provides an interesting peek into how breaking news and events are being rapidly disseminated and discussed with a speed never before seen.

Reports on this year's Oscar ceremony indicated that many viewers were unhappy with the performance of this year's hosts, actor James Franco and actress Anne Hathaway. Franco was variously described as wooden, uncomfortable with the idea of being a host, and even possibly somewhat strung out, while Hathaway seemed to be overcompensating for her co-host's alleged faults by hamming it up on stage to an extent that to many people was the dictionary definition of trying too hard. In short, many people have taken to the wireless Internet and elsewhere to express their opinion that the ceremony was a disaster. Most importantly, this consensus seems to have emerged the very night of the Oscars, and even while it was taking place.

If such an Oscar ceremony had happened some years ago, it might have been possible that a much less firmer consensus would have emerged. There would simply not be the critical mass of online water cooler discussion, and instead Oscar organizers would have relied primarily on the opinions of professional critics regarding the ceremony. However, Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media have greatly blurred the line between viewer and critic in that these tools can gather real time information on people's opinions of events and programs. In this case a negative consensus seemed to emerge almost instantly, and without the imprimatur of expert opinion.

In this regard, one thinks of the instant rating graphs CNN displayed during their coverage of political debates in the last U.S. election season. The criticism of those graphs, of course, was that asking someone to give their opinion so quickly may necessitate that the opinion not be carefully thought out. Once someone has given an opinion, it is psychologically difficult to change it, because then one has to admit being mistaken. Publicly giving an opinion can therefore be like a tidal wave. Due to the inertia of one's own opinions, and the influence of having seen others' opinions through social networking sites or tools such as the CNN graphs, there is the danger that a consensus emerges so rapidly that it is built on peer pressure and rapid emotional impulses, rather than fair, considered reactions. This year's Oscars are just one example of how participation in 4G and other Internet services that allow people to share opinions instantly may influence our society in years to come.