A short live-stream segment by TJ Walker discussing the growing use of webcams/Skype for TV interviews. Walker explains how lower technical and cost barriers let ordinary people (activists, small-business owners, authors, experts, corporate spokespeople) appear on network TV, and he notes the resulting need to improve on-camera speaking skills.
Chapters
One trend I'm seeing on network TV places like Fox CNN is the use of webcam video when interviewing people or Skype. Now, it used to be this was considered too low budget, too rough looking, only to be used in case of some extreme weather emergency. But now I'm seeing more and more networks using this just as a normal course of procedure to interview people, whether they're in Iowa or Colorado or someplace away from a satellite TV studio. What are the implications? Well, in the past, the only people who could afford to do satellite TV interviews were either major newsmakers or corporations, people with deep pockets. Because in order to do an interview like that, you had to book a studio, sometimes for three hours. Expensive staff, studio time, satellite time, it could be $10,000, $20,000. But if people are doing interviews just at their home computer with a webcam, it essentially reduces the cost to zero. This means many, many more opportunities to do TV around the country, around the world for average activists, small business people, authors, experts and corporate spokespersons. It also means people need to improve their on camera speaking skills.