Trafcom News

Twitter has changed how I watch TV

I’m not a big consumer of television. A few favourite shows capture my attention: House and Modern Family among them. Others, like Mad Men, I watch on DVD. But in the past year or so I’ve found myself compelled to tune into certain “big events” on the small screen, knowing that I can share the experience with my Twitter friends.

Last night was a case in point. We decided to watch the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Normally I would not pull out my iPhone while sitting on the sofa with a loved one; it seems rather rude in an old-school way. But this was different. Halfway through the closing ceremony, around the time O Canada was being mangled by a teen pop singer, my fingers were itching. After a knowing glance from my partner, I grabbed the iPhone and checked the Twitter stream. Sure enough, it was filled with witty observations from the likes of Dave Jones (aka DoctorJones)

 
Bonnie Dean

and Jian Ghomeshi

Suddenly, there weren’t just two of us in the living room taking in the show. I felt as though we were at a neighbourhood pub, sans the drunks and the noise.  I read the tweets aloud and we laughed together. Such is TV-watching in 2010.

Has Twitter transformed YOUR TV viewing?

A potential hit in Canada, but would it play in Peoria?

I actually watched a sitcom on CBC-TV last night, and liked it. After all the buzz in the media, I just had to check out “Little Mosque on the Prairie,” a show about Muslims living in a small town in Saskatchewan.

It’s probably as much of a groundbreaker as The Cosby Show was in the 1980s. "Mosque" shows Muslims as normal people with normal problems. The lighthearted humour pokes fun at misconceptions about both Muslims and rural Canadians. Of course no Canadian comedy set in the Prairies would be complete without jabs at big, bad Toronto, where you can actually find a decaf cappuccino. (The young imam, a lawyer transplanted from Toronto, is shocked to find that his favourite drink is not available in his new town.)

Watching the show, I couldn’t help but wonder if U.S. audiences would like it. Let’s hope it gets picked up outside Canada.

Crafting compelling newsletters

In my latest podcast I share tips for creating newsletters that people love to read, with the help of three guests: writer Sue Horner, photographer Adiseshan Shankar and designer Joanna Turlej. This podcast was recorded before a meeting of the Halton-Peel Communications Association, of which we're all members.

You can download the show and see the shownotes on the Trafcom News Podcast blog.

Mark Burnett as a survivor

When I first read that Mark Burnett of reality-TV fame was a featured speaker at the IABC International Conference, I scratched my head. Huh? What would HE have to say to communicators?

As it turns out, a lot. First of all, as you can imagine, Burnett is a master storyteller who pulled the audience into the palm of his hand pretty darn quickly. He regaled us with hysterically funny (although politically incorrect) tales of his first days in America – as a nanny, of all things – after leaving the British Army.

Toward the end of his speech, Burnett made one comment that struck me – and some others I spoke with later – as a brilliant insight. You see, the show he is developing now (in partnership with AOL.com) is something called Gold Rush, which will allow Americans to go online to find clues leading to buried treasure (real treasure). Here’s the comment: Burnett believes that 9 to 5 will become the new prime time for TV. Think about how that will change communications and the world we live and work in. Nine to 5 as the new prime time. You heard it here first! ;-)

Homer Simpson speaks Arabic?

The Toronto papers picked up a story from the Wall Street Journal that caught my eye. Apparently, an Arab satellite TV network, MBC, has introduced The Simpsons (dubbed "Al Shamshoon") to the Middle East. I checked the date. No, it’s not April 1. How on earth can you translate a TV show that thrives on poking fun at American culture and makes countless references to American people, institutions and history?

Seems they had to make some changes. "Omar Shamshoon," as he is called on the show, looks like the same Homer, but he has sworn off beer and bacon, which are both against Islam. Instead, he consumes soda pop and barbecued Egyptian beef sausages. In place of the ubiquitous doughnuts, Homer stuffs himself with traditional Arab cookies. The family still lives in Springfield, and Bart is called Badr.

According to the WSJ, MBC hopes "Al Shamshoon" will be the first of many adaptations for the growing Arab TV audience, but success is far from guaranteed. Longtime Simpsons fans in the Arab world are incensed over the new version. One Egyptian blogger wondered why producers couldn’t just make a good original show about family in Egypt.

With satellite TV booming, I guess we’ll see more "translated" programming of this type. D’oh.