Pause: Video Democracy or Rosy Glasses?
The early '70s gave birth to techno-triplicates crying to democratize television. The portable videotape recorder, coaxial cable, and a fuzzy idea of democracy formed the eye, legs and mindset of an infant revolution. The first offered everyone a way to make television programs. The second offered dozens of new TV channels on which to show them. The third saw TV potential through rose-tinted prismatic glasses.
The thought of combining the first two innovations charged the imaginations of media-savvy activists, and self-appointed enlighteners of mankind. Behind them marched sympathetic educators, artists, sometimes even psychologists. They pushed an idea then, not money; the business people came later.
Many of these--some called themselves students of the media, others "vidiots," and an unwashed few "video freaks"--set out with no formal training in television production. Many watched no TV themselves. They did not tape their kids, either. They wouldn't waste video's awesome power for social change in that way. You know t…
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