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Making content that we
care about
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Fai
iceland’s Spike Jonze and
Shane Smith talked about
making content that people
will care about. Smith said
to start with things that they truly
care about. “We hire young and
smart people. We are not afraid to
fail. We make a lot of content anyway
so if there is bad stuff, you can
actually cover it up,” Jonze added.
Having started as a magazine
and now fully operating as a
broadcast channel, VICE’s tone got
a lot more serious. Things had to
be adjusted. Smith says that young
people in America do not care about
news, especially international news.
VICE has come up with new
and different ways to tell stories but
Jonze says it also depends upon the
intention of the story. “If the story
needs traditional storytelling, then
so be it. It’s useful to know when to
use a structured storytelling or not.”
Smith admits that what they
did poorly in their first few days is
failing to recognize how visually
led TV is. “We did not look
good. We struggled as we were
magazine guys, we write things
before they happen and that’s a
different skill set. We were not
visually riveting,” he said.
As to how to establish trust
from your audience despite growing
numer of media, Smith says that
the key is to be honest. “Don’t
try to cover up mistakes. A lot of
companies are trying to be perfect
when media itself is not perfect.”
July - August 2016 | adobo magazine
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