Avatar and the power of social media

January 11, 2010 by William Shaw
Filed under: William Shaw 

That Avatar came out just as the Copenhagen talks were disolving into irrelevance is something a few commentators noted. It’s a blockbuster with a strong environmental theme; so much so that sceptics have been warning that it’s: “every militant global warming supporter’s dream come true.”

Well, you can only hope.

This weekend the movie broke records again; box office sales have now topped $1.3 billion. If culture’s part is to create a narrative that allows people to grasp a different future, then maybe the sceptics aren’t having it all their way.

There’s another lesson to be learned too. Mashable points out the substantial role social media played in creating this juggernaut. A huge, well-coordinated campaign was based on spreading the word through well-made trailers and multi-media give-aways. Like it or not, this is the way forward for arts producers of all stripes, big and small.

As I’ve said before, if the arts are going to have the kind of heft they need to argue their case in the coming cold climate, they need to engage with their audience and their peers more closely using the box of tricks that social media gives us. The tools are all there; it’s just a matter of figuring out how they’re going to work for us.

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4 Comments on Avatar and the power of social media

  1. Hartmut Rast on Mon, 11th Jan 2010 3:09 pm

    2. I don’t like to get manipulated by whomever. Therefore, I can’t completely agree with the contribution and to me it would be the wrong sign if someone would use tricks of social media to influence my opinion to gain a certain success. Who says what is right or wrong ? A democracy lives by its diversity so by differfent opinions.

  2. William Shaw on Tue, 12th Jan 2010 8:48 am

    3. I’m not sure I agree, Hartmut. Old fashioned advertising is non-consensual. It blasts you with images and catchphrases and crowds out other messages.

    The point about social media is that it is consensual. You have to offer something that interests people in order for them to want to pass it on to their friends. Sure that is manipulative, but all culture is manipulative.

    Was it manipulative of Barak Obama to use social media in this way? Was it manipulative of the 10:10 campaign?

    I’ll admit mine is a shiny-eyed view. The danger is that the big budgeted media campaigns can still drown out the smaller ones, but it’s a far more even playing field than old media presented.

  3. Ida Aabye aka Nathalie Fougeras on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 2:43 pm

    4. I was in a social 3d platform some months ago in order to work at a project with Avatar Ecology and then bring some questions via the art field and critic. The work is a permanent exhibition in this platform where many people come and are in the green party or more or less connected at some ecologic questions all over the world.
    You can have a look in this project and try it here at this slurl take place in Aire ville spatiale here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ecologia%20Island/122/129/51
    I saw the movie Avatar too but for me it was great and interesting new view but in a way not enough deep in the thought for example about how this society live, the philosophy connection between live and social connection and the media-ecology.. but of course its a big film production. And about social media I m also very critic so my way its to be critic with the society too in my work.
    But sure the Avatar movie is a big production not a art critic way, for me its too much black and white thoughts, then it is more about the mass manipulation and yes you can be more suspect about it I m agree.
    Keep a critic way it s all the time need to stay in this emergency of the life for differents questions :) .

  4. like now! » Blog Archive » LINKS ECOLOGY INITIATIVE and MEDIA ART on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 3:41 pm

    5. [...] Avatar and social media disucssion: http://www.artsandecology.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/01/avatar-and-the-power-of-social-media/comment-page-... [...]

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