i agree, the first episode focussed on the phenomenon of “audience reach” – and popularity was posited as a sort of “end in itself”.

The questions that I think need to be asked go beyond statistical volume of distribution – instead, we need to think about this: “what sort of experiences are those audiences having when they encounter this work?”

I think that question is a lot harder to answer than a 25 minute tv show allows. It is an “in-depth” type of problem. For instance, you would need to look in detail at the work of Jodi Rose (the Singing Bridges gal) and ask: “well, what are some of these bridges she has made sing, and what are the songs like that have been created? Under what circumstances can we listen to those songs, and what effect do they have on us?”

There certainly exists the possibility of a “good idea which is poorly executed”, as well as a “good idea, executed well”, although I’m not so sure about “poor ideas well executed.” Anyway… The point is that the popularity criterion states that the “market decides” – the more popular, the better the quality. But since porn is one of the most popular things on the net, perhaps Marcus should have made room for that on his show?

Of course we all carry around with us a broad set of criteria for assessing the “goodness” of a piece (like “criticality” or humour) but you just can’t “know” by simply skimming the surface. Ya gotta “drill down” to get to the good stuff. These things take time, and the attention economy of a TV presentation makes that tricky…

I found Marcus dissing quiet irritating in the last series. His need to separate “high” and “low” I think is a bit limiting.

The question I am asking myself (and the students i have been watching it with) is how does he decide when a piece is “good”. What is the measure of its worth. In that first episode it seemed to be about the size of its audience, which is interesting, however I was really stumped at the cultural or artistic qualties of little girl and pony animations…? Is it just that I am too old and not a gamer? and my much younger students too institutionalised by the academy that we found that work lacking?

It occurred to me that the chooky dancers, for instance, who marcus featured in episode 1, probably did not use YouTube very often themselves. In other words, they are a cultural phenomenon because someone else shot a video of their performance and posted it online – not because they themselves are media savvy artists in pursuit of an ever-widening audience… I’m not sure that Marcus made that distinction very clear…

however, to make a small contradiction to your idea of mainstream australia, and its limited exposure to this “crazy stuff”:

in my not-very-wide and non-scientific surveys i note that my family members who i would describe as “mainstream” have in fact developed odd and interesting fringe interests by stumbling across them on the internet. for them, broadband is much more “broadening” than TV…

I think some circles already know this eg anyone going to the festivals or galleries or into independent local music/arts, but there are plenty of people who aren’t aware that all these things go on. eg if I mention some things to my cousins or some friends at work, they are all amazed at what’s going on. and most would like to know more about these things too – they just don’t know what they don’t know. they don’t know the labels/terms to search for on the net either, and most mainstream media doesn’t cover these things. this isn’t new either, but I think it’s easier for people to find things out these days with the net.