The saying goes: “life imitates art far more than art imitates life”. But if that’s the case why is it that in today’s media-saturated world do we have content creators driven and motivated to give audiences what they like to hear, see, touch, and even feel? New films, blogs, and music are put out daily from artists all over the world. These artists send their crafted content—-top quality or subpar—-to a given market. Here’s where reception and dollars come in. Media distributors’ number one aim is to reach a target audience for this new content. This ensures they are maximizing their content’s potential in order to generate a profit. Otherwise, their business model would fail. But, what’s the real aim here for the producer? Do they simply exist to placate to audience members? Feed them stuff that they know will resonate and cajole them? Do the avenues and platforms that are out there for producers and content creators simply there for easy consumption so people can have careers? In other words, how much responsibility do content creators have to be great and brilliant rather than mediocre and expectant?

I don’t know about you but I am all for the adventure; the daring. Producers need to shake shit up! Stir the pot. Make people think in new and creative ways. Inspire them to take part in movements and differing mindsets. Force them out of their comfort zone. Create works that are legacy pieces not just fast food filler!

Local news affiliates in major and small markets run their stations with “what bleeds leads” approach. National news media networks focus in on punchy headlines and pontificating soundbites to attract and keep viewers. Ideologies and bias drip in every word, take up every video frame on the screen. You hear it all the time in newsrooms and some writers room across the country–“we’re giving them what they want.” Journalists have to keep backstories short and light for easy consumption to a mass market. Comedies must stay consistent with stereotypical cliches. Just look at Kevin Hart’s films.  Investigations are limited due to time management and shorter attention spans. News directors and managing editors must think marketing as an appeal to their content-driven products. Scriptwriters regurgitate the same material for reuse in later projects. Hollywood pours millions into sequels, prequels, and trilogies after one hit movie. Clearly the mainstay for producers in big media outlets and those at the independent level is to operate with the mindset of how can we get people to like our stuff? But why think so small for a specific audience of media consumers? Why is there the assumption that a given audience will only want what you think they like rather than what they need–content that will challenge them, open them up, and raise their awareness–if not, consciousness? After all, what is entertaining falls more in the nonlinear creative space not simply based on a static formula.

Content creators in this constantly evolving, technology-driven digital space shouldn’t be motivated by the basic, the average, the norm. Think Vice Media in their earlier days when it was about adding unique voices to stories that were few and far in between. Artists of this new millennium are at their best when they are bent on molding new concepts for insight and perspective. Their drive is much bigger than click-bait, answering back to internet trolls, or keeping tabs on their follower counts. Numbers are extra—the additional reward for a new, unique product that pushes the needle and, perhaps, humanity forward.

What ever happened to inspiration? What happened to being driven by a concept, idea, and story? And, the driving impulse to tell it? When did the business model of distribution of new content material get shifted to creating what we think a targeted audience wants? Documentary filmmakers seem to be the only genre and avenue in the media and entertainment industry not beholden to the interests of catering to audiences. Look at Errol Morris’ filmography. Its filled with eccentric topics, raw subject matter all completed not necessarily because he thinks a given audience may like it. However, as this niche genre of documentary continues to find a home in various platforms–Netflix, PBS, HBO, etc. producers and directors will find themselves asking questions of ‘how can we get people to like our stuff’? The reason indie documentary film teams can escape and elude this impulse is because they are motivated by different means to an end. A new story worthy to get out in its rawest, purist form. Access to subjects that make a compelling story more revealed and authenticated. The newness of a subject and topic delivered creatively and with a unique expression.

Nobody likes an ass-kisser. Content creators moving toward appeasing audiences to stay relevant only add to the vast humdrum of mediocrity filling up our saturated media space. Just click on every other YouTube channel. While producers stay up finding ways to be liked the revolutionary makers and trendsetters are taking content to the next level. They are introducing new approaches to visual storytelling. They are challenging humanity to be extra with their attention span, focus, desires, and creative outlook. They are the ones history books remember. They are the ones critics seem to always talk about. They are the movers and shakers of each genre. They are the auteurs we’re glad to come across.