About Summerhays

Welcome to my channel. Today, if you count cell phones, the internet, and other wireless mobile devices, there are billions of channels. I call this blog “Seven Billion Channels” because the technology exists for every man, woman, and child on the planet to create their own channel, almost to be their own channel. This issue is how to populate your digital expressions with meaningful content.

Thinks about it. As instantly as we’ve consumed media in the past, we can create it now, with no barriers. Storage Space is essentially free, (for more on “free”, see this) and this blog attempts to bring it all together.

The idea of channels come from 20th Century television culture. First there were only the big three; ABC, CBS, and NBC, plus VHF and PBS. Then with cable, twenty channels, then fifty, then one hundred. Then the dish! With satellite, over five hundred channels. Then the refrain, “500 channels and nothing good to watch” popped into popular culture.

If you feel that way, watch less TV and make your own channel. Almost anyone can. You don’t have to be a webmaster, or code thanks to WordPress and platforms like Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, etc.. We all can have our own channel. In fact, we can have our own radio shows (podcasts), newspaper columns (blogs) and film distribution outlets. (Youtube, etc.) Young people are developing audiences, as well as their own media outlets.

New media storytelling is a passion of mine. I have developed dozens of interactive software titles. I have taught over three thousand young people, all over the world, how to animate their own short films. Whether you live in places like Rwanda Africa or New York City I have seen it transform lives. I have lectured on digital literacy at NYU, USC, and other major universities. I’ve helped major media outlets, including AOL, Viacom, HBOfamily, Seasame Group, Helio, GrandaUSA and many others develop meaningful content for their new media channels. Students of mine have walked the red carpet at The Tribeca Film Festival opening night, have won awards at international children’s film festivals, and have been featured on national TV.

I hope to cover ways in which we can see the media world as accessible and do-able for almost anybody. Learn how to make your channels more relevant, and be more persuasive with your niche audience.

Having our own channels also makes all of us marketers, animators, copywriters, producers, distributors, editors, public speakers, and visual thinkers. Hopefully this blog will serve to further your skills in any of these areas in which you might be interested. I’m walking right along side you. This is going to be a great journey. I’ll be sharing my expertise in creating meaningful content, and looking at case studies of others who “get it”.