Vidding on NPR’s All Things Considered

National Public Radio’s program All Things Considered is doing a 5 minute segment on vidding tonight, February 25th, 2009, featuring members of the OTW’s Vidding History project and some well-known vidders. You can listen live on NPR or hear it streaming online later at npr.org. (The site can also tell you when the show broadcasts in your area.)

Edited to add: The piece is now online; a short accompanying article, Vidders Talk Back To Their Pop-Culture Muses is also available.

2009-02-25 admin
Vidding ,
  1. juniperphoenix commented: Eeeeeee! I just heard it. Everyone who was interviewed did a great job. And wow, it's kinda trippy to hear you guys on the radio. :)
  2. brindel commented: Yay! I just heard it as well! I was mildly afeared as to what the 'tone' of the piece would be at first, but after listening to the whole thing, I was very pleasantly suprised at the even-handed and almost... respectful? way the segment portrayed Vidders. Props to everyone involved!!
  3. Ninette commented: I just heard this a couple hours ago while running errands and it was FABULOUS. Completely ~squee~ worthy. I had to call all my fandom friends and talk excitedly as expected. So I have passed the word on, or at least to my little corner of fandom. Great interviews and a very well done piece. Thanks for your contribution to this segment.
  4. Jadey commented: You know, as heartening as it always is to see thoughtful coverage of this beautiful creative tradition, I can't help but notice how the CSI:NY vidder was referred to as a "he", even though by following the link I see that she was, as probability led me to expect, a woman vidder (Nicole). Given that this is the first gendered pronoun of the article and interview to be used, and how important the gender tradition of fan creation is to the struggle to legitimate women's creative ventures (for me, at least), I am disappointed. Although women are exclusively present throughout the rest of the article, and the gender composition of "a" (not "the") vidding community is described as female-oriented, the negation of the first referenced vidders gender fails to clearly establish for the uninitiated that women and the feminist perspective are not marginal in vidding culture. While many of the quotes from the fans directly reference women's role, I felt like the reporter consistent use of "gender neutral" (so unmarked "universal" male) terminology throughout the article and interview failed to support what the fans were talking about when they said "women". I don't know. Am I being nit-picky? I found the reporter very respectful and genuinely sincere in her interest in vidding culture. It's just that automatic use of "he" and the failure to contextualize vidding and gender that left me wanting more from this. Also, it just seems unfair to the CSI:NY vidder to misrepresent her gender, although I have no idea if she would mind. That being said, I loved to hear (and read) the vidders speak. Lim's "Us" makes me choke up every time I watch it (which is about once a week, lately). I'm so glad it was included in this article.
    • elizabethyalkut commented: No, I'm totally with you on this; you're not being nitpicky. I'd have liked to see even a small acknowledgement that it's a female artistic community, by and large, which makes it all the more interesting, in that it's women engaging with commercial interests and remaking them. Plus, basic accuracy would demand that Nicole's gender be acknowledged. So, basically: what you said. Including how awesome it is to hear these smart, powerful, artistic women speak about what they love.
    • fcoppa commented: I thought it was strange, too, that they started with a man, though I admit to not doing the follow-up to find out it was actually a woman. We weren't the only one to notice, either; Bob Rehak, in his blog, said: "I did tense up when the reporter Neda Ulaby used male pronouns to refer to one CSI vidder — “the vidder wants to say something about the dangers faced by cops on the show, and he’s saying it by cutting existing scenes together” — thinking it surely incorrect, since the vidding community is dominantly female." It's even funnier that she got it wrong, if that's true.
    • Laura Shapiro commented: I don't disagree that that first use of "he" is problematic, but I don't at all have a problem with the use of "a vidding community" rather than "the vidding community". It is just plain not true anymore that there is only one vidding community -- I can think of half a dozen different communities myself, some with 10-year-old roots -- and that doesn't include the explosion of YouTube vidders. While I suspect that most vidders are still women, I don't think it's wrong to indicate that Francesca Coppa, as she was introduced, is part of "a vidding community that is dominated by women" or whatever the direct quote was. Arguably more attention could/should have been paid to the genesis of that particular community, when it was indeed the only one, and when it was indeed only women. But as reported I felt that the description was accurate.
      • Jadey commented: You know, I agree with that. Following on the heels of the mismatched pronoun, it contributed to my dissatisfaction, but looking at it on its own I don't find it problematic. I think it's valid that there are many vidding communities and that's also important to acknowledge that diversity as well.
    • lian commented: I had the same visceral reaction to the 'he' -- I loved the article, but there's the whole problem in a nutshell, no? It really diffused the message for me. ETA: referring to the article only, I can't access & listen to the actual piece, sadly.
      • fcoppa commented: Re: the actual piece; did you try clearing cookies? There's instructions on the player if it keeps buffering and won't play for you...
        • lian commented: Thank you, but that doesn't seem to be it -- it's probably because my browser has weird anti-script and anti-flash options enabled, so I may need to dig around those some more.
          • elizabethyalkut commented: I had that issue, too, lian, and solved it by....switching computers. My bet would be the flashblocking stuff, since I allow scripts to run but try to kill flash as often as possible.
          • lian commented: hah, I finally got it to work! by switching to my older, unsecured browser, so basically the same solution :) Thank you!