It's all about delivery

Jim Watson stopped by Algonquin College last Wednesday to discuss his policies and to hear what some of the eager learners of a Local Government class had to say. Although he did have an answer ready for every question, they were too long and lacked direction.

Watson was the third candidate to visit the school within the past month, and the first to show up with a media team. He walked in with his assistant, a CBC News crew, an A Channel news crew and Joanne Chianello, a reporter from the Ottawa Citizen. He introduced himself, talked about his past political experience and then moved on to a question period.

One student asked what would happen to the city wards if the number of city councillors was brought down from 23 to 17. Watson started off: “We have one of the largest city councils per capita apart from Montreal [...]” and eventually concluded that he plans to expand the wards that are excluded, should the adjustment in number of city councillors ever take place. It took him about five minutes to answer a simple question.

In the end, his idea is a practical alternative for Ottawa. It would save money within the municipal government and would lead to more effective decision-making at city council meetings, but the way he trails off and recites everything he knows related to the topic of the question causes his listeners to lose interest. Jim Watson knows what he’s talking about, he just doesn’t know how to talk about it.

Art and Media: The Perfect Team

As of late, art and media have established more common points and relative aspects than most people think. Surprisingly, they are supported and committed to and by each other. 

The 21st century has arrived and both art and media each have their own specific problems that are preventing them from reaching important objectives. Art's main dilemma, for one, is promoting, advertising and spreading their work within the community of buyers. As for media, they are constantly looking for an interesting subject or story to promote, advertise and spread within communities. Are you sensing a pattern? Since artists have such captivating work to put on display and the media can provide all means of communication, there is potential for the creation of the perfect team. Conditionally, the art must remain stimulating enough to conduct an audience and the media must think of creative methods to present the art without stripping it of its quality, expression, beauty, appeal and significance. In other words, unique advertising and unique selling methods must be used in order to sell a unique piece of art. As soon as any aspect becomes dull or exciting, the remainder of the process is derailed and the piece is unlikely to sell.

Furthermore, there is an additional base that art and media can build for one another. Art's diversity and sense of inspiration can help influence media's style. Developing the media's style is comparable to teaching a man to fish rather than giving him one-it will be useful to them on multiple occasions in the future. Together, they must establish an approach that will be remembered and that is anything but typical. Media's long list of connections and experience in this field can help a particular artist build him or herself a social network. This is also a helpful move that could last an artist his or her whole career. Moreover, any social network will continue to grow and cannot easily lessen in size. 

In conclusion, art and media are nothing without each other. Art is the intrigue media needs, media is the driving vehicle for artists to reach success. They are fundamental elements for each other's chance at savviness and prosperity.