Byline: Tokyo
Is there an interaction between media and public behavior? The answer is “sure.”
We have a great new example here in Tokyo. Nearly everyone seems to have a 3G camera phone. 3G is the high bandwidth communications standard; it allows phones to send data in megabytes per second. The 3G camera sends streaming video. This means that every crowd is loaded with portable mini-video cams broadcasting to the world.
I’ve seen two dramatic street scenes. One was on a crowded narrow street in Shimokitazawa, a college area, where a loud, rowdy, raucous gang of about twelve people were marching with wild costumes and a noisy chaotic band of the type used to promote circuses a century ago. The group was promoting the opening of a theatrical performance. The parade was broadcast to thousands, maybe tens of thousands, via all the camera phones held by gawkers along the route. Great contemporary publicity and promotion.
I saw the same thing in Shinjuku. Two guys with red hair and clown clothes on unicycles riding through the crowd promoting something in Japanese I couldn’t read. They were covered by the hundred camera eyes in the crowd.
The new medium: public video cameras on phones broadcasting via websites. The new medium has created a new public promotional behavior. Street theatre is back, in Tokyo, in a big way.