Millennialise The Way We Televise!

There's one great thing about all of this talk about the much-desired Millennial workforce and that is, that I am one!

theodysseyonline.com

Born in 1992, I am supposedly among the 30% of millennials who declare themselves to have no religion. We have on average, the highest number of Facebook friends and send a median of 50 texts a day. We are selfie-taking, sexting, self-promoting and self-sufficient bright young things - we are human version 2.0... and everybody wants us - or so they say.

I LOVE working in Television, as it means that all of my Millennialist skills are called upon every day in a fast-moving and content-hungry industry that stimulates and satisfies me.

The bad thing, is that TV can't help but wrap itself into a hedgehog shaped ball when someone mentions Netflix or the word 'multi-platform'. For most production companies, that just means 'Dorothy throw in a twitter hashtag and be done with it', but it's wayyyy more than that! We Millennials are not only hungry to absorb information, we're hungry to create it. And we do both of those things, tens, sometimes hundreds of times a day. We text, we snapchat, we blog, we vlog, we gram and regram, we Facebook, we tweet and we retweet. Youtube, news updates, TV in the form of video, image, text and live events...the list goes on! I thrive on being thrown into a new job every few months, exploring new places and busying my evenings with a variety of activities to stimulate my body and mind. To some it sounds exhausting, but to me - I live for it. And this seemingly chaotic and exhausting under-web lifestyle informs every aspect of a Millennial's daily existence!

salesforce.com

We are home-grown content-creators and although this might scare longer-serving TV professionals, who schedule boardroom meetings to brainstorm Bake-Off, the synapses of ultra-social Millennials are firing on all cannons as they build their brand and their content, wherever, whenever, and 10 times at once. Millennials and their closest genetic descendants Centennials, no longer enjoy television in the traditional way. TV to us is a World Wide Web of giving and receiving, of content-absorbing and content-creating. It exists in the moments between our chaotic social engagements, during the glimpses at the Metro news in between our tube stops, and the breaths in between the sips of my caramel frapp.

divx.com

We're heading in the right direction, but is it fast enough? On Demand services should now be the norm. We want everything we've ever seen before, and every bit of new content available in a central location - and we want it at a time that suits us, not the schedulers. So digitising archives needs to happen NOW, the development of storage solutions for HUGE amounts of content needs to happen NOW. The hiring of Millennials - needs to happen NOW.

We ourselves are a diverse brand, and we push that brand every single day on social media. We champion individuality, don't like to be defined by traditional terms or binary social systems and naturally immerse ourselves in the world around us both physically and mentally. We absorb, we ideate, we create. It's in our nature. We're adaptable, tolerant of change and welcoming of difference, and we want TV to be too. We're ready and waiting to be asked!

unikaz.asia

Netflix has proven that new and exciting platforms CAN still be 'thunk-up' and we don't need the confidence of a grammatically correct blurb to make it successful (no seriously, Netflix blurbs are awful) - but it's about originality and adaptability - it's about Millennialism. Netflix might be ahead of the game, but there's plenty more to come. We need platforms, we need infrastructure, we need ideas. We need a new auto-updating World Wide Web of Television, with machine learning capabilities and an inter-disciplinary collaborative remit. The multi-talented and multi-tasking Millennials are waiting to immerse themselves in rich cultural experiences and the time has come to work WITH them and deliver the best they've ever had.

So whether you are media professionals, mathematicians, retail reps or stay-at-home parents - the time has come to Millennialise the way we televise!


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Why Working for Free is Never ok...

Like many others in my industry, I have travelled a remarkable amount of milage through the back-alleys of free work - all in the name of progress. But as far as my experience bubble on LinkedIn could tell me I'm an 'All-Star', it quite frankly meant nothing for my bank balance and I even had to resort to the thing that I'd wanted to avoid at all costs, 'state benefits'.

I was upholding a zero-hour contract at a bar to pay my rent, alongside gaining relevant experience within the industry when there were no shifts left to take. I was working all hours of the day to make my mark on the industry and working all hours of the night to make up the money to live in London - and I'd often fall a little short, resorting to housing benefit to make up the difference.

It makes me feel almost ashamed to say that I was on benefits, but I realise now that this isn't my fault. If I was being paid my way, instead of agreeing to free work for companies that have a single production budget larger than my entire life's earnings - I wouldn't have touched them.

I think it is absolutely unacceptable for companies to palm work off on newly trained graduates or entry level professionals and freelancer, and NOT pay them. Does being young and enthusiastic somehow grant professional immunity to rent and bill payments?

At this point I want to encourage a round of applause for 'The Freelancer Club' who have stepped up to tackle the problem head on - despite the shit that comes with it from those grey-haired OxBridge graduates that once ran the business. This time we're stepping up the fight as freelancers are joining forces with grey-haired industry leaders that DO want change and young professionals to pave the way for this NEW, DIVERSE industry that everyone keeps talking about. With the BBC today announcing 5,000 9-week digital traineeships - surely NOW is the time to encourage change in the industry and train up a youth of professionals that will be valued for their talent, irrespective of their background and taught that 'The Only Way Is Pay'.

It comes at a price for the club, 'During the research period alone we've lost business as a direct result of our questioning' but I for one, am backing them all the way and I hope you will too. For all too long have we been silenced by the admins of various Facebook groups who say, 'it's how it was for all of us, so deal with it' or 'how do expect to get anywhere with that attitude?' when we're really not asking much - all we want is TO BE PAID. If this is the attitude we face at the top then it tells you everything you need to know about where the industry we all cherish - is doing things all wrong and is freezing out promising emerging talent with its inability to admit that change is necessary.

So join the movement, join the Freelancer Club and say #NoFreeWork - say that paying expenses only for Producer roles is WRONG and pledge to say that together we really can stop exploiting the talent that could transform the industry we know and love.

https://thefreelancerclub.co.uk/blog/post/no-free-work

https://www.change.org/p/freelancers-employers-stop-posting-and-applying-for-unpaid-freelance-work

MAKE SURE TO TWEET ME YOUR OWN STORIES OF FREE WORK & LET ME KNOW IF YOU PLEDGE!


And here's an interesting article about the argument surrounding internships too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29996607 I'd love to see your tweets about how you feel about this!