“Hey, this is Justin Bieber and you are logged in to MTV.com!”

I have grown up to watching Donita Rose and KC Montero every 4pm during weekdays to MTV Philippines’ Most Wanted. This is a show where KC and Donita reads creative snail-mail letters from viewers requesting the videos they want to see in MTV. Indeed, I had my juvenile formation with MTV. It’s 2011 now and MTV has transformed into something more than it was a decade ago. Since MTV Philippines is not anymore on TV, I shall refer to MTV, as in MTV USA.

As the popularity of the Internet and the World Wide Web rose and social networking sites encouraged people to go online, MTV started going more aggressive online too. Now, it has ever been more online than ever. They too have defied the limits of television.

In general, convergence is the coming together of two or more different entities. It is where the various types of media (e.g. Internet, television, radio and print) combine into one single media. Media convergence is happening today. Everything is becoming a part of everything else. It encourages a participatory culture among—everyone.

The website is far beyond from the early days of the Web 1.0 aka one-way communucation. MTV.com makes it possible for people to share their thoughts and make fellow MTV fanatics come together with the use of their social networking links that’s impossible to ignore. As Dr. Aleks Krotoski would put it (in her speech, The Cult of Me: a primer for broadcasters), “media consumers are graduating to a multiplatform world”. Everyone can participate. Today, everyone wants to have a say in almost everything online. The Internet makes this possible and MTV.com makes them do exactly that. It has forums which you can let out what you have to say. You can easily link your fan-made content to the Facebook site. The user is made the center of the site. Definitely more than what its television counterpart can offer.

The current MTV.com

MTV.com – a place where people can watch missed episodes online; a place where people can watch music videos and listen to music; a place where people can interact and even make friends. MTV.com is convergent. What’s in television, what’s in magazines and what people message each other is all in one website. It’s a platform for an all-around music channel to maximize its features. It’s like all these media platforms have come together as one to bring in something hybrid. You can download episodes, you can request songs and music videos, makes you listen to the radio, you can read articles and you can say what you want—it directs its services to you. You are asked to actively participate (You can go to MTV.com now to experience what I'm talking about). And while you are at it, it offers you more features like, “similar artists” links which gets you to more of what you want. It blurs the distinction of the purposes of the radio, television and print media.

Take a look at the heading links of the website. You can say it’s definitely more than a website. There is so much to do! You can even shop and play online games. Once you click on a particular link, it will give you various choices again. I think they should consider renaming the company already. It’s not just TV anymore. MTVh? As in Music Television Hybrid?

Before we delve into the future of MTV, let’s go back to its humble beginnings around late 1970’s to early 1980sIt’s real purpose was to play music videos with VJs as guides. Through the years, MTV slogans started to stick in the minds of people.

MTV I like. Or I want my MTV.

I will not discuss the long history of MTV but rather focus on its Internet aspect. Isn’t that what’s this is all about? In the later years of 1980, an MTV VJ, Adam Curry, began experimenting with the Internet with Gropher protocol; the WWW wasn’t around at that time yet. He registered MTV.com in 1993. It became the unofficial MTV in the Internet. It served as the home base for all MTV content. There was a time when it used video-based layouts (2005-2007) but there were a lot of negativity and dissatisfaction so they switched back to HTML-based layouts.

Today, the website transformed itself. It includes an online counterpart of MTV News, podcasts and video streaming with advertisements. It also has a Youtube channel via Vevo-- MTV Vevo. In 2008, due to the rapid popularity of the Internet, it made it possible to view thousands of music videos even those dating back in the 1980’s. You can access MTV.com in almost anywhere as long as you are connected to the Internet—mobile phones, computers, iPods, iPads and in other devices.

I think the major issue that could arise here is the ever-raging intellectual property rights and copyrights—all the rights. The question of who owns what always arises. This would bring us to the issue of media sharing and all those nitty-gritty since it’s about music and videos, and its got tons of them, it’s definitely an issue. Even the written articles can cause journalism debacles. However, MTV provides the users the terms and policies to prevent such hassle. But given the characteristics of a liberal and hack-able Internet, such issue would arise.Relevant content would also be an issue here. With a website like MTV, I think “relevance” would be relative. It has been observed that MTV is not anymore “music television” and that it shows mostly trivial and dumb content. Putting MTV online would add insult to injury. The answer to that is that MTV should get “smarter” and the linear-minded many should not stereotype the Internet as dumb.

MTV indeed has transformed. It has innovated itself. I’m just waiting for that time when the mature JBieber welcomes us to the MTV.com page. MTV, I LIKE.

Thanks to:

Articles

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci211837,00.html

http://alekskrotoski.com/post/npox10-the-cult-of-me-a-primer-for-broadcasters

http://www.mtv.com/

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-302

Photos

http://www.paulking.nl/mtvextra.html

http://www.webdesigncool.com/mtv-bumps-vevo-as-top-online-music-destination-igniting-a-web-video-flame-war

http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/09/mtv-vevo-youtube-online-music-video-history/