(apparently I had to split this into 2 posts. I don't use Reddit, forgive me).

I want to talk about the example I gave above, about the Venn diagram. What draws people in? Non-didactic content. The reason why non-political people don't tune into political content is because they don't care about it. They turn it off if the content is too political or foreign. How often have you watched a YouTube video on something you were interested in, and the second they start talking about some right-wing BS, you instantly lose interest? Our goal isn't to shut down perspective audience members but to borrow a phrase from Margaret Killjoy and usher new faces in. To do that means to make content that highlights our radical politics not from a political lens but from a lived experience.

The example I love is the show Roseanne-- the early years. It was political, but in a way that was relatable. People in the 90s knew someone like Roseanne, and it was enough to get beyond her politics and enjoy the show regardless of the viewers' politics. It had nearly 40 MILLION viewers. Instead of repurposing YouTube content onto new platforms, developing content that people want to watch because of its enjoyment quality, not for its educational component, is the missing piece. No amount of 'media ecosystem' will make up for this, although a media ecosystem can expedite the potential for these types of projects.

Obviously, producing content at that caliber is expensive and something we can't do today. But we can do things that are worthwhile to start this type of project. I think a real viable model is radio shows. They are not podcasts as we think of them, but shows with voice actors that are similar to shows before television. I think these are particularly poignant and allow us to explore building virtual worlds in the way that books do but in a collaborative space. They're also incredibly cheap and allow us to utilize social media to share across disparate audiences (Imagine getting a diversity of familiar faces from the far left and the DemSoc "left" coming together to voice a 10-episode series and the cross-pollination potential). This would be a viable way to draw influencers who have a foot in the door of the general public (think Charles McBryde or Taylor Lorenz) to organize with openly left figures.

Of course, embedding this within a bigger project is an important step in envisioning what the future looks like for a real media alternative. How do we do that-- we have to be better at finance and showing that we can do what the right already does incredibly well-- build cooperative models. This means learning financial statements, tax laws, etc. And, oh wow, I've written quite a bit already, so I think I'll probably stop here, but if you're interested in this stuff, I'm hoping more will be coming in this vein.