Media Mecca Purpose ?

[Lonesomebri]

Camped with a member of Media Mecca. He would tell us about some exotic locale he had visited in the past and promoted,
how it is now ruined with too much tourism and outside rot destroying its uniqueness and flavor due to over- promotion,
and where he now considered the next victim/target/destination of choice to be.
...And here he was working with Media Mecca……

Other than enforcing a whole public commercial blackout, why does Media Mecca exist? They say that any news is good news for promotion, but isn’t more promotion the worst thing happening for anyone wanting to attend Burning Man? Media for the event is advertisement, but with the event sold out, isn't that just a way to increase costs all around? Are more glamorous shots needed to increase sales or explain the event to the outside world? Do we need more feather clad photo shoots arranged? Why have professional photographers at all? Why them, but no professional car mechanics or message therapist on playa? Is this one more way for elites to stroke each other while acting enlightened, without actually having any concern at all to how difficult they make it for common people wanting to attend the event?

One moment he claimed that the douche camps out on L had no influence on the rest of the event; one block does not affect another. Then the next moment he claimed that the event as a whole influenced world wide outlooks; only positive effects on a planetary scale are transferable apparently..

[Lonesomebri]

Just checked out a photo spread on the Rolling Stone Magazine website. Of course it's all beautiful people, great weather, the gratuitous full feather costume glorified..... Where the hell is Media Mecca to allow this to happen? Commercial photographers and corporations using the event for their own gain? Oh, I'd bet money that Media Mecca facilitated the commercial transaction. Thanks!!! It's great that even more people now think Burning Man is a music festival full of hardbodies in costumes that they should now go watch out in the gentrified desert. Why is this done? Why is it allowed? All it does is drive up demand for tickets. There is no need to further advertise or seek outside approval for the event. Why the commercial exploitation? Who is responsible? Who is the sell-out?

[Lonesomebri]

Media Mecca needs to set up out in the fortresses on 9 and L with their kindred soulless spirits.

[VultureChow]

Clearly the only solution is for us fat, old and ugly people to assign ourselves as a media handler to each photographer and voluntarily "enhance" all of their photos.

[Lonesomebri]

If ever there was a time for the lowly shirt-cocker, now is the time for him to rise in defense of the community.
Media Mecca should stipulate that all commercial photographers be registered and all commercial photos include at least one shirt-cocker.

[trilobyte]

Like many of your posts, LonesomeBri, it's misguided and off-base and attacks the wrong people.

Media Mecca is the Burning Man communications team's base of operations on the playa. That team includes a lot of things, ranging from ePlaya (it's where I 'work' on the playa) to the Burning Blog to Jack Rabbit Speaks to the various twitter accounts (including the @BManTraffic feed), news/press releases, interactions with the media and registered media projects. By having a centralized place for the journos and projects to check in and get support, Burning Man is able to do a MUCH better job wrangling those organizations and keeping them from running completely amok.

Remember that really horrible champagne company that did that really lame photoshoot in 2011 for that horrible magazine that made most burners cringe? That's a perfect example of what happens when the media isn't working with the communications team and Media Mecca. The MM team does a great job of not only providing various outlets with support and background info, but also helps them with acculturation, and makes sure they're dotting their i's and crossing their t's when it comes to getting permission, and doing their best to help make sure the right stories get told.

Some of the Media Mecca volunteers may be a little flaky or have stars in their eyes or have silly visions of it being some kind of path to superstardom, but the majority of people I've been working with over the years have been pretty awesome people who work hard to try and help Burning Man get treated a little more fairly in the media. A lot of times it seems the event doesn't, but compared to what it was 10 years ago I think they've made a HUGE and MASSIVE difference.

Aside from being proud to be a part of the communications team and to have a place where I can try and occasionally check in on the site, I'm personally eternally grateful that there's a place for the media outlets/projects to check in. I don't want the media running around unchecked, and I don't want there to be a total communications breakdown when it comes to getting out important information about traffic, gate closures, or unfortunate incidents like the tragic death at this year's event.

On a side note, I also really dug their art. Zac and the team spent a lot of time this summer designing and creating a great caravansary-themed frontage - it was a nice improvement on the old one (which had been the same for a few years running). Kudos to any and all of the department camps who not only work year-round and all through the event, but take the time to make and create new art.

[Jovankat]

While my position on this falls somewhere between LonesomeBri and Trilo I would really like to see more body shapes represented in Burning Man media coverage, not just for the event's sake but for society at large (Ha!). I know there are a few body positive projects on playa and I wish I'd managed to check them out this year. And VultureChow if anything like that happens I'll volunteer with you!

[Lonesomebri]

Like many of your posts, LonesomeBri, it's misguided and off-base and attacks the wrong people.

Well, until someone better informed comes in and attacks the right people, it's all we got.
Or, maybe the Plug and Play/DJ/Rolling Stone articles can be blamed on me?
And I'd like the OUTSIDE media to be more checked.

[Jovankat]

Oops wrong button...

[Lonesomebri]

[media]

[maladroit]

Photographers gonna photograph pretty stuff.

I drew a shark on the side of my hexayurt this year, but those shallow photographers didn't take even one picture of it...instead flocking to take low-angle photos of art cars emerging from dust with a goggled exotic beauty in the foreground looking off into the sunset. It's total bullshit!

[tamarakay]

I'm with trilo on this one. All the points. Rants wear me down.

[Eric]

Like many of your posts, LonesomeBri, it's misguided and off-base and attacks the wrong people.

Well, until someone better informed comes in and attacks the right people, it's all we got.
Or, maybe the Plug and Play/DJ/Rolling Stone articles can be blamed on me?

Yep - you certainly can't blame it on the people writing the articles, the photographers taking the pictures, or the publishers that publish them. It's obviously got to be the fault of a Burning Man department that the version of the event you want to be seen isn't being reported by the media...

Unless someone started attending the event before the first Wired article in 1996, the "mainstream press" has been part of this as long as any of us (and way longer than most). Honest question: how did you personally find out about Burning Man? If it was any way other than a friend personally telling you about it - not via social media - then you are one of the "too many people" finding out about it via the press. I didn't start attending until 2003, I'm one of those "too many" as well.

[theCryptofishist]

Ha! I got a Christmas card from Peter Doty of Christmas Camp. I asked his roommate and she gave me some strange explanation.

Of course there was that press article about someone being run over, too...

[Doctor VonBacon]

I worked for more than a few years as a media handler (called a 'flack' or 'spox') for a large government entity. (But never for BM) In that time I learned a few things:

1 - They (The "professional" media) are going to get things wrong. LOTS of things. Sometimes they will get more things wrong than right. However, the amount of things gotten wrong can (usually) be reduced by having the flack spoon feed them the info that they are looking for. This can all be negated when the author/reporter/whatever (derogatory industry slang term : "scribbler" ) sends their article/story to an editor who was NEVER at the event/interview/whatever, who then "fills in" any gaps in the story. How do they fill in these gaps? My best guess is a combination of the Psychic Friends Network, Google, and good old fiction.

2 - Even if the scribbler wrote a truly great piece that "gets it," the questions is going to be asked: Is this story/article/whatever going to sell? Management is going to go with the story that sells magazines/newspapers/whatever. That story is, 99% of the time SEX. This is also why all the pictures are of young hotties, and not of beer bellied middle aged guys.

3 - I have met a handful of excellent reporters/ investigative journalists/ authors. The real deal. I am proud to call some of them my friends. However most of the people in the industry are from the polar opposite of the spectrum. Lazy. Stupid. Lazy AND stupid. Talking to them can become physically and mentally painful. Also, there is very little money to be made for most of the professional media. This has further degraded the applicant pool and the profession as a whole. I am also of the opinion that Journalism school ("J-School") kills off any common sense and functional brain cells that someone may have had. None of the top-notch people I met had gone to J-School.

4 - TV News is a vast wasteland. Does not even deserve to be considered journalism. TV people are to the scribblers what the Girl Scouts are to Delta Force. Seriously.

5- Being a flack is a full time job. 24/7. Things need to be clarified constantly, you have to hold the scribblers hands to minimize fuck ups. Editors must be threatened with bodily harm. I stopped doing it when I was making decent money, because it got really annoying. I can't imagine putting up with that level of aggravation as a volunteer.

So to sum up the above rant: You need media mecca, BM might need more Flacks, but they need to be people who know the business. and they need to be accessible full time for weeks before and after the event.

If you don't have media mecca, you might as well change the name of the event from "Burning Man" to "Super-Deluxe Electric Desert Rave" because that is what it will be known for. (I know, we're getting close to that now)


Sorry for the post. I'm tired. I should probably just delete it, but I'm having my own lapse in judgement.

[theCryptofishist]

I think it was a fantastic post. A super-quick intro to those of us who haven't been there.

I should have know that stupid was a major factor...

[Lonesomebri]

Honest question: how did you personally find out about Burning Man? If it was any way other than a friend personally telling you about it - not via social media - then you are one of the "too many people" finding out about it via the press. I didn't start attending until 2003, I'm one of those "too many" as well.

I am glad for being informed about what Media Mecca does.

I read about the cacophony society in alternative press back god knows when. Then I went out and graffiti arted some stuff with political messages. Then one day while camping under an old Cottonwood with my girlfriend on some hills overlooking Black Rock Desert, we spotted some folks setting up fences out in the barrens.... Is this one of those, unless you are pure of heart, you may not express an opinion? Like, if I wear leather shoes I can't complain about clearcuts or whaling? Is history and events static? Does this mean that if you were one of the people shooting off guns at a past event, you get to do so now, or has anything changed? Sorry about the rants and forcing others to read them. Do rants against my rants count as rants? Anyhow, all the love. See you in the dusty trenches.

[vargaso]

"How did you find out about Burning Man?" is a fun topic. For me, I read about a Survival Research Labs (SRL) show in Thrasher Magazine (does that count as mainstream media?) in the late 80s, got interested in that and then heard about something going on out in the desert. Then saw a homemade video of the '93 burn that a friend was writing about for our little 'zine (remember those?). Didn't actually attend until 2007, though, on account of raising kids and going to school etc etc...

As for Media Mecca, I think wrangling the professional media is their most important role. The pro media is gonna be out there, and they're gonna document the event, so having the MM acculturate them as much as possible can only help. Of course, being the media and needed to sell advertising, they're gonna look for the hardbodies and the big art.

[kiboy]

While my position on this falls somewhere between LonesomeBri and Trilo I would really like to see more body shapes represented in Burning Man media coverage, not just for the event's sake but for society at large (Ha!).

Absofuckinglutely!

[Lonesomebri]

I want to apologize to the folks at Media Mecca, the ones who deserve my apology. I was baiting trying to catch some good return on what Media Mecca does, and sees itself doing. The BRC newspapers are beyond great, I love them. I’m ashamed that any of my critism could be seen as a slight against them. Thank you to all who make the BRC newspapers possible…and the radio stations It never occurred to me that they would so obviously fall under Media Mecca, as I had only considered the outside media, outside commercial interests, professional photographers and internal photo restrictions/allowances. It’s necessary to have some part of the org take care of professional photographers, commercialization of the product, and external voyeurism.

What bothered me was that I know there are these restrictions in place on professional photographers and using the Burning Man image, yet I see all these photoshoots in commercial places advertising Burning Man and driving up the demand for tickets. Half the photos show feathers or ravers or costumes, and yet, alert the media, the event is more about camping in the desert. So the city ends up with more feathers, because that is what the media has advertised. It bothers me that restrictions are in place on commercial media yet this is the result. Hell, feathers were not allowed for us commoners, then the org allows some photoshoot of feathers, there is widespread outrage, so the org drops the feather restrictions. The fix is totally in. This year wasn’t as bad, but at Critical Tits the most pervy shots are done with the biggest lens, and they all have approved stickers on them.

As with the Plug and Plays, I worry that the org is using the media to increase ticket demand, bring in higher paying clients, and make a buck. Oh, but accuse me of just being upset that the media doesn’t cover what I want… One more struggle that I am happy to be on the misguided side. “Create public opinion,” quoting my favorite graffiti. Then I had the opportunity to listen to a person involved with Media Mecca talk and talk and talk. As said, they bragged about where they had gone, how now it was ruined because too many outsiders went there, and then bragged about where to go next, as I felt that very attitude leaching into the playa. Time changes everything, and with the city’s growth, there is no reason to advertise about it anymore or try to explain to the outside world anything thru more feather photo-shoots.

In conclusion, I love the newspapers in BRC covering events in BRC for the citizens of BRC, and am not worthy to besmirch the folks creating those. I feel that the restrictions on commercial media is great. And as long as there is a procedure in place to force Krug to dot the i and dash the t, dictating in the city how they must behave, how about putting that in place on Rolling Stone feather shoots? This has nothing to do with how I heard about the Burn, or me not understanding that restrictions have to be placed on Krug.

[Eric]

I want to apologize to the folks at Media Mecca, the ones who deserve my apology. I was baiting trying to catch some good return on what Media Mecca does, and sees itself doing. The BRC newspapers are beyond great, I love them. I’m ashamed that any of my critism could be seen as a slight against them. Thank you to all who make the BRC newspapers possible…and the radio stations It never occurred to me that they would so obviously fall under Media Mecca {snip]

Actually, as the assistant editor for one of those papers (BRC Weekly), I can assure you that we barely fall under Media Mecca, and have existed (in our original, Piss Clear version) long before they did. We can access Media Mecca just like the outside journalists, but we are definitely not part of the department (nor is the Beacon, as far as I know - I'm not sure about BMIR). We are independent media - which was obvious with the amount of times we pissed off the Org as Piss Clear. We've mellowed with age.

However, as a mod on this board I am a technically a volunteer for the Communications Team, which also runs Media Mecca, even though we hardly ever have direct dealings with them.

[^Rhino!]

Actually, as the assistant editor for one of those papers (BRC Weekly), I can assure you that we barely fall under Media Mecca, and have existed (in our original, Piss Clear version) long before they did. We can access Media Mecca just like the outside journalists, but we are definitely not part of the department (nor is the Beacon, as far as I know - I'm not sure about BMIR). We are independent media - which was obvious with the amount of times we pissed off the Org as Piss Clear. We've mellowed with age.

However, as a mod on this board I am a technically a volunteer for the Communications Team, which also runs Media Mecca, even though we hardly ever have direct dealings with them.

You're right, Eric, the Black Rock Beacon is not part of the media department. We're one of the outgrowths of the old org-sponsored Black Rock Gazette, now entirely funded by the participants. We're proud of the journalism that we do on-playa, and produced three editions during the event, and one before so it would be ready for the beginning.

[Just_Joe]

Then I had the opportunity to listen to a person involved with Media Mecca talk and talk and talk. As said, they bragged about where they had gone, how now it was ruined because too many outsiders went there, and then bragged about where to go next, as I felt that very attitude leaching into the playa. Time changes everything, and with the city’s growth, there is no reason to advertise about it anymore or try to explain to the outside world anything thru more feather photo-shoots.

My take? He wasn't "involved" with Media Mecca other than the fact that he registered himself and camera there so he could shoot for possible publication. FWIW, I was impressed that upon arriving too late in the day to check in to MM, he put his camera away until the next morning when he was registered. He is working on a book. Not about Burning Man but about human interaction. I just checked his website. He has three photos out of hundreds that are from Burning Man, and doesn't even us the name in the captions, just "Desert Impressions" or something like that.

I don't know the answers to the city's growth or why there are too many feathers, but if photo coverage is helping to muck it up, be careful casting those stones.