Yesterday afternoon, my communications professor in my Media and Society class proposed this idea to begin class (daily regular debate to get our neurotransmitters cooking) which eventually ended on the exact same note... we dicussed the following situation for approximately 1 hour and 45minutes:
The Scenario - Basically there was an all-night restaurant noted for its eclectic greasy food. The restuarant is apparently a hangout for cops, pimps, hookers, drug dealers, and college sutdents. A local cable television producer wants to mount a T.V. camera atop a metal pole across the street from the all-night restaurant. If I remember correctly, the camera is within a steel case with bullet-proof glass protecting the lens (don't ask) and it will aim down at the sidewalk immediately below it. The camera will not be aimed at the restaurant or its patrons. So, moving along, my professor then spiced it up a bit by adding a "yellow box" painted on the sidewalk. There is a sign on the pole that says "Do not step inside the yellow box if you do not want to be on live TV." And there is also a microphone that hangs on the pole to pick up audio from the street. The producers idea is to turn on the camera at 2:00am each night and televise, unedited, whatever happens on the street. The camera would be turned off at 4:00am.
Coming back together now, we were told to make groups of 5+ individuals and identify 4 constitiuencies who could conceivably have a position on whether or not this proposal is a good idea, take a position on what we thought might happen under this proposal, identify 3 stakeholders who may have positions opposing our own positions, list arguments to rebut these potential opposing positions, etc... (Of course there is no right or wrong answer, he informed us) Duh!!
I would really like to know your take on this. Is it a good idea? Do you think there is really anything to gain from something so odd?
