I have to admit, I'd never thought about the art of performance in media in quite this way.  

While visiting community radio stations in South Carolina, I decided to preview the radio station before arriving.  The on-air personality was doing a break between songs, and yet he kept talking and talking and talking and talking.  And, it was done with music playing underneath his voice. Normally, unless you are delivering information considered vital to your community, most over-the-air personalities would never be given license to just keep going like that.

My colleague, who was with me at the time, said when it comes to the distribution and sharing of information through an individual (and in this context, a radio DJ) you either have an "eco-system" or you have an "ego-system."  

The eco-system in this case is delivering information for others to consume and then pass along.  It's factual and delivered in a way that evokes some kind of seriousness, or at the very least is designed for one person to help another.  An ego-system is not about the distribution of facts.  It's about an individual, how they are branding themselves through a performance, which takes precedent over anything that person is saying.  What I heard that morning was an ego-system in full effect.

Which one do you have?

doug@knowledgewebb.net

*Chantal de la Rionda edits this blog