Fox News Must Love the Abramsverse
Okay, I’m obviously being cheeky here but one look at this video detailing what Fox News is doing in the USA certainly makes me think of the bridge of the USS Enterprise ala J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot minus the copious amounts of lens flares blossoming all over the screen.
I’m not going to be political at all here and just state that this seems to be one crazy idea by Fox News to basically re-invent the way news is presented to the mainstream audience. As most people might know, technology is quickly changing the way news is consumed as the days have long since passed of waiting till prime time for one news anchor to basically regurgitate the day’s events in a nightly broadcast. With the advent of the Internet, news is now almost instant and can be accessed virtually anywhere on the planet.
With the rise of social channels like Facebook and Twitter it makes it all the more difficult for traditional news outlets to maintain ratings without adapting to the changing times. There really is no such thing anymore as the traditional news cycle that revolved around prime time news programs as breaking news is consumed virtually instantly.
Looking at this video one can’t help but be awed by what they have done but also stifle laughter as the concept seems truly bizarre. I give them props for trying something different and attempting to at least answer the question as to how traditional news outlets present themselves to a modern audience but only time will tell if this particular setup resonates with viewers. At best this new setup ushers in a ton of copycat imitators and at worst it is nothing more than an expensive gimmick.
As for myself I can’t help thinking that the excessive white space, bluish-tinge glowing stairs and the proliferation of screens screams J.J. Abrams’ version of the Enterprise and I almost expect Chris Pine to be sitting in the center seat somewhere. That 38-foot screen might as well be the damned Enterprise viewscreen.
Still, allusions to the new Trek aside, I really wonder what the staff thinks about working on those enormous 55-inch touchscreen monitors. Wouldn’t a mouse and keyboard be more practical rather than forcing the staff to move their arms around like they are pretending to be Tom Cruise from Minority Report? I can certainly see both a mouse and keyboard at each desk but hopefully the producer in charge doesn’t force everyone to wave their arms for the sake of looking “cool.”
Still, being a Microsoft kind of guy, I can’t help but notice that everything is running Windows 8 and though I can’t confirm it, those giant tablets look to me like they are using Microsoft’s PPI tech which they obtained by buying Perceptive Pixel back in 2012. Hmmm those 55-inch screens retail for over $7000 per pop.
© 2013 The Galactic Pillow
Fox News & Their News Deck
The Galactic Pillow 
It looks cool. I see a keyboard and a mouse near one of the big touch screens, maybe they can still navigate with the mouse.
I think 55 inch is a tad too big to navigate with hand swiping motion. Wouldn’t it cause nausea when there’s too much movement on the screen though?
Personally, I will get distracted with so much info on one screen all at once. But I guess that’s what the news specialists need to do, process lots of information at one glance.
Let’s see if Fox News will be better than the rest of its competitors. 🙂