Journalism Enterprise.com

Gnooze

January 15th, 2008

Rating:
What do they say it is?

Gnooze describes itself as: “The day’s news, with funny voices, in about two minutes. Featuring Marta Costello, produced by Amazing Cosbars”

What do I say it is?

A daily news show with a difference.

Meet Marta Costello. She’s blonde, pretty and opinionated. She’s also strikingly intelligent, rip-roaringly funny and a measured professional. Her show tackles the big news stories of the past 24 hours. ‘Tackles’ being the best word there: Marta goes from a calm, factual narrative to shouting and screaming her opinions at the camera.

Most stories follow the format of roughly 10 seconds or so of news-y detail, and then satirical role play that often start with the phrase: “So Bush was all like, y’know, whatever…!”

What’s great about it?

It has two great attractions. One being the obvious appeal of the stunning Marta who, you’ll soon realise, has quite a following of entranced male fans. Two being the extraordinary way in which the news is portrayed. Marta piles fact after fact on the viewer, and then puts it in a language that can not only be understood by everyone, but also laughed at too. It’s infectious.

Adding to its greatness is Marta’s video blogs. In these, she defends her editorial decisions – if you can call them that – with surprising integrity. Her recent thoughts about comments made by Hillary Clinton were particularly interesting and blissfully well put.

What could be better?

I hope that as Gnooze blossoms it may make its way to its own fully-formed news site, or maybe even a television show. I can imagine people watching this. Think Newsround but for late teens and without all the horrible patronising.

If Marta can get some more presenters on board and produce regular coverage of the same quality, we could have a youth-media revolution on our hands.

How is it going to make money?

Adverts, adverts, adverts. Gnooze is screaming out to be picked up by a television network. Something like ‘MTV Gnooze’ has a certain inevitable ring to it. It certainly wouldn’t be out of place on a channel like E4 either. The program’s almost cult-like quality will stand it in good stead.

Should I pay it any attention?

Absolutely. Not only because it can only grow and grow, but also because it’s rather, well, fun. It’s a nice break to hear some brash, opinionated American sound off about huge global news stories. It becomes even more enjoyable when you realise that somehow, in amongst the arm-waving and the face-pulling, Gnooze provides some of the most truthful, to-the-point journalism I’ve seen for quite some time.

A triumph in every sense of the word.

by Dave Lee

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Entry Filed under: Citizen journalism, Journalism enterprise, blogs, video