Curious Fish

Over the past few days, I’ve finally been able to watch the highly-acclaimed HBO show “The Wire“. And, thankfully, it’s worth the hype. It is a well-written series on the complexities of crime and authority in Baltimore. Of course, I have no idea what it is like to be a cop in an American city or a black guy in the projects, but this show makes its characters seem like real people, with real jobs, real wives (and divorces), messy lives, messed-up careers and complex personalities. The show has an amazing freshness and attention to detail that other cop/gang shows on US networks completely lack. And it’s also un-flashy: there is no dizzying editing (a la 24), no star power, no nonsense.

And yesterday, while watching one of the show’s episodes, I thought of something: in a world where advertising and ratings force homogenization in the mainstream media, there’s an alternative. And that alternative is the HBO model. And, in my view (or rather, as far as I am concerned), the key to HBO’s success is its subscriber-based service, which allows it to escape from the restrictions of a standard media business.

And this makes me draw a parallel between HBO and Peshku pa Uje (Fish out of water). (For those not in the know, Peshku pa uje is an Albanian community website I co-run.) Basically, my thinking for the past few months has been this: Peshku pa Uje can and should adopt the HBO subscriber model. The conditions for it are pretty much perfect: on the one hand, Albanian media outlets are deeply constrained by their own business and political interests while on the other hand, Internet access at home is growing and the Internet itself is growing in the sense that audio and video content is now commonplace. In other words, the Internet is the right place for a creative medium, and the Albanian media market badly needs a creative medium.

To me, this means that Peshku pa Uje has an amazing potential to become this creative, independent medium for Albanians on the web. Right now, it’s a great community, but the original content it delivers is limited. A small budget from a membership base would open up new avenues for creativity and innovation. It would make us more relevant at home, and more accessible to more people. But more importantly, it would make us important enough to change the way the rest of the Albanian media operates.

You could say I’m dreaming. But you could also say I’m not dreaming enough.