David, what is a media transparency channel?

The easiest way to visualize what a transparency does is to think of think of the various ways in which media organizations, journalists, and bloggers reach their audiences.  They do so through channels.  It could be a channel on TV,  a Web site, a blog with an RSS feed on it, or a print publication.  All of these broadcasting techniques are channels that content consumers (audience members) use to tune in to content.  But traditionally, in all cases, the content that's coming through those channels has been pre-digested for audience consumption.  

When you see a 15 minute segment on 60 Minutes for example, the folks at 60 Minutes have probably distilled hundreds of minutes of video into that one short fifteen minute segment.  The same thing goes for what we read in the newspaper, see on the Web, or hear on the radio.  Unless it's a live report, a lot of the raw material that was used to assemble the final piece of work falls on the cutting room floor.  So, when you think about it, for the most part, the channels that we have access to today are reserved for finished products -- content that was polished by editors and writers for consumption by their audiences. 

So, here are my questions?  If we establish channels for the purpose of broadcasting the polished content, why not establish channels for broadcasting unpolished content? In other words, why not give audience members a way to tune into the raw materials just as easily as they can tune into the polished content?  If media organizations and journalists (including bloggers) did this, the result would be a series raw material channels that are parallel to the polished material channels.  I call these raw material channels "media transparency channels."   Transparency is the practice of unobscuring  that which might otherwise be obscured for the benefit of those who deserve to see what's happening behind the scenes.   To the extent that the raw materials that go into a journalist's work are normally obscured from the audience's view, a media transparency channel unobscures those raw materials.