The Genomic Revolution Is Now

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First there was the industrial revolution. Then there was the information revolution. Now, says Cartoon Network president Christina Miller, we must prepare for the creativity revolution. It's an imperative both for individuals looking for their place in the new economy, and for companies creating products for new generations—digital natives who expect a seamless experience of digital products. That's an intimidating demand if you're not a digital native yourself, so Miller suggests that companies actively listen to their audience, and even turn to them for fresh ideas.

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CHRISTINA MILLER

Christina Miller is president for Turner’s Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang where she is responsible for leading all aspects of the business in North America. Her role includes global oversight of linear and non-linear content, the consumer products group and franchise management, as well as content output from two animation production facilities—Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, CA, and Williams Street Studios in Atlanta.

Prior to her current new role, Miller was general manager of NBA Digital and senior vice president of Turner Sports Strategy/Marketing/Programming, where she oversaw the day-to-day operations for the NBA Digital portfolio, which includes NBA TV, the league’s 24-hour digital television network, NBA.com, WNBA.com, NBA League.com, NBA League Pass; and the league’s broadband and wireless businesses. Miller’s duties as senior vice president of Turner Sports Strategy/Marketing/Promotions included managing relationships with league partners, Turner networks and their digital extensions, as well as the strategic planning and scheduling of on-air sports programming and developing marketing programs for the division’s linear and digital properties. Previously, she was senior vice president of Cartoon Network Enterprises (CNE) and directed Turner’s youth and young adults consumer products and home video business in the United States, including global licensing partnerships and merchandising strategies and retail business development for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim properties.

She currently serves on the Boards of Refinery 29, Scratch, Shed and Funny or Die.

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TRANSCRIPT:

CHRISTINA MILLER: So screen time—I think a lot of people do different things on their screens at this point.

So it is a little bit of a traditional point of “Hey, too much screen time is bad for you,” because—at least for people my age you think of that meaning too much TV.

So it’s about there being choice and control of what that screen time is.

So: are you playing games? Are you watching content? Are you creating stuff? Is it a passive experience? Is it an active experience?

When things work best you’re also able to connect the digital to the physical, so I think that there’s a large gray area now between too much screen time.

It just needs to be defined a bit better. Do you mean too much of a passive watching experience, or do you mean the ability to do a lot of different things to be empowered, to create, to be given tools for creative expression, to be problem-solving and collaborative while being entertained?

I think if it’s that latter, you’d find people saying right at the age we serve (which is the generally six plus), that there is I think more good than bad—if in fact it’s an active, immersive experience as opposed to a one-way passive experience.

We call them plurals. We’ve done a lot of generational research as an overall for Turner, and that was the term that I guess we collectively—obviously Time Warner as an organization—had coined very early on before they were called Generation Z, which I think in fairness is a little less descriptive and it just comes from “Hey we were Generation Y, we were Generation X, so you just go down the alphabet.”

But a lot of people have different names, plurals because of the plurality of the way they consume content and everything they do.

If millennials needed lists because they didn’t come of age—truly the information revolution was happening around them and they needed help filters sorting things out—this generation doesn’t.

They are really comfortable with choice and they actually want to control it. And if you don’t move quick enough for them, like Thomas Friedman, Thank You for Being Late, if you don’t move quick enough for them they just move onto the n...

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