Week 22 - Power and the Media Slideshow and Ideology Notes

Grace Watson

26 August 2021

Media Studies 

Week 22 - Power and the Media Slideshow and Ideology + Narration Notes

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Power and the Media by gracewatson

Ideology by gracewatson

Narratives by gracewatson

Algorithms, information & news by gracewatson

Week 22 - Research and Notes on YouTube

Grace Watson

23 August 2021

Media Studies 

Week 22 - Research and Notes on YouTube

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All from a CNBC video:

How much content is created everyday?

• In one year Youtube had more than a trillion views.
• We, as people, upload more than 500 hours of video every single minute! And over 1 billion hours watched everyday - it’s the worlds second largest search engine as of 2018.
• “If it’s not on YouTube, the video doesn’t exist”.
• “It’s an endless source of entertainment” - whether you need tutorials on how to change a tire to hairstyle videos, it’s your go to.
• Generated $15 billion in revenue in 2019.
• “Your life can change just by hitting upload” - you can become a billionaire with just 1 upload if it hits off!
• Justin Bieber for his start from YouTube! That’s how he “got noticed”. It’s a massive platform! 
• Because people no longer needed “someone else to buy in to their talent in order for it to reach a large audience”.

Who acquired YT and for how much?

• launched in 2005
• Examples of viral videos are the ‘Charli bit my finger’ and ‘David after dentist’ ones.
• Google acquired Facebook for $1.65 billion. 

How was allowing people to monetise channels a major shift in the industry?

• this “gave birth to new careers that didn’t exist”.
• it was one of the very places where you could earn money for creating something in the digital space without setting up an entire business.
• There are creators who are making millions and millions of dollars every month from posting videos - example includes Dude Perfect who literally do fun stunts and get paid millions to do so - 56.6 million subscribers on YT.

How were algorithms used to YTs advantage with subscribers?

• this was one of the main reasons leading to its success!
• Videos were suggested to you based on what you had watched previously and who you’re subscribed to.
• Lead to people basically “never leaving” the app.

Name some of the ways YT has changed and added aspects to their channel to increase audience/subscribers?

• it starting basically offering audiences ad-free content by:
• rolling out paid subscriptions - YouTube Premium, YouTube Music and YouTube TV. It now has over 30 million music and premium paid subscribers.
• partnered with Coachella to livestream the festival for people worldwide.
• Expanded its functionality by making its ads interactive - allowing links to websites where the customer can make the purchase. “Click a button and buy” and your item arrives a few days later.
• Launched YouTube Kids for just kids.
• Rolled out ‘Shorts’ - a short form video app with similar features to TikTok who has been their biggest threat yet recently. It’s an effort from them to make it easier for people to engage with the kind of content they’re interested in.
• YouTube won’t be overtaken though and it’s thaaaat threatened by TikTok because it “has scale that nobody else has”. “Nobody can do today what YouTube can do”. 

Why is content moderation hard for YT?

• “The company has gotten so big that they can’t always keep up with all the content that gets uploaded”.
• Content moderation “has proven to be quite the challenge”.
• People complain either way - when they do delete certain content people complain.
• They’ve tried their best to respond to consumer complaints/concerns about certain topics by banning specific things and really reviewing their policies often. They decided in 2019 to ban any supremist videos.
• in May 2020, Facebook had to pay $52m to content moderators who suffered from PTSD after watching the content they needed to for their job - some content is SO HECTIC it truly affects people.

Fake news:

• People, more than ever before, who are turning to YouTube for their news. There are creators who are seeing this trend and responding to it by creating fake news. YouTube does their best to deal with those fake posts, but doesn’t always get them all.
• So, content there “isn’t always accurate”. 
• It struggled to remove the ‘Plandemic’ virus conspiracy video which contained a lot of false info. about the Covid-19 virus.

YouTube “has the right to terminate videos as they see fit”. They hold the power.

Why’s it an issue of power for YT to ban what it considers ‘misinformation’?

• well it could be seen as an invading of free speech. “a disturbing attack on the ability to think freely” - according to the TV channel’s digital editor. 

How’s it a turning of power tables to have a news company censored by YT?

• News should be unbiased and completely factual - now that it’s under YT, YT can terminate whatever they want too. It’s their right. They can rightfully terminate what they feel is unsafe or harmful. This gives YT the ultimate power to control what people are seeing, and means even the news might be bias.

Any other basic facts:

• YouTube “banned Sky News Australia from uploading new content for a week” for posting misinformation on Covid-19.
• YouTube said it’s content could lead to “real-world harm”.

Week 22 - Power in the Media Essay

Grace Watson

20 August 2021

Media Studies 

Week 22 - Power in the Media Essay

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Question being answered:

"To what extent do people today have the power to represent themselves?"

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In today’s day and age, “he who controls the narrative, holds the power”, which basically means that whoever creates the media ultimately has the power to influence audience ideologies in creating the basis of policies. According to Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory, the media is what gives meaning to reality, and so the producers of the media are able to shape the opinions of audiences through giving “meaning” to reality. That’s how much power these media producers truly hold.

Gerbner’s Cultivation theory describes how when people are constantly bombarded with certain content, it becomes “engraved into your brain”, and therefore becomes their perception of the world as well. One kind of story blends into another to reinforce a distinct view of the world under the Mean World Syndrome Theory, also by Gerber, and has lead to the fear of violence within audiences who watch television. Essentially, the media has grand power of audiences.

However, one could say that as time has progressed, the influence of the media has, in one way, become less dominant as audiences have progressed from being passive to more active participants in what they’re consuming. Unlike in years gone by where they’d accept whatever they saw on television as being fact, they now question and think about what they’re consuming, establishing fan pages to comment on what they’re seeing. Web 2.0 and the proliferation of the internet to being less static and more interactive has enabled these audiences to actually have an increased input on what is created. In this sense, audiences now have increased power in representing themselves. “95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they’re online ‘almost constantly’” - they’re able to vocalise their opinions on a public level with ease - portraying their beliefs and motivations publicly.

An example of this is in the Fandom culture. Fans today hold more power than ever. According to Jenkins’ Fandom Theory, there’s this “participatory culture” in which fans create communities to collaborate and “solve problems” based on the media they’ve consumed and become so passionate about, and like never before, they’re able to take their opinions very seriously and again, to a public level. The fans of the series ‘Stranger Things’ did just that, creating fansites “built around creative but unlicensed reuse of copyrighted material”, hyping each other up. In fact, their support of the series became so intense that an article - Article 13 - was established stating the rights of authorities to “block anything that appears to infringe on copyright”. Fans are able to publish their own thoughts even on how they think actors should look! An example of this being in the case of the Mandalorian where Shamook “was hired by Lucasfilm after he created his own take on a scene from The Mandalorian”. The advancement of technology which enables audiences to even make these technological edits, as well as the means for them to now share them online, have together increased the power of audiences to represent themselves.

Secondly, audiences now also have the ability to create their own media. Regular, everyday people are able to release their own Indi films, and in this sense the dominance of the conglomerates such as Disney and the rest of the Big 5 (Warner Bros., Columbia, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures), which own many subsidiaries such as Fox, ESPN, Disney + etc, is not as severe as it used to be. While these production studios do still take up the majority of ticket sales on Box Office because of their money and advertising power, with films such as Jurassic World grossing over $500million USD on opening weekend alone, Indie films are also receiving substantial support. In this sense, audiences are able to actually carve entire films around their own personal perceptions of reality like never before.

As worldwide movements, such as the Black Lives Matter and the MeToo, have begun to soar, women have increased in their ability to represent themselves fairly. In years gone by, women were represented in both music videos and films in a way described by Lauren Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory - only ever a man’s accessory, looking beautiful but having nothing wise or of value to add other than their looks. Women were often portrayed as being the “backdrop to the more important storyline” usually of a white male. Nowadays though, platforms such as The Hollywood Diversity Report have begun to show up “for diverse films in theatres” for the sake of both women and non-white ethnicities who have experienced such unfair representations in years past. In 2020, 28.8% of films had the highest level of diversity, a 50% increase from 2011. This goes to show that although films are nowhere near where they need to be, they definitely are improving, and over time women and individuals of various cultures are having an improved sense of fairness and ability to be represented and represent themselves justly.

This is similar in music videos as well. In genres such as rap music, women have always historically been “sexualised” and “objectified” - portrayed in very seductive manners, wearing barely any clothing. Nowadays though, some of the most successful rappers and hip hop artists are women, such as Cardi B, who have paved the way for other women and are no longer just the backdrop but rather the main act. A rapper was quoted describing how one shouldn’t feel “like there’s no such thing as gender”.

The fact that some of the movies with the best portrayal of women are those directed by women - such as Ladybird which was “directed and scripted by women” goes to show what a need there is for more equality in all industries because women directors are able to represent women in a manner that is more realistic and healthy for current and future generations to see. Although we’re not 100% there yet, improvement is taking place.

An area where people don’t really have so much power to represent themselves as they wish is in the case of Globalisation and the censorship of the Chinese Government. With a population of roughly 1.4 billion, China is an excellent country for film producers to release their films - massive opportunity for success when it comes to ticket sales. For this reason, most filmmakers are bowing to the Chinese censorship and trying their best to please the Chinese government so their films will be allowed in. An example of where a film did not do this is ‘The Interview’ released in 2014. Contents of the film upset the North Korean government (which has a similar system to China) so much so that they threatened to take action against the United States if the film was released, with a group known as the “Guardians of the Peace” hacking Sony’s computer systems soon after. Now although the film still grossed $40 million on Box Office, it’s numbers could’ve been WAY higher had it pleased the governments of countries such as North Korea and China.

By forming alternate endings in their films to impress China, filmmakers are actually loosing power to represent themselves. They’re representing themselves in such a way that will be pleasing to China, but perhaps not true of them.

People with certain beliefs are being silenced. According to the Agenda-Setting Theory of 1968, "mass media determine the issues that concern the public rather than the public's views". On platform such as Facebook and Instagram with around 2 billion and 1 billion monthly users  respectively, people with opinions that may not fit the most common idea are being blocked or shadowbanned, raising the question of whether free speech is being maintained or not. Explained by the Spiral of Silence Theory, people who hold a minority opinion remain silent to avoid social isolation and the CANCEL culture where people are disregarded on these social media platforms which essentially have “control over what news and information we see” leading to a majorly “polarised society, with extreme viewpoints becoming the norm”. People with differing opinions are being silenced, and so their power to represent and express themselves is being infringed upon. The debate remains: are these social media sites transitions from being platforms for being to express themselves to rather being publications with hidden agendas?

Overall, people have a lot more power today to represent themselves than what they ever had before. This is mainly thanks to Web 2.0 and the proliferation of the Internet where people all over the world have access to the news, to coverage of protests against inequality etc and the means to publicly convey their beliefs and opinions as well.

Week 21 - Power in the Media Notes

Grace Watson

4 August 2021

Media Studies 

Week 21 - Power in the Media Notes

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Media Representation

The stories we tell (the narrative that is re-enforced), the stereotypes we perpetuate, all work together to shape our beliefs about ourselves and group identity. Essentially, "he who controls the narrative, holds the power".

Stuart Hall's Representation Theory:

- describes that what something actually, truly means doesn't actually exist "until it has been represented in the media". The media "literally gives meaning to these events".

"Representation isn't an after occurrence, it's a constitutive one."

 "It has no fixed meaning, no real meaning in the obvious sense, until it has been represented." - Stuart Hall

The mass media has such power of how we, as audiences and society understand and view different matters.

Basically, media producers are having the power to affect how we perceive things.

- but audiences "can reject these ideas if they don't agree with them".

- The media producers are "attempting to fix a meaning for the majority of society" - to maintain dominance and social supremacy. The media depends on the agenda of the person who made the media.

- So, he suggested that audiences "interrogate" a text, who made it and why they made it. "What purpose it serves" and how it "furthers the producers agenda". "Only then can we strive to combat stereotypes that pigeonhole entire social groups and create a sense of otherness or alienation in society".

Stuart Hall also has a RECEPTION THEORY:

- which involves and discusses the dominant, preferred and negotiated readings.

- "the media generally tends to repeat representations of people or groups of people over and over again" and the effect of these repetitions build up over time. So essentially, when audiences constantly see a specific group of people repeatedly being represented as being a certain way, they will most probably may eventually believe it as being the and "accept it as being realistic" - because "its been engraved into your bran". 

- He believes these repeated ideas/representations cultivate our perceptions and change our behaviour over time. They create an idea in society of what is mainstream. 

- The way groups are presented over and over again will eventually become the "dominant ideology in society".

Gerbner's Cultivation Theory:

- suggests that people who are constantly exposed to media for long periods of time are likely to perceive the world as it is presented by the media they're continuously consuming - affecting their attitudes and behaviours. 

- media generally tends to repeat representations of people or groups of people over and over again. The effect of these repetitions build up slowly over time, and begin to influence and "change our perceptions", "cultivate or grow our ideas", and "create an idea in society of what is mainstream". 

- it's like the content becomes "engraved into your brain". 

- what is constantly represented to people/audiences in the media becomes the 'dominant ideology'. 

 (example if a specific group is always, constantly represented negatively - that becomes the dominant ideology).

The mean world syndrome theory by Gerbner

• the whole entire media context matters - how one kind of story blends into another to reinforce a distinct view of the world.
• It essentially discusses/looks at the question of the relationship between television and the fear of violence.

It was found that people who watch television are more likely to fear violence than those who don’t. 

Often the more that people watch violence on television, the more fearful and anxious they become of the world and what could happen to them. 

Violent crime dropped remarkably in 2008. 

The main question asked why the fear of violence is rising when the actual threat of violence is falling.

If we look at how COVID is covered on television, the main message in New Zealand is to “be kind” - yet people are still scared of contracting the virus themselves - panic buying. Those that watch the most news are the most fearful.

This contradicts McLuhan’s theory which states that the medium is more important than the actual media by saying that the more people watch the media, the more and more affected they are.

THE DIVERSITY REPORT

"Audiences showed up for diverse films in theaters, online”.

 

THE HOLLYWOOD DIVERSITY REPORT “tracks how well women and minorities are represented in four key industry employment categories: lead actors, total cast, writers and directors.”

-          It’s the “only study of its kind to incorporate analysis of how top films perform among different racial groups”.

= “All four job categories showed progress in 2020, but women and people of colour are still underrepresented in critical behind-the-camera jobs”.

= “it’s encouraging to see skyrocketing numbers this year in front of the camera” – Darnell Hunt – dean at UCLA.

= Women made up 26% of film writers.

= And 20.5% of directors.

= Minority groups made up 25.4% of directors.

= Only 25.9% of film writers were of colour in 2020.

= Clearly, behind-the-camera roles aren’t looking as diverse, yet progress definitely being made which is something to be proud of!

= In 2020 28.8% of films had the highest level of cast diversity – a 50% increase from 2011’s stats = IMPROVEMENT!

 

According to Ana-Christina Ramon – the report’s co-author and director of research – the report finds that “women directors and director of colour have overwhelmingly diverse productions:, but the problem now is that “these films often have smaller budgets” than those with male and/or white directors.

 

“There is a clear underinvestment of films made by, written by, and led by women and people of colour”.

 

STATS SHOWING SOME IMPROVEMENT:

-          Women made up 47.8% of lead roles in 2020.

 

GREAT STATS/QUOTES:

= “Many of the big blockbuster films planned for 2020 had their release dates pushed to 2021 and beyond” because of the effects of the worldwide pandemic.

= 56% of the top 185 films of 2020 were released via streaming platforms only in response to the worldwide pandemic.

= “The global home and mobile entertainment market increased to a record $68 billion” in 2020 – people watching at home.

= “Latino and Black adults, in particular, consumed online content at higher levels than other groups” during 2020.

 

POWER IN THE FORM OF CENSORSHIP:

Should social media companies and big tech have the right or the power to silence voices on their platforms?

In today’s day and age there’s a controversial discussion regarding whether or not social media companies have the right to silence voices on their platforms. In Jan 2021 Donald Trump and his supporters were silenced by his suspension from both Twitter and Facebook. Individuals who support this suspension believe that social media platforms need to protect the eyes of their users and “stop the spread of misinformation”, while opposes strongly believe that while there’s “no denying that the President has posted information that is far from truthful”, censorship in any form “is unacceptable”. That social media platforms have a “moral and legal responsibility to allow those conversations to transpire”, and whoever disagrees can “simply close the widow and walk away”.

I would agree. While not everything posted online is helpful or truthful, I believe it is the responsibility of every internet user to decide what they agree or disagree with and then be peaceful with their personal decision without having to form riots or online arguments. Censoring what is posted on social media is dangerous as it reinforces certain world views and beliefs and shuns others, almost becoming a form of propaganda, in a sense. We’re giving the producers of media too much power over what we, as the audiences, feel and believe.

In January 2021 Trump was suspended from Twitter and soon after from Facebook as well.

Amazon shut down web servers to Parler because it had attracted a large conservative following.

“President Trump and his supporters have largely been silenced”.

A lot of people actually believe social media platforms “have the right to censor content within their platform(s)” “to stop the spread of misinformation”.

1 in 4 believe there should be MORE censorship on the Internet and 1 in 3 believe there should be LESS.

While there is “no denying that the President has posted information that is far from truthful, the issue is whether that actually warrants his being silenced”.

It’s coming to a point now where the government is being silenced, and Trump’s silencing is an example of this.

There are people who strongly believe that “any form of censorship, any form, is unacceptable,” and that social media platforms have a “moral and legal responsibility to allow those conversations to transpire, organically” – essentially not censor them. If the viewer disagrees, then it’s “their right to simply close the widow and walk away”.

If this silencing had to happen in reverse, people would NOT be happy.

People believe that the act of these social platforms where they “deliberately censor, manipulate, and influence an entire U.S. Election to attain their own personal political objectives is not only criminal, but a form of treason”.

“social platforms have a moral and legal responsibility to deliver that information clearly, organically, and without political censorship”.

According to Pew Research Center, 72% of American adults feel social media platforms have too much power in politics today, most believing that these online sites really don’t need any more political power. Interestingly though, Americans favour “more, not less,” the regulation of these major technology companies. 

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• According to an online source, “stories today that pass as newsworthy differ dramatically from news stories covered by the three major news networks during the 1960s and 1970s” (ABC, NBC, CBS).
• All news outlets are owned or controlled by these six corporations: 

1. Comcast
2. Disney 
3. 21st Century Fox
4. Viacom
5. ATT
6. CBS

These six corporations engage in “yellow journalism” - they use eye-catching headings and sound bites to attract viewers. “Gone are the days of well-researched, factual reporting” which have now been replaced with “scandals and sensationalism”.

There is no diversity in the news since all news outlets are basically owned by the same corporations. 

“ABC News spent more time in one week on the birth of the royal baby than it spent on the climate crisis in the entire year.”

• Essentially, news today is more about making us feel good than telling us the real facts.
• “We need to see the reality of climate change...not the reality TV shows”.

• Noam Chomsky was quoted describing how “He who controls the media controls the mind of the public”. Because these people are able to essentially “manufacture consent”. 
• Malcom X said that media is “the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty more innocent, and that’s power”.
• “they control the minds of the masses”.
• Younger generations “do not visit newsprint or mainstream television news” - they find their news on social media.

Disney owns:

• ESPN, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and Disney + (which has 100 million subscribers).

It owns 67% stake of Hulu, and Comcast owns 33% stake of Hulu.

Comcast owns

• Universal Studios and Sky

Netflix is becoming its own empire, essentially, with 208 million subscribers. 

It’s actually what caused Disney to start Disney +.

In the above video, the presenter discusses how rappers, "producers, artists and musicians alike are progressively beginning to dismantle gender roles and the stereotypical expectations that come with them.” In previous years, being numb to emotions, “hard” and extra-masculine have all been a “staple of the hip-hop community”, and it's been believed that the more masculine a man is, the better. Within the hip-hop genre it was (and still sometimes is) very common to hear homophobic comments and see very stereotypical depictions of men being manly, and thug-like, with some songs deliberately questioning another man’s masculinity. 

Both the visuals and the words in hip-hop songs often depict what society deems as being ‘normal’.

Back in 1990, the song “Ya Strugglin'” attacked black men for displaying feminine gender traits. 

There are now several individuals globally who have begun to believe that gender is, more than anything else, about something you relate to and “what feels right” to the person. Dot Brauer believes gender to exist on a spectrum, explaining how one should "imagine the spectrum and imagine the most feminine expression you have ever seen and most masculine you have ever seen and just sort of imagine where you are on that," and it’s for this reason that many hip-hop artists now are beginning to “transition into a style of music that expresses more of what feels right as opposed to what traditionally looks or sounds right.” This means that now more than ever, artists are beginning to express a very clear sense of vulnerability in their lyrics. 

Artists such as Kalani, Young Thug and Future have, together, paved a new way of “challenging the culture” of gender expression.  A very well known rapper was quoted pointing out that you “can be a gangsta with a dress, or you can be a gangsta with baggy pants. You don’t have to feel like there’s no such thing as gender.” It's comments like this one that are breaking down the typical stereotypical images of how a man or woman should dress, and how they should appear on a screen.

Women are generally very sexualised in rap and hip hop music videos, and often use to be the men's 'accessories' in years passed. Now while this does still take place in some instances, women have begun to rise up themselves within the industry, and create their own music. Examples include Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj.

- This essay would also include your research about the representation of Black people in film.

Netflix claims that they are representing when it “

comes “Cinema is still subjected to the Male Gaze.”

Women are 4 times more likely to be shown naked. Male leaders are far more visible. 

Some of the reasons for this can be seen in who is making these movies - predominantly men.

Films such as Pink Panther are working this:

“Stop objectifying and sexualising women on screen”. - but unfortunately this is uncommon.

Women and black people are “tired of seeing themselves...as the kind of backdrop to the more important storyline involving usually a white male character.”

An example of where women are represented unrealistically is in Jurassic World where the women spends ages running around in “6-cm stilettos”, and the source feels there’s no need for that, because we, as audiences, “want to see our real experiences reflected on the screen”.

And then interestingly in contrast the Jurassic Lark from from 1993 represents women wearing Timberland boots and the “female teenager being a computer programmer” - it’s like, in one way, we’ve gone backwards.

Ladybird was a film “directed and scripted by women” and a lot more women were able to identify and relate to it.

I think “probably the best female filmmaking is coming out of independence cinema” - “Hollywood still really has to catch up in that sense”.

The Bechdel Test:

• “is that in a film you have 2 female characters in a scene talking to each other about something that doesn’t involve men”. 
• A brilliant way to think about what you, as a writer, are doing. Thinking about if you’re portraying powerful women that can actually hold conversations about something other than men. 

DEFINITIONS FOR THESE ESSAYS:

= Representation

= Stereotypes 

= Ideology

A system of ideas which forms the basis of economic or political theory.

= Hegemony

The leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group, over others.

Often people with more money have the power/means to infiltrate the lives of others. That ruling class - the people who are essentially controlling what is listed on the media. 

People don’t always intend on representing themselves, but it happens. 

Netflix claims that they are representing when it “comes to black leading actors, directors, writers and producers, explaining how for them it's not just a moment but rather a "movement". 

Week 21 - Media Ecology Essay

Grace Watson

10 August 2021

Media Studies 

Week 21 - Media Ecology Essay

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Question:

“The relationship between media and its audience has changed rapidly.”

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Indeed, the relationship between media and its audience has changed rapidly over time.

Media ecology refers to the relationship between media and its audiences, and how these media environments affect today’s society. According to the theorist McLuhan, the focus in these discussions should be the medium of the media rather than the “content it communicates” because, according to him, the “medium is the message”.

The first way in which the relationship between media and its audience has changed was influenced by Web 2.0. This is the transition of passive audiences turning into consumers who are now producers of media (prosumers) - outlined by Shirky in his End of Audiences Theory. Back in the 1920s and according to the Hypodermic Needle Theory, media had a very direct effect on audiences who were passive and submissive, accepting whatever they consumed as being fact. Now some time later, these audiences have now transitioned to being active participants of media who think about, comment on, write reviews and blogs all about what they consume rather than just accepting it. According to a source, “95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online ‘almost constantly’” which goes to show the large percentage of audiences who are actively engaging with media. Moreover, “roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook”. The ability for audiences to take part in these global debates and make comments on forms of media they consume online is thanks to the arise of the Internet and the fact that it’s no longer static, but rather interactive and user-friendly (Web 2.0).
This point actually leads on to the next audience trend that has changed over time. And that is the release of and increased use of social media platforms such as Snapchat and Facebook with 238 million users and 30 million subscribers respectively as of 2020. These social media sites are providing audiences with a very prominent medium to truly express themselves and their beliefs/thoughts online. The advancement and development of social media, the production of various technological devices, and the release of Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services such as Netflix, Hulu and Neon, have altogether lead to the fragmentation of audiences.

Now more than ever, audiences are dispersed across countless devices, mediums and platforms.
Before the proliferation of the internet and Web 2.0, nuclear/model families would sit around the living room and watch movies together. Households usually only had one medium to consume media - a television - and so they all sat together and enjoyed the media. Then, as time progressed, technological convergence brought about by the release of Smart Phones such as iPhones which were first introduced in 2007, and other technological devices such iPads, which have led to the fragmentation of audiences where families no longer watch movies all together, but instead individually watch exactly what they’d like to from the comfort of their own separate bedrooms on separate devises. Audiences are fragmented.

Not only has the release of social media lead to fragmented audiences, but it has also changed the way in which we, as audiences, watch the news. In today’s day and age; 64.5% of all Internet users worldwide hear of breaking news via Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook - all social media platforms. Audiences now have all the “information we need at the touch of an app”. With the click of a few buttons on any search engine online, we can find all the news we’re looking for. Despite the advantages of speed and efficiency this may bring, it rises the problem of fake news, where in this “age of fake news”, “authentic content is hard to come by”, according to a source. Social media platforms have “control over what news and information we see” and provide social media users with information based on “what they have already indicated they like”. This is problematic because it means audiences are “force fed news that confirms their biases” and leads to a society with “extreme viewpoints becoming the new norm”, which is dangerous in the long term.

Another one of the ways in which the relationship between the media and its audiences has changed is summed up in Jenkin’s Fandom Theory. Jenkins reinforces one of my first points in this essay by pointing out that “audiences are active and creative participants” of media, who together generate a ‘collective intelligence’. In his Fandom Theory, Jenkins points out that fans enjoy media so much so that they develop communities around and create content based on it (which has increased with the Internet’s development). Two examples of this are in the cases of Stranger Things where fans have established a fandom “built around creative but unlicensed reuse of copyrighted material”, sharing “videos, stills and gifs based on footage” with each other and altogether exciting one another, and in the case of The Mandalorian where a fan who also happens to be a “creative film and special effects individual” was hired by Lucasfilm aster creating his own take on a scene from The Mandalorian. Shamook (the individual’s name) “took it upon himself to digitally edit” a scene from the series “to make it just a BIT better”, and in doing so “caught the eye of someone at Industrial Light and Magic” before being hired to join the team as the “Senior Facial Capture Artist”. In years back, audiences didn’t even have the means to comment on films online. There was no social media and/or platforms such as Instagram (which now has roughly 1 billion users globally), for them to disclose their opinions or edits on such a public level as what there is today.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had such an immense impact on the world and how we consume media, disrupting the traditional method of distribution.
Because of the health danger of leaving your home, “more people are staying home to enjoy movies and other entertainment”, which has ultimately meant that demand for SVOD services has “purged”, causing more studios to develop “their own direct-to-consumer streaming services”. As of 2021 Netflix has 209 million subscribers and Neon’s subscriber growth has gone “BOOM!”, according to another source, while the Box Office side of the film industry has begun to suffer, with the revenue for 2020 being predicted to be “down significantly from previous years”. Ultimately, “theatres have suffered heavily from stay-at-home norms”, because audiences are favouring the freedom of choice and time management they can enjoy whilst watching movies in the comfort of their own home.

Not only are companies beginning to lean toward SVOD services, many are also evolving their distribution models and opting for more simultaneous releases where they release their films to theatre and SVOD services at the same time. An example of this is Black Widow, a Marvel blockbuster recently released simultaneously to cinema and Disney +. Scarlett Johannsson has actually opened a court case against Disney + for simultaneously releasing the film as her salary is based on Box Office numbers, and the film may not do as well in Box Office if audiences can watch the film on Disney +.

Companies are also evolving to maintain market interest. For example, Netflix is looking into offering video games to audiences as well which will be “one of Netflix’s boldest moves yet”. Releasing video games will provide Netflix with “another way to lure new customers” and also “offer something none of its direct competitors currently provides” which gives it that competitive advantage.
In general, Netflix (and many other SVOD services) continuously spend money on creating new content based on algorithms which provide them with information on what people seem to be watching and enjoying.

The previously clear line between linear television/series’ and movies has begun to blur as production companies that typically produce and release large blockbuster films, such as Jurassic World for example, are now beginning to release series’ on Netflix and other SVOD platforms based on their movie characters for various reasons - to increase and build up hype and buzz for their products, to maintain the interest and excitement of their current fans and attract more fans, and also to advertise their films and their overall brand further. An example of this are the television series’s The Mandalorian (which is based on Star Wars), Loci (which is based on the Marvel Comics) and WandaVision (also based on the Marcel Comics). In all three examples these series’ attract the attention and support of fans of the movies and further advertise the brand image.

Not only has the line between TV and series blurred, but the craving for more reality TV has also increased. Audiences like to see themselves represented on television and so they love seeing normal, everyday people via  reality shows, such as the Bachelor (which has 1.3 million followers on its official Instagram page) as they follow along on their lives, or alternatively shows where audiences are asked to be voters such as the X-factor and America’s Got Talent which averages 7.01 million viewers. Audiences feel as though they’re part of production when they get to vote and actively participate in the shows.

It’s very clear that over time the relationship between media and its audiences has significantly transformed to a more creative and interactive space where ‘fact’ isn’t really as important but rather the emotions and interests and thoughts and opinions of people who consider the media.

Week 20 - Media Ecology Essay Plan

Grace Watson

7 August 2021

Media Studies 

Week 20 - Media Ecology Essay Plan

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Question to answer:

“The relationship between media and its audience has changed rapidly.”

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Indeed, the relationship between media and its audience has changed rapidly over time. 

1:

Where in years gone by audiences were passive and submissive, accepting whatever they consumed as being fact, they have now transitioned to being active participants who comment on, think about and have opinions on what they consume, writing reviews and blogs about how they feel about the content, for example.

• talk about the Hypothermic Needle Theory

2:

Secondly, audiences now more than ever are dispersed rather than united. Before the proliferation of the internet, Web 2.0 and the release of various social media sites, families would sit around the living room and watch movies together. For the most part, households only had one medium to consume media, and that was television, and for this reason they all enjoyed the media together. Then, as time has progressed, the internet has brought about the release of countless platforms such as Snapchat and SVOD servies such as Netflix, YouTube and Neon etc where audiences can consume whatever they’d like to by the click of their thumb. Additionally, technological convergence brought about by the release of Smart Phones such as iPhones, and other technological devices such iPads, have meant that families now don’t watch movies together, but instead all watch exactly what they’d like to, from the comfort of their own separate bedrooms.

• fragmentation
• “95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online ‘almost constantly’”.
• “roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook”. 
• four new SVOD services 
• Nuclear family - then vs now

3:

COVID-19 has had such an immense impact on the world and how we consume media, so much so that the support of SVOD services has increased even further. 

• how many people watch Netflix?
• Cinema stats
• “audience demand for streaming services surged, production spending grew, and TV series budgets reached all-time highs”.
• Quote: “more people are staying home to enjoy movies and other entertainment” and “more studios and media distributors are developing their own direct-to-consumer streaming services” to combat this problem. 
• “theatres have suffered heavily from stay-at-home norms”.

Essentially, the traditional method of distribution has been disrupted. 

4:

The line between linear television/series’ and movies has blurred.

• discuss how now production companies are creating series’ based on their movie characters - sequels and prequels - building hype and furthermore advertising.

5:

Audiences are saturated with advertisements and information regarding up and coming productions. 

• Talk about cross-media-convergence, synergy and the wealth of conglomerates (who own subsidiaries). The fact that they saturate our cell-phones and social media pages by partnering with influencers, adverts online = all of which would never have been possible in years gone by.
• Discuss the Big 5.

6:

Another one of the ways in which the relationship between the media and its audiences has changed is summed up in Jenkin’s Fandom Theory.

• Stranger Things
• Star Wars & the Mandalorian

7:

Piracy!

8:

McLuhan Theory