Media Studies
Week 21 - Media Ecology Essay
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Question:
“The relationship between media and its audience has changed rapidly.”
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.
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