In timed conditions (45 mins) answer the following essay question on New and Digital Media. You may need to research your case study in more detail to answer the questions successfully.
“Digital Media have, in many ways, changed how we consume media products” – who do you think benefits most? Audiences or Producers?
New and digital Media has had an enormous impact on, not only audiences, but also institutions that run traditional Media platforms such as broadcasting and print. Since the late 20th Century, digital Media has grown rapidly, almost three times as fast as the growth of traditional Media during the entire century.
The cross-platforming of many Media products has allowed audiences’ power and control to increase dramatically. Through the revelation of User Generated Content (UGC), it has widely become known that Media consumers have acquired just as much power and equality by the public as news readers. Websites such as BBC, that allow viewers to post home-made quality footage as news events, further emphasises this power. It illustrates today’s society as no longer being obsessed with trust and authority, but accepting of anything which could be viewed as evidence.
Traditional Media consumption methods such as television and radio have, since the Noughties, had a massive decline in revenue. Where traditional 50s patriarchal families would join together for the evening to watch the good old 6 o’clock news on BBC1, now families spend more time on their computers socialising much less with members of the household. Some argue that social networking sites such as Facebook contribute to this negative change and are dumbing-down society, eventually allowing themselves to be taken over by the Media (which Marxists call Ideological State Apparatus). The advantage for Mark Zuckerberg and producers of Facebook is that it illustrates a virtual world that is available for any person over the age of 13 to access and use freely. This means that those who are unaware of the dangers of antisocial behaviour, would find it extremely difficult to distinguish between the virtual world, and the real world.
Furthermore, this idea of audience power is illustrated through Citizen Journalism, where anybody is now able to record low-quality footage and have it treated with the same importance as that of professional quality. Some could argue that audiences are now trusting these things more than what they consume through traditional Media, e.g. Broadcasting. A recent example of an issue related to Citizen Journalism is the mobile phone recording of Ian Tomlinson’s assault during the G20 protests. This shows the public that Media institutions are almost deliberately not disclosing certain content in hope that the police officers in question would not be accused. Therefore this gives audiences power.
Another example of a rise in audience power and control is the introduction of Wikileaks, where the public were able to challenge and question the government – more so than before. This sort of power would have been almost impossible in the mid-20th Century, where the Media was one of the only methods of communication between elites and the public. This meant that it was so much easier to take advantage of the audience’s trust than it is now. A Marxist view on this issue would argue that institutions aim to take control of its viewers in order for the elite to remain powerful and destroy any equality. Even though this may not be the case in the US, it is clear that this sort of website allows for a more Democratic society and equalises the public.
Traditional Media consumption has, in a way, gone “downhill”, as the Media conglomerates now find it more important to merge platforms, in order to appeal to a larger demographic audience. Through the creation of Youtube, institutions are able to advertise channels/programmes to a younger target audience, depending on their profiles. This is another aspect of New and Digital media that has been in favour of producers. It is now possible to create automatic advertisements that only appear to certain users depending on the videos they watch, like and subscribe to. Youtube would be able to detect videos that have a similar theme like, for example, “Racing” and would proceed to publish recommended videos of Racing on the user’s profile next time they sign in. Therefore, it is beneficial for TV channels such as BBC and Channel 4 to create their own channels on Youtube. It allows them to advertise certain programmes to those viewers who show interest in similar themed videos.
Therefore, it is very clearly the audiences that benefit most from New and Digital Media and its technological advances. This is because this Pluralistic way of life has forced institutions to conform to the needs and requirements of its audiences, therefore leaving them with no choice but to accept technological advances and compete with organisations that are conforming faster. This makes is easier for audiences to consume products as the radical amount of new technology being produced as a result of institutions’ conformity, means audiences have a much larger variety to choose from.
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