Audiences and Institutions: Practice Essay

In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the way that audience consumption has changed over time:

Over time, the use and consumption of media has varied and increased in accordance with the different generations. Over the last ten years, we have seen a revolution in media consumption habits, driven mainly by the ubiquity of smart phones and the accessibility of social media and other social platforms. The use of smart phones and technology has reached the point where it is so heavily relied on that it is a necessity required for the daily life of individuals. Nowadays data is relatively cheap and more accessible now than it ever was before, transforming our behaviour in alternating, exciting and confronting ways.

With the continuous increase and rapid development of technology, it has reached a point where streaming platforms have started to replace linear TV for people under the age of 40. TV was once the unquestioned champion of media, a medium almost everyone consumed which unified the nation and gave us a shared culture and perspective. Online video, such as YouTube, and SVODs (streaming videos on demand), such as Netflix, is now starting to increase in availability to the point where it is replacing other means of media consumption, and as it continues to propel society forward, younger generations are growing up in a world that is well on its way to becoming fully digitalized. The terms 'Digital Immigrants' and 'Digital Natives' are accurate ways to describe the way media consumption differs dependent on generations. 'Digital Immigrants' is used to describe what category Boomers and Gen X fall into. They are more prone to be slow information processors and have lived in a time where technology wasn't dominating the globe, and were there when the first forms of mobile phones were introduced. 'Digital Natives' on the other hand, is the category with Millennials and Gen Z. They tend to be fast information processors, multi-taskers and thrive on instant gratification. People in this category tend to have been born in a time where technology was already present and influencing media today.

With the increase in the use of online video and SVODs, the introduction of the idea that people are no longer just consumers but are now starting to produce their own media is becoming more relevant. The term 'prosumer' coined by Shirky with his 'End of Audience' theory shows the change in audience behaviour due to the lower cost of and easier access to technology. Web 2.0 has also helped progress this forward as more people are starting to create amateur content using apps such as TikTok and YouTube to a point where audience trends and behaviour is no longer predictable, but varies across different sites, providing a platform for people to value each other. Web 2.0 facilitates crowdsourcing, thus allowing the government to share information internally as well as with the public and therefore providing a platform from which innovation can occur. Because of the access to Web 2.0, this interactive web has paved a way for larger media conglomerates to use this information to aid their releases as production companies now release media that aligns with what audiences want to see come to fruition in the movies released.

Media fragmentation allows for the increasing choice and consumption of a range of media. As the use of technology becomes more frequent as a whole in society, technological convergence becomes more apparent as people no longer have to sit in front of a television in order to watch what they want. This is also the reason why younger people in newer generations are more inclined to watch online videos or use SVODs (those aged 15-24 are three times more likely than people aged 25+) since the increased number of mobile devices per household is now at least one per person, with younger people being given devices at earlier ages than in past years. Examples of the increased use of SVODs include Disney+ which has features (Premier Access) that allow users to pay extra to gain early streaming access to a movie that is still playing in theaters. This contributes to declining numbers in theatrical attendance as more people are now using several streaming platforms that they can subscribe to at a fixed price. Unfortunately, with an increase in the number of streaming platforms such as Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime and others, piracy rates have also increased. The New Zealand film What We Do in the Shadows is one of the most heavily pirated movies. After the shutting down of a piracy website based in Mount Wellington it was revealed that there were 277,000 illegal downloads.

As media continues to grow and develop, the volume of information grows and the variety of information sources increase. Now people have access to information whenever they please, as mobile devices has made news and every form of media portable just by a simple handheld device. Not only is news portable, it is also personalised. Many people now have their news feeds and social media feeds customized to their preferences and/or they only follow specific subjects that are relevant to them. In addition to this, Netflix has incorporated this to make their platform more relevant for people subscribed to their service by using complex algorithms to filter what people watch and showcase films and series that relate to their interests in order to gain more views. Media and audience consumption has irrevocably changed into a new future that has been revolutionized by technology.