Task 2

Task 2- “Digital media have in many ways changed how we consume media products” Who do you think benefits most audience or producers

In this essay I will be arguing weather audiences or producers benefit most from the change in media consumption.

Firstly audiences have benefited from new and digital media as they are being exposed to more content and are seeing more representations due to Citizen Journalism which allows ordinary people to report on a moral panic a good example would be the democratic protests in the middle east against the government which has made it difficult and dangerous for journalist to get to the protest and report on them and they have relied on normal people filming footage from those protests. This is a benefit for the audience as there able to view raw footage and there is no longer restriction to the content they are able to view as they are able to demand for content and get it instantly. This means that the users and gratification theory is being met as the audiences of today are being entertained and informed more than ever.

In addition audiences are able to accesses media content using a number of devices such as mobile phones, itouch, iphone ect. This means that audience are no longer restricted from viewing media content on just a television they can also access this content instantly and in cases such as BBC and Sky news able to access this content 24 hours due to rolling news. Furthermore audience are no longer passive they are more active as they can leave a comment on news articles meaning they are not just being injected with the ideological messages of the mainstream media they can become active and challenge these view.

Furthermore as your lifes have become busier with work and other commitments we have no time to consume as much media content as we once did. This has lead to the rise of iplayer, 4OD, ITV player and other on demand sites. These services allow consumers to watch whatever program they have missed at whatever time they wish. However this has lead to the drop of ratings on some TV series and due to the low demand of programs when they are airing live has lead to them being scrapped. In addition it’s also caused producers problems in terms of scheduling they don’t know when to play some shows as they feel during peak times the consumers would miss them and just play them online. This has caused channel 4 producers problems in particular as advert companies have in the past refused to sponsor them or fund them due to the low demand for those programs whiles they are playing live or the low ratings.

Moreover the rise of interactive services such as Sky+ and Freeview record has also lead to a fall in demand for live TV as these services allow you to pre-record episodes and even whole series of TV shows which you want to watch at a later date. This again gives the producers a problem as they don’t have much people watching the shows live again effecting relationships that have with advertising agencies. However the advantages it has to consumers outweighs the disadvantages as they are able to consume media products whenever is convenient for them. In addition they are able to keep up with their favorite media products without feeling they are missing out. On the other hand some of the disadvantages to consumers are that they are less sociable and have a negative impact on society as people become withdrawn and self schedule what they want to watch, for example TV shows you would normally watch with your family get put off and people watch them individually making people less sociable.