16
John Griffen
Need to work on your STS theory section. There are also places where information is not cited – like where did the numbers come from for how many tickets were sold? Need to work on your images – adding alt text and captions. Need to make sure that you support statements with appropriate sources and that perhaps give some ideas about how those in the entertainment industry are visualizing their future.
Seems to repeat the main idea / key points of Chapter 14: The Effects of COVID-19 on the Normality of Society – maybe delete this chapter or combine chapters?
Introduction
As many have recently experienced, pandemics are no fun. Not only do they have serious health consequences to those who become sick, but they cause many social problems as well, such as rising unemployment and increase in mental illness. Many businesses and companies have had to adapt to the quickly changing world, particularly businesses in the entertainment industry. Because of the pandemic, the entertainment industry is evolving from primarily in person events to more technological and online events. As the entertainment industry has faced many economic struggles and has moved primarily to virtual events, the pre-COVID-19 entertainment industry may never be the same.
Connection to STS Theory
Modernization Theory, the idea that social and technological evolution are directly related over time, is relevant to this topic because the pandemic has forced our world, especially the entertainment industry, to adapt and change to current times. The modernization process describes the constantly updating world of technology that allows us to work around the COVID pandemic restrictions by adapting an online-based industry. Society has most definitely felt an impact due to this shift because of the lack of in-person events such as concerts, professional sports, and other major gatherings. This online format of such events would not be feasible without the recent advancements in science and technology.
Pre-Pandemic
Before the pandemic, the entertainment industry was primarily focused on in person events and entertainment. As more technology was introduced, more virtual entertainment sources were created, but people still found much of their entertainment through various in person events, such as sports games and concerts. In 2019, a total of 129.63 million tickets were sold for NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL regular season games, while there were a total of 61 million US subscribers to Netflix. However, because of the pandemic, many of these in-person entertainment events are not legal or feasible, which may lead to ramifications for the industry’s future.
What’s Changed?
As the pandemic has continued, many companies have had to make significant changes. In accordance with the law, sports leagues such as the NFL and NBA have had to allow a limited number of fans, sometimes none at all, while concert venues and movie theaters have not been able to hold any of their regularly scheduled events. These drastic changes have led to massive financial losses for many, with the NBA losing up to $1.5 billion and AMC theaters reporting losses of around $561 million and nearly 100% of its revenue (Cwik 2020, Faughnder 2020). In the meantime, Netflix added 15.77 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, nearly doubling its initial prediction, and suffered very minimal losses in revenue (Iqbal 2020). Online streaming and entertainment events have become more popular due to the pandemic, while in person events have lost popularity.
What Could the Future Look Like?
Because of the losses many of these companies have faced, their products and services will most likely change as well. Due to the losses in money, people will lose their jobs, leading to lower quality products and unsustainable services. As the in person entertainment companies continue to struggle, the online only services will continue to rise, giving a good prediction of what may happen to the industry’s futrue.
Conclusion
Because of the pandemic, in-person entertainment events have lost popularity while online entertainment sites have experienced the opposite. Coupled with the revenue losses many businesses have faced, this change might have a lasting effect on the entertainment industry as people may permanently prefer online events over in-person events. Although the pandemic has currently changed the entertainment industry, time will tell if these changes will be temporary or permanent in the entertainment industry.
Supplementary Materials
References
Iqbal, M. (2020, October 30). Netflix Revenue and Usage Statistics (2020). Business of Apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/netflix-statistics/.
Gough, C. (2020, June 17). Total sports attendance by league 2019/20. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1120142/total-sports-attendance-by-league/.
Cwik, C. (2020, October 24). Report: NBA came in $1.5 billion under revenue projections in 2020. Yahoo! Sports. https://sports.yahoo.com/report-nba-came-in-15-billion-under-revenue-projections-in-2020-135356538.html.
Faughnder, R. (2020, August 6). AMC Theatres lost $561 million in one quarter, with revenue down nearly 100%, because of COVID-19. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-08-06/amc-theatres-lost-561-million-in-one-quarter-because-of-covid-19
Images Need citation for your image
Images should use the “Format” of “Hanging Indent”
“3D medical animation still shot showing the structure of a coronavirus” by https://www.scientificanimations.com/ / A derivative from the original work