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Lauren Pearce, Etienne Vongerichten, and Seth Prue
Technology has advanced in such a way that Media intake has changed completely. A daily consumer of media has never had it so easy because of the availability everywhere and the internet. Television is fighting against Internet sites and now has a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ attitude as we see convergence between networks and distributers. Photography is competing with technology as it’s never been so easy to take a good photo with a simple iPhone. Movies compete with illegal pirating that seems to be everywhere and is not controlled very well because the quantity of people doing it.
Television
There are so many media in today’s world that it is hard to say that television is still dominating the media source like it did in the 1950s when T.V started. Since the Internet era, there has been more creative ways to get a daily intake of entertainment, originality, news and information (Straubhaar, 230). Many people in the 21st century receive information from social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram much faster than we would if we would have to wait until the next morning on the daily news channel. Of course, television will give you as much knowledge there is to know about a given situation. However, technologies like live video on social media has allowed us to be in the moment when news in happening live and perceive the information however we interpret it, before the news channels tell us what to think.
Audiences have been fading from the content television has been producing because of another social media that is growing strong every day and cost much less than networks. People prefer YouTube videos instead of shows on television because of the originality of the videos produced, and it’s the exact content they want to see (Straubhaar, 230). Younger viewers 13 – 24 years of age especially, since they dominate social media and technology changes a lot better, they are the ones preferring YouTube (67%) over television (33%) (Becker, 2016). On top of this, YouTube is free to use and sign up for as long as the viewer is fine seeing an ad every couple videos.
Entertainment is another area in which television is lacking because of the wide industry of video games (Straubhaar, 230). Gaming has taken the attention span since its popularity started growing with new consoles every couple of years, and new games being created constantly. For now, never mind the console gaming, because there’s games on phones, tablets, Gameboys, and even Smart T.V! Even television has joined their competitors and have made games that essentially will allow the viewer to not watch T.V.
Some say that television is working well with the internet by its side. Depending on how you look at it, you could agree. Instead of T.V networks posting ads all over the internet to watch T.V, instead they have made internet-only access sites that keep the viewers happy with the convergence (Olmsted, 597). An example would be Hulu, you can watch the shows or movies Hulu already provides, or you can watch Live TV from many different networking channels. In cases like this, it’s a win-win situation depending on the viewer.
Others say different, some say the internet is overpowering television networks. An example that Jana Radošinská used was the production of Marvel-films and the distribution of Netflix. Marvel has seemed to taken trust with Netflix in terms of seeing it as a popular place to deliver content to their consumers (Radošinská, 5). Marvel is a successful name and this is only one example. Corporations team up with each other all the time and most of these are run by the Internet, like Netflix. Places such as Netflix and Hulu are familiar names and they are making deals all of the time to make us the happiest viewer.
Photography
Film sales used to be huge when you had to pay money to get your pictures developed. Giving money to film industries. Now we have digital cameras that you can take your picture and either download it digitally or print it for free. Also, not everyone used to take pictures because cameras used to be different and more difficult to use back in the day. Not everything was done for you, settings were manual not auto, so often people were paid to have pictures taken for them. Now newer model cell phone cameras have better pixels than most DSLR cameras (digital single-lens reflect), and people no longer rely on pictures being taken for them. Because the phone does everything.
Photography used to be mainly used by Journalists and you would see photos mainly in newspapers. Leonardo da Vinci described a “camera obscura” in his writings and it is the earliest record we have of cameras being talked about. In June of 1827 Joseph Niepce used an asphalt like material that hardened after exposure to light, this created a picture, though it was unclear and required eight hours of exposure. After Niepce died, his partner Louis Daguerre unveiled the daguerreotype, a method of creating a positive image on a metal plate with a reduced exposure time of 30 minutes. (Pavlik 106)
Now that Digital Photography is on the rise because of smart phones, photo manipulation is easier and more of an issue. (Sontag 3) Also, photos can be copyrighted and all rights of a photo goes to the photographer. Photography is protected by the First Amendment Right. People are allowed to photograph anything they see in public as long as it is in plain view. (American Civil Liberties Union)
Movies
The point of movies and motion picture is to entertain millions with action, comedies, romance, adventures, etc. In the beginning era of film there wasn’t any sound or talking until 1927. Adding sound to a movie back then was easier than inserting color to films. The first successful major motion color movie was “The Black Pirate” back in 1925. The movie business was booming in the 1950’s and beyond. With the creation of drive-in theaters and hit movies like Grease, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, etc. The 1970’s was the most popular time for movie theaters. Until 1980 when VCR’s became popular and large audiences were watching movies from home on their VCR’s. Some movie companies actually tried to ban home VCR’s as a violation of copyright. But this was one of the first steps for sales in renting films and was being looked at as a secondary source of income for film companies. (Pavik 117) The 1990’s was a big year for production companies because major American studios began to create their own independent production companies. Which meant that a movie would be produced differently from a major film studio. This would cost less money to conduct the movie and come out as high paying in the end.
Going back to the first steps of movie renting, the movie industry was introduced to VCR back in the 80’s and in 1996 DVD’s came out and became very popular. People then would go the movie rental store, pick out a movie for them to enjoy at home and within 24-48 hours return it without a late fee. Blockbuster was the most popular rental store back in 2004 with 9,000 stores all over the United States. Redbox then ended Blockbuster’s run in 2010 and was then the most convenient way to rent movies using a kiosk. And now in present day 2017 the movie industry has been seeing a little drop in the box office. This is caused by online streaming of TV shows and movies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, etc. In 2013 subscription streaming was at about $1.3 billion and rose to $2.3 billion in 2014. As of 2015, Netflix had over 85.5 million subscribers and subscription streaming was at $4.7 billion. (Driscoll) Much of the movie industry isn’t too happy with online streaming subscriptions because of the digital piracy and profit margins.
Works Cited
American Civil Liberties Union. “You Have Every Right to Photograph That Cop”. https://www.aclu.org/news/you-have-every-right-photograph-cop?redirect=free-speech/you-have-every-right-photograph-cop.
Becker, Nichole. “Acumen Report.” Defy Media http://defymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Acumen_DL_booklet_16_12_04.pdf
Chan-Olmstead, Sylvia M. and Lousa S. Ha. “Internet Business Models for Broadcasters: How Television Stations Perceive and Integrate the Internet.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 47, no. 4, Dec. 2003, pp. 597-617.
Joseph Straubuaar, Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology, Sixth Edition, 2009
Molly Driscoll, editor. “Steven Soderbergh’s Release Plan, Moviepass Program Shake up Movie Business.” Christian Science Monitor, 26 Sept. 2017.
Pavlik, John V., and Shawn McIntosh. Converging Media: an Introduction to Mass Communication. Oxford University Press, 2015.
RADOŠINSKÁ, Jana. “New Trends in Production and Distribution of Episodic Television Drama: Brand Marvel-Netflix in the Post-Television Era.” Communication Today, vol. 8, no. 1, Apr. 2017, pp. 4-29.
Sontag, S. (1977) On Photography, Penguin, London, pp. 3–24, ISBN 0312420099.
Staton, David. “Review of Photography; History and Theory.” Visual Communication Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 3, Sept. 2014, pp. 178-179.