Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Core Post #5: Post TV

We've stepped into the digital age of Television where everyone's favorite TV shows can now be streamed on their laptops through various hubs such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Other than that various platforms and forms of watching content have now evolved. 
YouTube, which today is a huge power player and competitor of methods of watching TV shows has created a format and different type of way of consuming content, through vloggers, web series, tutorials and even YouTube artists that perform various renditions of popular songs and created it into their own. 
Because of YouTube, many people worldwide have created opportunities for themselves to be seen and heard. Today, people don't have to go to a studio to pitch your script and hope that it gets put on a huge TV network, you can just create your own show/film and post it on YouTube and so much more. 
Other than YouTube being a post-TV platform/method of consuming entertainment, there has been an expansion of consuming media. Smartphones have become increasingly popular because of how useful and essential they have become. It is also a platform where people can consume media. Lotz (2007) discusses these new media platforms as a way of creating convenience and mobility. Instead of these new forms of technology 'killing' television, they have created an expansion for media consumption (Lotz, 2007). It is also essential to note that these new forms of technology see the significance that television has on society and by creating these new mediums and adapting them for television, it is clear that media consumption of television shows is essential for these new technological devices to gain revenue. 
Furthermore, this has lead to oversaturation TV content allowing more options and choices. As stated before this has created opportunities for many writers and producers to create unconventional TV content that may not necessarily be suitable for broadcast/cable networks. The concept of 'Post Television' will, of course, have its downsides, the biggest one being the fact that it is affecting incoming revenue for broadcast /cable networks (some have managed to adapt). However, digitization and new technologies it has also opened up this new way of consuming content and has given new opportunities for writers/producers/performers to be a part of something that is unconventional. 
I don't believe that television will die but I do think that the conventional method of watching television through cable boxes will eventually fizzle out for good. 

4 comments:

  1. "It is also essential to note that these new forms of technology see the significance that television has on society and by creating these new mediums and adapting them for television, it is clear that media consumption of television shows is essential for these new technological devices to gain revenue."

    Yes! This is really interesting as it seems more and more smartphone companies are interested in capitalizing on the smartphone as PRIMARILY media device (whether for viewing photos or videos). I'm thinking specifically here of all the commercials I saw recently while staying at a hotel for the new Galaxy S8 which boasts an "infinity screen" that reduces the frame around the screen. I hate the wording of this advertising (because literally no screen can be infinite), but the fact that Samsung is concerned about providing a better media environment through a few millimeters of screen size is telling. They're definitely seeing themselves as attempting greater media immersion.

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    1. Exactly! It is fascinating that smartphone devices are starting to turn into actual mini TV screens. I can't wait to see what idea they come up with in terms of the new iPhone 8 for example and how they are going to try and top off androids.

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  2. The evolution towards advertising new phones as immersive screens has me wondering about the actual statistics of this kind of viewing. What kind of statistics do these corporations have to determine how effective this line of advertising is? How many people actually watch Netflix on their cell phones? It must be substantial if this is the current trend in marketing. It would be really fascinating to undertake a research question that examines this relationship between device manufacturers and viewing statistics.

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    1. Very good points/questions. I completely agree it would be interesting to delve deeper into this subject in terms of statistics, one thing I would say is that I did do some research on media consumption through smartphones and it has definitely increased over the past few years. So looking over the specific statistics in relation to device manufacturers would definitely be interesting.

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