Audiences: Technology & the Impact on Consumption

This week’s lecture was focusing on audience in terms of how technology has changed over to digital and onto new media platforms, as well as the impact that this has had on how audiences consume this new technology.  Recent technology as changed how not just the majority, but how everybody consumes television as there is now more choice of what to watch more than ever, whereas previously there were a choice of 5. This change has definitely has an impact on me as now I have no schedule for watching television as I can consume it whenever and wherever . I no longer need to sit down in front of the television at particular times to watch episodes, there are various ways to catch up and even watch future episodes before being broadcasted on television.

A reading taken from John Caldnell explores the change of technology by detailing about the flow of television and how adverting plays a part in this flow more than ever, however I decided to focus on how now the internet is now a huge part of audience interactivity with these programmes and channels.  I found this part of the reading to explain how I personally experience technology as I consume particular media like television shows throughout the day, long before or after the show has ended. The reading explains an example of how effective interactivity can be with “Homicide.com”. It explains how after an episode on television had been shown, it would then advertise that a new episode would be available online. I found this to be an excellent example of I consume media and also to show how the digital world has had an impact on television as they are not just interacting with the show whilst it’s just being broadcasted, but playing games and investigating the crimes themselves “on the Internet during the other “23 hours” of the day.” (Caldnell, 2003: 128). I thought this quote was good as it shows the result of how technology has evolved and in doing so, the audience has also changed. It suggests that we as an audience still consume and crave certain media even when it has ended, such as the example “Homicide.com” shows. I am also guilty of this kind of interaction with using the new forms of technology as I am able to go online and participate in a numerous of activities and watch things such as interviews with actors and so on.

For these reasons I would like to research further into digital technology and audience consumption in terms of the impact that this has had on audiences in ways they consume their media.  I would concentrate on how the audience has evolved with this change by researching into the interaction they have with a particular show, I’d go about this by conducting focus groups, in depth interviews and possibly researching further into fandom sites that are dedicated to the shows.

References:

Everett, A and Caldwell, J (Eds) (2003), New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality, Routledge, London and New York - pp 127-144.