How significant has the internet been to media audiences? [50]
The internet from it’s invention, has created a world where anything can be communicated at an instant including factual information, services and products. The internet as a means of marketing the product to the audience has become vital in modern society in its fast and low cost way. Due to the instant availability of these media products, the significance of the internet for the modern media audience has become for many, an intrinsic part of life as reflected in it’s popularity. It is obvious that nowadays, everywhere offers a wifi service and everyone seems to have internet phones. It has become the new way of communication both between individuals and between companies and consumers.
The first evidence of the level of significance of the internet to media audiences is Marshall McLuhan’s book The Global Village in which the transformations in the 21st century as a result of media are explained and examined. Collaborating alongside Bruce R. Powers, McLuhan looks at how technology has condensed the world into a global village i.e how the universe has been contracted into a minute space through technology. “The new electronic independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village.” Although McLuhan was writing in the 1960s, his theories are more applicable than ever with the rise in modern social media. This global village was in a sense a prediction of the internet and it’s power as a medium to improve the speed and methods with which people all over the world interact with one another. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook has revolutionised the term global village, allowing for instant access to whatever is desired by the consumer regardless of location. With the support of McLuhan’s theory when considering the significance of the internet in regards to modern society, it is clear to see how much the world has become condensed into a place without the communication barriers of distance, money and due to built-in translator systems, even language barriers are becoming a thing of the past.
This global village has become possible due to the social media that allows for the unfiltered communication and opinion of everyone. it’s total inclusiveness can lead to controversy due to the open-ended opinions of individual users as voiced through social media. This access to freedom of expression has revolutionised the world of business in relation to the media, moving society away from the classical consumer producer world and towards a media business that has become driven by the prosumer. it has become ludicrous in the modern age for any movie or television show to lack a twitter account, an action existing as a means of facilitating this prosumer society. Television channels and shows have emphasised the importance of the actors communicating with their fans in order to create a closer relationship between the consumer and the producer. The use of social media to allow for constant suggestion of what the consumer wishes to see is vital for the success of the product and will draw in a wider audience due to the ability of fans to promote the show on behalf of the business. This change in the world of business as a direct result of the internet has lead to the line between the consumer and producer to become blurred as prosumer society takes its place as the centre focus for media businesses.
The internet has not also changed how media is sold but also how it is created. Ecclesia, the iPad’s first album has been released recently, shortly after the band Gorillaz created their album on an apple iPad, using the internet to send the music to the various members of the creative team without ever having to physically meet. Ecclesia, is an interactive app album, allowing for the revolution of the prosumer to play an integral role in their creation. The listener is free to adjust the components of the track as they see fit in order to improve the listening experience to what suits the individual. With such drastic changes in the music industry as a result of the internet, we can only predict that in the future the internet will play a larger role in the production and sales of music and other media.
It is clear that the larger co-orperations have been able to use the internet as a way of revolutionising the sales of media. Through the internet, sites such as Netflix and LoveFilm have been able to sell these media products to the audience much more readily. The media audience is able to directly purchase and watch or listen to the product immediately on a single digital format. This digitalisation of media has made colossal changes to the media audience, revolutionising the way we consume media. With 29.2 million customers on Netflix and the number currently rising, it is clear that the future for media is digital services provided through the internet. ITunes boasts an additional 500,000 new customers each day, whilst physical music sales have declined rapidly from the invention of the digital format. Beginning in the 90s with sites such as Napster, digital music has become the medium through which most people consume music, all of which has lead to the new digital music chart. The days of choosing number one songs by their physical purchase is gone, with charts now taking into account digital releases, this indicates that it will only be a matter of time before the number of YouTube views and spotify plays will be taken into account to get a more realistic figure. This is clearly an indication of how much the internet has revolutionised the media consumer and their way of listening to music. YouTube and sites such as Soundcloud are the main platform for music nowdays, however this does come with problems as not all the opportunities offered to listeners through the internet is beneficial to society and the artist.
The internet allows instant access to music but where we find honest buyers and successful artists we also find piracy. It is estimated that 42% of the world’s population of media consumers avail of piracy. Internet sites make it easier for people to access and download music TV and films free and instantly, with an almost impossible chance of being prosecuted, it is easy to see how piracy can flourish through the internet. Statistics have shown that the average teenagers ipod hosts over 800$ of pirated music, a statistic made even more shocking when we learn that music counts for only 2.9% of pirated software, movies and TV shows holding 35.2% and 14.5% of total pirated software. The use of illegal sites and piracy is evidence that the internet is harmful to media audiences, it has become incredibly significant for the consumer and the criminals who find it easy to make money off of stolen goods with a low chance of prosecution.
Whilst the advancements provided by the internet in relation to media audience has been huge, many would argue that the internet has become instead a hindrance to the media audience, as Robert Levine of the Guardian recently expressed. Levine argues that due to the prosumer society, the prospect of innovation has dwindled, leaving too many similar products for the media audience and diluting the diversity of modern media products. He argues that the internet has become “too chaotic to provide the infrastructure for a 21st-century economy.” The illusion of choice has become a massive issue for businesses from the introduction of the internet into society. In 1983, 50 companies owned 90% of American media, 10 years later and the same 90% belongs to only 6 companies. These companies own 70% of TV viewing, leading to a lack of diversity and innovation in the industry and making similar media. Even radio stations reported an 80% match in music played, proof that due to the internet and the prosumer society boosting the big six, media products have become too similar for a diverse market and therefore have lead to a negative significance for media audiences.
Whilst the internet has it’s uses and it’s abuses, it is obvious that the creation of the world wide web has had a colossal influence on media audiences and will continue to change the world’s media in the future, whether piracy will flourish and the big six will grow or whether independent artists will find success through the internet remains to be seen, yet it cannot be argued that the past, present and future of media lies in the power of the internet.
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