Week 5 - Television, Film and Video Media Reading Diary

This week's lecture looked at audiences in terms of technology and the impact this has on the consumption of media. The world of technology has significantly changed over the years especially in television and film. We also looked at digital television, which is a new technology for receiving and transmitting broadcast television. This method allows for a better viewing as it is you and the screen without any distractions of adverts or other people etc. Digital television has three platforms which are digital satellite, digital cable and digital terrestrial.

Due to the changes in technology over the years of me growing up, it has changed the way I watch and consume television and film. An example of this is in the way I consume films; I now use Netflix and other internet websites to stream these films. This only consists of a small fee monthly and it allows you to have access to over 100 movies and TV shows. This week’s key reading was on New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality by Everett, A and Caldwell, J (2003). This book agrees with everything that is happening with today’s consumption of Film and Television, the book explains the rapid growth of new media technologies and how it is constantly changing the film production and consumption. I personally do not own a television and it is no longer necessary to own one, as you can stream almost anything you have missed online via certain websites. One prime example is BBC iPlayer which can be accessed from almost any device, meaning I could watch TV on my smartphone wherever I am, this highlights a massive change in the industry as TV and Film used to be something that was waited on and scheduled to a certain time but now can be viewed at any moment possible. This relates to the reading as Everett and Caldwell state that “Successful multimedia development, therefore, means being able to track, monitor and predict or at least respond quickly to multidirectional user flows and migrations” (Everett, A Caldwell, J p.128, 2003)

An area of research that I would focus on would be Netflix and BBC iPlayer and how they have changed the way audience watch TV and films. I think this would be interesting because so many people have now started consuming TV and Film through these platforms rather than the television, to conduct my research, I would join a Netflix watching forum and post questions gathering information on why they watch them on these platforms rather than a television.

References:

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