Power in the Media Essay

"Audiences now have just as much power as media institutions." To what extent do you agree with this statement. 

Power and responsibility is being shifted gradually to online platforms, and due to the proliferation of technology, the internet is becoming a more user-generated site with multiple platforms influencing how audiences use and perceive media. This is giving audiences more of a voice, and has resulted in changing how media is created and distributed, both on a small scale, whereby consumers - or, as Clay Shirky puts it in his end of audience theory, prosumers - create amateur content as well as on a larger scale, where large media conglomerates take into consideration audience demands and produce media content that lines up with what they want.

Alongside this, more power is being given to smaller filmmakers and the minorities, such as indigenous filmmakers, allowing their stories to be represented in a more accurate way, and empowering more people than ever before. When old media was still prevalent in society and the main way of communication, there were more stereotypical representations of cultural groups. On TV and in films there have always been archetypes (a very typical example of a certain person or thing) of characters that are either good or evil, and it is often the minorities that are portrayed in cultural output as being a stereotype or represented in a very stereotypical way, and the problem with stereotypes is not necessarily that they are untrue, but they are incomplete, resulting in one story becoming the only story. And as a result of this, we see more racism and prejudice because of the lack of understanding from audiences consuming these media products. This relates to the hypodermic needle model as well as illustrating Stuart Hall's reception theory, which brings about the concept that messages and the preferred/dominant message is accepted and interpreted in a way that doesn't allow for audiences to create their own beliefs based on what is being released in media. An example of a widespread event of this is the 1938 broadcast of 'War of the Worlds', where a reading of the H.G. Wells' novel caused audiences to believe an alien invasion was occurring and that the radio station was broadcasting live. This was further escalated due to the threat of war and invasion already making people cautious and fearful. Since this old media was the only way to get sources of information, many people couldn't rely on the technology that modern audiences now have access to. Now, since audiences have access to these things and therefore more power, we can communicate easily on a global scale, so the chances of this happening would be very little, especially since audiences are not passive anymore but active, and are able to form their own opinions rather than believing everything that is put online or distributed. This has also been accelerated by the common issue of misinformation that has become increasingly familiar with modern users of technology and audiences. For example, former President of the United States, Donald Trump was banned from Twitter and Facebook for spreading fake news and misinformation, and quite possibly because his opinions, which he shared very publicly, didn't line up with what majority of twitter users believed was right or politically correct.

Theorist Henry Jenkins believes that fans - audiences - play a key role in the media in terms of production, consumption and distribution. Now fans play a much larger role as they are the main distributors by sharing videos and interpreting meanings of media products. Not only do they do this, but they also watch and analyse trailers to try figure out what happens, sharing these ideas online with other audiences who contribute their own ideas and opinions. For example, a creative film and special effects individual 'Shamook' was hired by Lucasfilm after he digitally re-edited a de-age Mark Hamill to be more accurate in the TV series 'The Mandalorian', becoming one of the 'Senior Facial Capture Artists' as a result of media producers working with audiences and fans. With user-generated streaming platforms such as YouTube and, more recently, TikTok, the number of people publishing their own videos is rapidly increasing. With 30.8 million daily active users on TikTok and 1 billion videos being watched daily on YouTube, it has almost reached the point where social media has become the main source of both news and media. No longer do large multinational tech conglomerates such as Disney hold all the power, something seen with the decline in theatre attendance for example, but audiences now have a significantly larger role to play, starting to 'catch up' to these media institutions as the power is subconsciously being shifted to audiences. Despite this significant change, majority of the power still is held within these media conglomerates, though audiences are gaining more traction and responsibility as society becomes increasingly dependent on social media and technology that is ever-changing living in a post-truth era.

Though audiences are now having more power, it is mainly due to the power being given from media institutions, not just audiences themselves, such as the creators of these online platforms that result in global connection and mass communication. The media plays a dominant role in how we understand the world as it provide ideas and concepts that help audiences connect on a global scale. Through the change from older to newer representations, as well as old and new media, we see how the media now influences audience perceptions and challenges or reinforces pre-existing ideologies. In addition to this, through technological advancements, audiences are now connected on a global scale, which can be dangerous since large media conglomerates and tech companies are making decisions based on money and not what is considered 'right'. Technological convergence and fragmentation have both helped aid this. Convergence has allowed for the integration of different apps, websites and online services that makes it easier for audiences to access and connect to. Additionally, due to fragmentation, there has been a loss of gatekeepers in families since individuals can connect to the internet on different devices. Because of this, there is no more control over what someone willingly sees. For example, since it is extremely common for a kid to have their own phone, their actions can't fully be restricted as it was when old media was the main source of entertainment and news. Everyone in a family had only one device - such as a TV - that they could watch, and parents, who were the gatekeepers, could change channels to prevent public harm to their children, whereas now children aren't restricting the possibility of the harm they invoke upon themselves, whether intentional or not. This proves that although audiences are being given the power to gatekeep for example, because of technology and the internet's rapid progression, it has almost taken away this power or made it less significant as there is still a great loss that comes with it.

Audiences will never have the same amount of power that media institutions have, although it may come close. Due to the constant and rapidly evolving world of technology and the advancements that even platform creators can't keep up with, audiences will always be one step behind. As soon as power is apparently given to audiences, which is becoming more and more common as referred to in Shirky's prosumer theory, institutions keep creating more content and platforms to ensure they stay on top. Additionally, Shirky talked about his theory as being the 'end of audiences'. This is another factor that comes into play here as, eventually, there might not be an actual audience anymore, and if there is, it won't hold the same numbers, power and responsibility as audiences do now. Audiences are slowly merging into becoming producers, and could eventually integrate to become part of the institutions as a whole, levelling out the playing field while simultaneously being killed off. However, this is something that will remain unknown unless, or until, it actually occurs.