Audience essay

 "How does your own experience of media consumption illustrate wider patters of audience behaviour?"

As the years progress, more and more different means of media distribution are created, more streaming platforms and more channels and apps. This has dramatically effected my own experience of media consumption as now there are plenty of options to choose from with how you wish to consume media. There are 5 big conglomerate companies that dominate the film industry and it consists of Disney, universal studios, Colombia pictures, paramount pictures and warner brothers. They got to being the biggest by aqauiring other film companies, (subsidiaries) for example Disney acquired fox in 2019. These companies since the beginning have based their main way of having their media consumed, be through being screened to the public through theatres and such. This has changed over the past 10 years especially, with Disney they came out with their own streaming service at the end of November in 2019, this is a subscription services that shows only movies, shows and such produced by Disney so there are no middlemen and all the money goes straight to the company. With covid-19 being so prevalent in 2020, this service being released so close to the same time the pandemic began to spread, people were more open to subscribing to a service that will show them all their favourite shows to them in the comfort of their own homes during lockdown. During this time the theatres were closed for obvious reasons and so the only options left were to watch the tv channels or subscribe to a streaming service. This is also where netflix truly thrived as they are the largest streaming service so when people think it's time to subscribe to a streaming service, they go for Netflix as it is the most well known. The pandemic was also the root cause as to why the movies in box office weren't making any revenue. 

However many other companies are bringing in their own streaming services with shows exclusive to them and those who sign up, in order to give audiences a reason to pick their streaming service over the other ones available, with Netflix having their Netflix original series, hulu with exclusive popular shoes such as "euphoria". Although the problem begins where every company brings out shows exclusive to their company's streaming app, so it gets harder and harder for audiences to choose which service to pay for. This leads inevitably to audiences reverting to paying for one subscription service and watching the shows the other companies offer, through illegal means, through watching them pirated. Not only is pirating against the law but it also puts companies in a position where they are losing their audience because why would someone pay to watch something they can watch supposedly for free. Global digital piracy is causing the US to make losses of an estimated $29 billion and can even reach up to $71 billion each year. For smaller indie film companies this can be an exceptionally big issue, for example with the film "laid in America", made by a small company starring widely recognisable YouTubers, the film was distributed by universal pictures home studios and was not released on many places so people decided to watch it pirated, the film then went on to making a loss because of the level of piracy going on and it became one of the most pirated films regardless of the fact that it was made with many celebrities. This shows the audiences number one priority when trying to find a film to watch, is where is it most accessible. 

Generation Z and generation X are the generations that use technology the most, they grew up with it so they rely on everything online. Media consumption methods are always developing and according to stuart halls reception theory on how audiences perceive film content, the directors generally fit in different messages and ideas and the audience interprets in in various ways. The most common one is the negotiated reading, we see many youtube channels that come out with breakdowns of films where they fit in their interpretation of the movie and compare it up against what they know the directors intentions of message were. This is because audiences want reason, they look into why certain things happen in a movie and they might go along with what the majority thinks or go against it and come up with an alternate meaning, this all affects the overall idea of how media consumption illustrates wider patterns of audience behaviour. Another common method of understanding the intentions and ideas from a director in a movie, is through dominant reading and this is where what the director is trying to show and say is so clear that a majority of the people who see the movie will agree on the meaning, the narrative is made to be easily understood by specifically their target audience and this makes the film easy to follow along with, this is a method generally seen used in children's films as they are younger and will find it more difficult to comprehend deeper meanings. To create more buzz and talk about a film, directors may also aim to have their film interpreted through an oppositional reading where each individual when watching the movie will come up with their own interpretation. 

With means such as web 2.0 coming up more on the rise more and more companies are connecting with their audiences through different internet sites and such. For example with the New Zealand film 'What we do in the shadows', the company had used web 2.0 to reach out to the audience and make their experience in correlation with the film, more memorable. For example the film company had made a tinder-like dating app that was for the characters in the movie to relate with the average media consumer. Web 2.0 is allowing film companies to seem as though they are coming off their perdestal to be on the same level as the audience and this in turn gets them more invested and interested into the film. 

For me personally my media consumption actually only increased once i joined a streaming subscription company, Netflix. They are constantly releasing new films, always being talked about as they are already widely known. During lockdowns as a result of the ongoing pandemic, I find myself indulging in countless hours on Netflix, as it is accessible. Another aspect that I enjoy is that the movies are practically portable as once you download them on Netflix you can watch them offline, so this also leaves out the restrictions that otherwise would've been in place if it were perhaps a theatre. My media consumption also increased with online learning, watching documentaries and films for research became more of a viable option for information intake for me. All to say as the years go on, seemingly my media consumption increases also as we become as a society more and more reliant on it.