Week 2 bloG

What popular culture do you consume?

The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again Of Weekly Instalments In TV.

Since the rise of cable television, shows were released in weekly instalments. In-between episodes, the viewers would gather to talk, laugh and theorise about the newest instalment of the show's story.  This sense of community was especially strong with cult television shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, etc. For a while, this format was popular and made sense for the viewers, however with the beginning of the streaming platform boom in the mid 2010's, viewing habits quickly changed throughout the industry worldwide. This all started with Netflix's jump from DVD's by mail to an online streaming service,. Netflix's rise to popularity is a perfect example of the "media-scape" theory especially, "technoscapes" and "ideascapes". This new technology and adoption of said technology was quick and fast acting. 

With so many shows now available to be watched in their entirety within Netflix's online library, viewers began watching several episodes without the weekly intervals instead watching episode after episode until they were satisfied or until there was none left. This viewing experience popularised as a new way to consume television especially after 2012 as Netflix had produced their first original show for their own platform called "Lilyhammer". 

For years to come what would then be known as "binging" would become the norm for many streaming platforms and their viewers. Many platforms would copy Netflix's formula of "bingable" television.  While many viewers enjoyed the aspects of sitting down and preparing to watch what was practically 3 film's worth of content, others preferred the weekly gathering of the show's fanbase. These two opposing sides of Pop culture have remained evident to today's global media sphere.

In the last five years the number of streaming platforms have skyrocketed, All these platforms with their own content and their own way of releasing the content, viewers have a plethora of choices. Some viewers find even just one platform has too many choices, and with so much social demand to view these pieces of pop culture more and more viewers have been sitting content exhaustion. Platforms like Disney Plus and Apple TV have both adopted weekly instalments for their new content with different ranges of success. Weekly releases lessen this pressure to catch up with the rest of the viewers however in Disney's case viewers believe they still release too much content to possibly watch.

When comparing Netflix's popular show "Stranger Things", to Disney Plus's "The Mandolorian", both shows have received major pop culture statuses. However one has held conversations within the social zeitgeist for longer, The Madolorian's weekly releases increased the show's social presence during its initial release. While Stranger Things might have had many viewers during It's release it is proven that weekly instalments increase the time a show is discussed and therefore, advertised using word of mouth. In my opinion, leaving that week in-between episodes is always more beneficial because of the global response to the releases. It's better for viewers and better for the platforms. So when its up to me, I always prefer the weekly instalment system of classic media over the binge culture of the 2010's. 

References:

Television Out of Time: Watching Cult Shows On Download

Why binge-watching TV might not replace weekly instalments

Experimental Evidence for Differences in the Prosocial Effects of Binge-Watched Versus Appointment-Viewed Television Programs

Week 3 bloG

Analyse this Media type and its example in terms of how they inform the public.

Vox's Youtube And Netflix Success

Vox Media creates pieces of journalism to inform the average person of todays complicated events in a interesting and simple way. Their mission is to "...help everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help shape it." Vox Media started in 2014 and has become rather well known on platforms like youtube and podcast players. Recently, however they've produced a series of informational shows for Netflix called "Explained" 

Vox's reporting is vital as it both makes news interesting and simple enough to understand. If you were to watch any one of Vox's Youtube videos you'd leave feeling both smarter and happier. These videos can follow on anything as simple as Why cartoon characters wear gloves or as complex as How the Republican Party went from Lincoln to Trump

as we've established, Vox Media points its journalism to the average viewer and doesn't exactly have a well defined target market. they just want to make everyone who is interested learn about todays news in an educational way.

Personally I love Vox's journalism on all platforms as it doesn't feel as biased towards political parties as other news agencies in America. While their journalism is quite objective Im sure I particularly enjoy it because of my left-leaning nature in politics. 

While they are an American news source they also cover all sorts of world news from places like the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Africa, etc. Whats great is these stories are just as viewed as other pieces of their more American centred journalism.

Vox's Media is open to most people who own a device with internet connection, in fact, their Netflix series is available with 9 audio dubs and over 20 different language subtitles. This might be an issue however, as on their website they claim "Our goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless of income or status, can access accurate information that empowers them" while their website is free to access, how do they expect viewers to reach this journalism without access to the internet itself? This issue could be fixed with a physical magazine. Vox's creative language could fit very well into the newspaper styling.

Besides this I am still a huge fan of Vox Media's work. In the future I'll watch more of the Vox Media's Netflix series.I am also excited to check out some of Vox's podcasts as i love listening to this kind of content. Sometimes I don’t have the time to watch a video but listening to a podcast can also be informative and fun. 

Vox Media has successfully grown to quite a large profile in the last decade. They've created major waves with influential stories told on huge platforms like Netflix. Ill continue to receive interesting and impartial news stories from Vox Media

References:

Vox | About Us

Defining Objectivity within Journalism

Week 4 bloG

Discuss one social media platform and what it offers you as a tool for your life.

My Use Of Instagram

Instagram is my main social media platform. I use it for many reasons, I have two personal accounts, one from my childhood which I keep for memories, one I started in 2018 for more professional outputs. my other two have seperate reasons for existing, one for a uni project last term and one that I help run for work. 

I suppose I support this platform more than most as Ive used it for quite a while. Instagram's features are easy to understand and fun to interact with. Another favourite of mine is youtube but that feels less like social media to me and more a streaming platform. I like the use of instagram because of the multiple kinds of content you can both browse and post yourself. I am a creative person and I love showing off my creative endeavours. 

I use instagram to chat with friends, post, repost, getting caught in a instagram reels loop (We'll talk about this later) and scrolling through posts from other accounts I follow. One feature I haven't used is Instagram's shopping feature. I just don't feel a need to shop on this platform, as I already get what I need from other platforms or at brick and mortar retailers. I would say my favourite affordances of this platform are posting, stories, and their newest feature, notes (which is basically facebook statuses that disappear after 24 hours) 

While I use instagram (and Youtube) to post content I don't imagine myself becoming a full time content creator. I create lots of content, so possibly something I create could become a source of income however, I don't believe Im similar to lots of of my peers who dream of becoming youtube famous or anything. 

As discussed earlier, I often find myself lost in Instagram Reels. Possibly a year ago I deleted TikTok, after a conversation in my high school classroom we discussed the highly addictive nature of the short form content system that Tiktok enables. I decided to try out this hypothetical situation of deleting the app. since then I've found that I enjoyed not being lost in the scroll trap that only supplies milliseconds worth of melatonin. It honestly pisses me of that every other platform has their own version of this app within, because I just dislike how easy it is to waste 30 minutes of my day doing nothing. Of course Instagram and Youtube has these within their platforms, I've found a way to get around Youtube's shorts but there is no way within the settings to actually hide these functions.

Ive used Instagram for a few separate professional contexts including self promotion and account running. Instagrams advertising engine is very helpful. It has a streamlined service just the same as facebook advertising, In fact you ca link these advertisements to post on both platforms. Ive used it to promote myself, brands I work for, and my own uni projects. 

Overall Im a fan of Instagrams many affordances and I'll continue to use it for a long time to come.

References:

The addiction behavior of short-form video app TikTok

Instagram: What Makes You Post?