The Evolution of Television: Streaming Services Impact on the Entertainment Medium

Spencer Damphousse

This website presents original research on the transitioning television landscape and how people's perception of television as an entertainment medium has changed with an emphasis of streaming. The information found throughout this website is informed by a combination of interview research and prior scholarly literature on the television landscape.

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The literature review section is a highlight package of what scholars have written about in the past regarding the changing television landscape. The main themes of the prior scholarly research are the effects of and social acceptance of binge-watching culture; shifting business practices in response to the dominance of streaming; the changing technologies surrounding television entertainment; the change in audience viewing practices based on technological and societal factors, and the shifting television environment paves the way for increased fannish behavior and fandom development.

The site also showcases research that looks to describe how people have re-conceptualized television with an increased dominance of subscription services and what characteristics audiences are emphasizing in the modern television landscape.

This original research utilized an interview research methodology to develop a dynamic and free-flowing conversation with participants to take a deep dive in understanding how their perception of television might have changed over time with the introduction and recent dominance of streaming platforms.

The research also attempts to see what trends developed when considering what characteristics of the modern television landscape people are emphasizing. Television is a lived experience that is now becoming more of a social event, and studying the factors that contribute to this line of thinking is key for potentially forecasting the future of this corner of the entertainment medium.

Online Television Communities

The world of reddit is one that might be unfamiliar to a lot of people. Its a form of social media that often gets overlooked because of other juggernauts like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. This is a place where people can go to discover communities based on particular interests and tastes and in this case, find a platform to be able to talk about and see content specifically tailored to their favorite shows. Part of this website links to the "sub-reddits" of popular television shows and highlights some of the content and discussions that can be found here to encourage further fan engagement and behaviors online.

Fandom is another community that television viewers might want to engage in. This site might sound familiar to some, as it used to be called Wikia. This is a space to find a ton of extended details and information about a particular television show. It allows people to contribute to the world of pop culture and discover interesting paths with media they already love or are interested in learning more about. The website offers tons of content and it offers dense encyclopedias that have been constructed from the enormous population of fans of endless properties and elements of popular culture. The website is divided into categories like Games, Movies, Video, and TV where you can explore tons of content within these sections.