Audience Essay

"Analyse how media institutions are using different platforms to engage with their audiences." 

Media Institutions use different platforms to engage their audiences in many different ways. Media Ownership in the film industry consists of Conglomerates and Subsidiaries. Conglomerates being the 'parent' companies and Subsidiaries being the smaller companies that are acquired by the larger Conglomerate companies. 

The major Conglomerate companies in the film industry consist of 'The Big Five', which was Originally named 'The Big Six' but in 2019 Disney acquired Fox, making it only 'The Big Five'. The Big Five include the following: Disney, Universal Pictures, Paramount, Warner's Bros and Columbia. These Conglomerates are the Oligopolies of Media, Oligopolies meaning 'A small number of Conglomerates that have the monopoly in the film industry'. 

Media Institutions now days have Franchises, Movies that have Prequels and Sequels. The advantage of having Franchises and having Sequels and Prequels is that they have 1. an established fanbase 2. established security and 3. because of the films success, creating more films is not a gamble, because people have already seen the first or second part of a film, when they see a third one that is up and coming they are excited and ready for that film to come out, an Example of this is Disney's Franchises. 

A Disney Franchise that has made a lot of success is The Marvel Cinematic Universe. This Franchise consists of  24 films overall, the budget being $4.6 - $4.7 billion dollars for all 24 films, with a total box-office of $22.946 billion dollars. The Marvel Cinematic Universe consist of well known films such as, Avengers End Game, Avengers Infinity War, Black Widow and so on. This Example supports the three points I mentioned above. Because Disney already has an established Fanbase, when The Marvel Cinematic Universe release another film people are already head over heels about it. This is one of the different platforms that Media Institutions like Disney use to engage with their Audiences. 

Likewise Disney also have A-list actors and because of the fame of these A-list actors Media Institutions use them to engage audiences into their film. For example, The Avengers End Game, a blockbuster Hollywood film, that has a lot of A-list actors such as, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Tom Holland. The actors listed above all have Social media, and have followers of over in the millions. Chris Hemsworth - with 49.8 Million followers on instagram; Chris Evans - 11.7 Million followers on instagram; and Tom Holland - 45.6 Million followers on instagram. 

This then also links to the affect that Social Media has on the interaction of audiences, a lot of people in the world have access to smart phones or at least to any form of internet, because of this Media Institutes are able to broadcast things about their Media Films, followers will immediately be engaged. Social Media being one of the many different platforms that Media Institutes use to engage their audiences. This also shows that like the Interactive Audience Theory states media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved and often unconsciously. People are so engaged into Social Media that they are unconsciously / passively aware of the things that they  are actively engaging with.

Due to our circumstances with Covid-19 over the past two years, the way which Media Institutions engage audiences have changed dramatically, because of the restrictions of having to Isolate and Stay home people are stuck with having to find other ways to watch films. People have changed too subscribing to different networks to be able to watch different films, boosting S.V.O.D (Subscription Video on Demand) up. Instead of going to cinemas and watching movies and films from the theatre people now have the luxury of watching films from home on any device they wanted to. When subscribed to Netflix, Neon or Disney Plus you only have to pay a monthly fee and then you are free to watch whatever you want and whenever you want. 

More people are staying home to enjoy movies and other entertainment, and more studios and media distributors are developing their own direct-to-consumer streaming services. Because of Covid top studios had to forgo theatrical releases altogether and go direct to consumer to generate at least some income. Back in the day Studios derived almost half of their revenues from theatrical releases, research has shown that the box office has dropped 81% from pre-pandemic times, Subscriptions increased by 26% and by 2020 4 new S.V.O.D's had been created. So Online streaming has really succeeded and plays a role on helping Media Institutes keep their audiences engaged in a very easy and one-to-one way. Liking to the Web 2.0 which has given the audience the opportunity to be able to interact by being able to comment, post up and engage with different media. 

Youtube is a good example Fan interaction with Media Institutes on YouTube we see a lot of people who engage with films, and then create their own media as well. An example of this is all the YouTube bloggers who like to commentate on films that have caught their interest, these people are called 'fans'. Media Institutes engage fans by creating films that they know will capture their attention, the fans then react to their film either by creating similar films of their own, commentating on the film, or creating meme's with specific parts of the film. By creating fans, and getting people engaged Media Institutes are able to get Crowd funding. 

The Hypodermic Model theory says that the media is seen as powerful and able to inject ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive. The hypodermic needle was proposed by Harold Lasswell in the 1920s. Also known as the ‘Magic bullet theory’, it explains how the audience is directly affected by what they view and hear. It is said to affect the audience/viewer immediately or in the near future.

The Two step flow Theory  assumes a slightly more active audience. It suggests messages from the media move in two distinct ways. First, individuals who are opinion leaders, receive messages from the media and pass on their own interpretations, in addition to the actual media content. The information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, but is filtered through the opinion leaders, who then pass it on to a more passive audience. Media Institutes use these different the theories to help engage audiences. 

1065 word count.