WEEK 2 – ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA GROWTH

As a gen-y-er, I find myself in a transitional phase of consumption. I have a collection of music and movies, the majority of which is digitised. But I still find value in physicality, particularly when it comes to music. It’s not just the warmth that comes from placing a record on the turntable and hearing the authentic crackle, but it’s also the larger hangable artwork that often comes as an extra add-on that is appealing. Norway’s booming DJ scene as outlined by the reading, is responsible for a staggering 30.5% increase in physical music sales. Although the statistics aren’t quite the same in Australia, there are pockets of Melbourne with a similar mindset of collecting vinyl for use.

But, as a few classmates and I were discussing yesterday, there is a high chance that those 5-10 years younger than us are totally engaged in digital consumption. There’s nothing wrong with that, it is just the way the world is progressing and developing. It seems to me that (besides Norway’s vinyl habits) the general trend is to become more and more possessionless as our access to more and more content (both news and entertainment) rapidly grows.

What I have noticed from this is that the huge influx of news content, for example, has improved spread but reduced depth. By this I mean there is a large amount of coverage on the same topics, but the quality of the coverage is lacking as our attention span gets shorter and shorter. We want condensed information or we run the risk of losing interest. That has become a major flaw with the way we consume our media. We are so privileged with our options that we perhaps take quality content for granted, hence the rise in popularity of sites like buzzfeed feeding the advertising sector.

I’m perhaps a bit standoffish when it comes to embracing new technologies. I think this comes down to being relatively satisfied with how I am set up at the moment. I am both a producer and consumer of content and don’t yet see the advantages of reading the news off a fridge… In saying that though, it’d be stupid to not keep an eye on the happenings of the entertainment industry because if I want to be involved in it down the track I, along with my colleagues will need to find clever ways to be innovative.

 

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