Exam Question Answer

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.  To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

New and digital media has empowered audiences development hugely, a consumer can now produce his/hers own text and post it up on to an internet site such as a blog or even a video clip on to YouTube, free of charge and by a few clicks. This can then turn into a big hit for the consumer, all it takes is the video for example to start trending and becoming popular and within minutes you could see the views rise to thousands. 30 years ago a consumer didn’t have a chance to either become known or have his/hers word put out other than if they worked in a profession of journalism as all news was spread via newspapers, radio and television broadcast.  This meant gate keepers had more of a choice/grip on what they show the audience in terms of the amount of information they give out on a certain story or maybe not even covering the story as it will not “entertain” viewers.

New digital media has gradually made it harder and harder for institutions to keep the news from consumers, because of YouTube the news must provide actual 99 per cent truth in any articles they cover because all it takes is for one consumer to upload a video of the article being covered and in the footage it shows the truth whereas in the news it has been tweaked. This is why new digital media has now made institution think twice before editing their news to such a certain extend because they know if this did happen then the reputation will decrease for the institution amongst viewers which in the end means a decrease in viewers which affects sales.

In this society as new and digital media keeps on developing consumers would rather now trust other consumer news and would value it more than for example sky news. We now live in an era where the shaky camera phone footage is valued more than a high definition shot camera by a professional camera man with a professional journalist giving his/hers script as it unfolds.

YouTube has allowed consumers to become producers, consumers now want to capture anything even if it is life threatening for them just to make sure that they could upload this on to YouTube later for the world to go bonkers over. This is how audiences are empowered by these developments they would rather put their life at risk to capture these moments that no other person or institution would be able to capture.

Overall new and digital media has played a huge success and has driven many institutions down, as a consumer of the news I now trust other consumers through their YouTube blogs. I rather read an article from a consumer who was actually there at the event and can give their insight into what had happen, rather than a professional journalist who may be given a biased view or even so a view which his editor has scripted just to catch the audience’s attention and draw them to their news station or paper.