2nd Draft of Essay- “Audience are becoming increasingly powerful in shaping media output”

“Audience are becoming increasingly powerful in shaping media output”
Write in reference to your case study, how far is this true?

My case study is based on “Fantasy drama”. The three texts I will be looking at are “The Vampire Diaries”, “True Blood” and “Misfits”.  Each of the three texts work on all three platform, some more than others and they all relate the genre I am looking at. My first two texts “The Vampire Diaries” and “True Blood” originated from the print platform via, the books series. It then moved onto the broadcast platform through its TV program that is shown every Tuesdays at 9pm. For Vampire Dairies and the timings and dates very for True Blood. The each also works on the emedia platform as they have their own websites.  Misfits however started off as a broadcast and then moved on to emedia via its E4 website, it has not developed much on the print platform; for example like my other two platforms both have a book series whereas Misfits does not. However it does have some work on print platforms such as adverts, on billboards and posters, when the new TV series came out. Nevertheless Misfits is working on all three platforms.

One way in which my three texts allow me to agree with this statement is through the emedia platform in which they each work on. Each of my text work on the emedia platform and through this platform they allow the audience to help shape what happens within the text. For example they all have websites which have registered fans and these fans are able to leave comments on the text itself. A reason for making uses register is sometimes, the user have to pay therefore the institutions make money from the registration fee. These comments can be anything, they can say if they liked the adapted storyline from the books or if they disliked them. They can suggest bits from the books the intuition should put into it and also for misfits they can suggest different power for different characters and different things they wish to see in the programs. So through this we can agree that the audiences are becoming powerful in shaping the media outputs.

Another way in which we can agree that the audiences are becoming increasingly powerful in shaping media output through YouTube. Each of my three texts has User Generated Content (UGC). Fans upload pictures and video that they have made, these video help to portray some of the ideologies that the text presents. For example the fan made videos have pictures of two of the characters with romantic music in the back to show the buildup of romance within the series. Another example is classic parodies. Also on YouTube, the institution themselves upload “promo’s” or “testers” of clips for future episodes and if they get many likes and view they know this is what the audience want, if there are mainly dislikes then they don’t normally show it.

However audience theories show us that the audiences don’t have much power and the power still remains in the hands of the intuitions. My three texts consist of three of the audience theories; Cultivation theory, Desensition and copy cat theory. I believe these theories all fit each of my text because, the shows are showing fantasies coming alive and therefore audience might start to believe that there are vampires, werewolves and abnormal powers. Also each of these texts have explicit content and violence within them. This relates to the Desensition theory as some people may believe that it is alright to act in such ways like sexual violence as well as physical. This particular theory applies to misfits as within the program they have sexual violence such as rape and abuse. These theories show that the audiences are being controlled by the intuitions and that this is how they are reacting to the programs and books, as the books to have quite detailed imagery.

I believe that the e media platform offers more power to the audiences as they have more of an input, through their comments on the websites and videos on You Tube. Through emedia they are able to add a voice to their opinions, and sometimes these opinions are taken into account by the institutions. In addition on the Misfits website they have “Misfits elsewhere” section and this is where the actors have links to their social networking profiles. This helps to show that e media gives more power to the audience as they can comment and become friends with the actors and actress. Also they can follow their movements through status updates by the actors.   

In conclusion I believe that the statement is to correct to a certain extent, I still think that the intuitions have the most power, however the audience have gained a lot more power of how to shape the media outputs than they used due to the change in technology and more interactivity.