How Do Media Industries Shape Media Audiences?

In my case study, I explored how media industries shape media audiences. More specifically, I aimed to illustrate how Marvel Studios, uses the concept of transmedia to shape media audience to watch Marvel films and consume other media in tandem to the films. Marvel films have shape media audiences through its “cinematic universe” through its television, flagship comic books, video games, etc. Additionally, Marvel Studios use “Easter eggs” and “Post credit scenes” to entice audience members to seek other media to understand the full story of Marvel plot lines as well as anticipate for future media.

Marvel Studios is a prime example of how contemporary media industries shape media audiences through transmedia storytelling. According to Ádám Richter, transmedia storying telling is a story unfolding “across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole” (2016). Within its own Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel successfully gets their audience to eagerly participate in consuming the films as well as associated media because Marvel has been able to create anticipation “for future films to the extent that each film not only is an event/text in itself, but serves as a promotional tool for future events/texts” (Beaty 322). The anticipation for getting the whole story through consuming Marvel media is created through theatrical conventions such as Easter eggs and Post credit scenes alluding to obscure references to other Marvel based media and teasing future plot points respectively.

Work Cited

Beaty, Bart. "Superhero Fan Service: Audience Strategies in the Contemporary Interlinked Hollywood Blockbuster." Information Society, vol. 32, no. 5, Oct-Dec2016, pp. 318-325. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/01972243.2016.1212616.

Dantzler, Jamoki Zakia. "How the Marvel Cinematic Universe Represents Our Quality World: An Integration of Reality Therapy/Choice Theory and Cinema Therapy." Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, vol. 10, no. 4, Oct. 2015, pp. 471-487. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/15401383.2014.994796.

Richter, Ádám. "The Marvel Cinematic Universe as a Transmedia Narrative." Americana: E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary, vol. 12, no. 1, 2016. EBSCOhost, lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2017306637&site=eds-live.

 

 

How do media industries shape media audiences?

Abigail Wideman 

In my case study I focused on the potential threat that Redox posed to theater & studio film companies in 2012, & could pose in the future. 

In 2012, the U.S. box office total was $10.4 billion, which had gone down 5% from $10.9 billion in 2011. Researchers believed this was partially due to the increase of in home theater appliences, and because of business’ like Redbox.

Studio and theater companies did not like this, Warner Brothers in particular. Warner Bros. feared that the inexpensive rentals would discourage consumers from more profitable DVD purchases or video-on-demand rentals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_SOrtyg4U4 

Warner Bros. tried to push the film release window to 56 days, which is double the original Redbox release date. Redbox would not agree to this, and began to provide Warner Bros. films to its customers through third party markets.

Warner Bros. ended up caving to Redbox, and reverting back to the 28 day agreement.

Redbox has the potential to surpass movie theater attendance and poses a threat to major studio profits. However, I don’t really think it will due to the fact that people would have to wait nearly a month in order to have access to the films. Personally, I enjoy the experience of going to the movie theater. 

Sources:

• Barnes, Brooks. “Movie Studios See a Threat in Growth of Redbox.” The New York
  Times, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/business/media/07redbox.html.
  CNETTV. “Loaded: Redbox breaks up with Warner.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 Feb. 2012,
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_SOrtyg4U4.
  Fritz, Ben. “Warner Bros. relents, agrees to Redbox DVD deal.” Los Angeles Times, Los
  Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2012, articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/25/entertainment/la-et-ct-warner-redbox-20121026.
  News, ABC. “Warner Bros. delays releases to Movie-Rental kiosks like Redbox.” ABC
  News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8325124&page=1.
  Reisinger, Don. “Redbox rebuffs Warner Bros., won't delay rentals for 56 days.” CNET,
  1 Feb. 2012, www.cnet.com/news/redbox-rebuffs-warner-bros-wont-delay-rentals-for-56-days/.
  Straubhaar, Joseph, and Robert Larose. (2008). Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture and Technology. Belmont, CA.: Wadsworth Company.
  
  

"How does older media Serve as a template for wireless culture."

      

      How does older media serve as a template for wireless culture?

      In my case study I focused on a myth story that Orson Welles read on the radio about Martians invading the earth called, "The War of the World." Welles had a grand idea of fabricating a radio broadcast that he would present in a dramatized form so that people listening would believe and undertake that it was actually happening, rather than it being a sheer radio play. This caused mass panic. People were going as far as committing suicide.  Old media is indeed a template for wireless culture. 

      There were many faults with old media (radio). The early years of radio produced and used technological gadgets that use radio waves. Radio development began as wireless telegraphy, which eventually became broadcasting. Old media is a model for wireless culture; War of the Worlds showed the fault of old media, which in contrast produced a template for what not to do when looking into the future aka what new media is today. The War of the Worlds was a great example to look at and dig into when comparing old media to new media. Back in the day people's main news source was the radio so it made sense that they believed everything they heard. For example, today we have the ability to search and look specific things up. So if we were to hear something like "The War of the Worlds being broadcasted over the radio we would simply research it to find out more information.  

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7amqdrVO-E0

   

WORKS CITED

•      “A Short History of Data Radio.” The Wireless Data Handbook, 2004, pp. 1–10., doi:10.1002/0471224588.ch1

•      Chilton, Martin. “The War of the Worlds Panic Was a Myth.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 13 Aug. 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/the-war-of-the-worlds-panic-was-a-myth/.

•      Hartson, William. “Top 10 Facts about Radio.” Express.co.uk, 24 Apr. 2014, www.express.co.uk/life-style/top10facts/472231/Top-10-facts-about-radio.