Audience and Institution Practice Essay

In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time.

Over the last few centuries, the way audiences consume media has changed tremendously. Specifically in film. Back in the late 1800s, when motion pictures were beginning to be published, it would have never been thought that many years later, you would be able to access such high-quality movies on a small cellular device with the click of a single button. 

An extreme way that media consumption has changed is through the way it is streamed. Just recently, my family and I wanted to watch the movie Spiderman Homecoming. Thinking back to the technology several centuries ago, a film like this would play through a rolling motion picture presented on a screen. Only a few centuries ago, it would play through a DVD player onto a TV screen. With the technology we have today, we can go straight to our phones, laptops, tablets, and more, and find the movie on Xfinity on-demand, and watch it. The. consumption of films by audiences now more than ever is through a streaming site that we pay for monthly

Another aspect of change when it comes to audiences' consumption of media is through the technology it is streamed on. Any streaming site you can think of I can access through my phone, laptop, or TV. Over many years our technology has progressed and allowed us to view media in ways like never before. This change in consumption is not only due to the film industry, but also the technology industry. When iPhones and other devices were made, the film industry adapted. This adaptation ended up being for their benefit because it is now the number one way people access movies. 

Something that most people don't realize is that one way that consumption of media has been changed is through the time it takes to be produced and distributed to the audience. The technology that we have today allows us to finish movies and distribute them to audiences faster than ever before. In the article, "How Tech Has Shaped Film Making: The Film Vs. Digital Debate Is Put To Rest", it discusses how new cameras that allow them to get better shots, faster. In this case, two significant changes are shown. One is the quality of the shots, and two being the decreased time of making the film. In the article "How Is Digital Technology Reshaping The Film Industry," you also see that newly developed editing software and cameras have helped decreased the time needed to make films.

When you think about the many ways that media is consumed by audiences now compared to centuries ago, you see that the film industry just adapted to the newly developed technology. It is crazy to think, but the technological side of society has most of the control over how we consume our media. Who knows how we will be consuming it years from now.