#week6blogpost

New media has greatly empowered audiences and created numerous opportunities. New media has impacted on and changed the entertainment industry. Sauter (2014) proposed ten concepts regarding new media and entertainment: convergence; inclusionary vibe; forming alliances with audiences; participatory fandom; symbolic and economic capital; vernacular creativity; audiences as entertainers; entertainment as self-formation; blurring of distinctions and ‘new’ vs. ‘old’ media. Some of these will be discussed below. 

Convergence is an important aspect of new media entertainment as engagement must be through multiple platforms. This has led to ‘cross media’—the distribution of the same, only specialised content across varying platforms and ‘transmedia’—producing different material across multiple platforms, to merge into one ‘story’ (Sauter, 2014). One example of cross media can be seen with popular television show, The Walking Dead. As the end credits roll after each episode a preview for the following episode is shown and viewers are encouraged to log on to the network’s website to access additional content including bonus videos and more. Cross media allows producers to engage audiences and bridge traditional media with new media.

Burgess and Green (2009, 25) state ‘vernacular creativity’ encompasses “the wide range of everyday creative practices practiced outside the cultural value systems of either high culture or commercial creative practice.” New media entertainment provides individuals with the opportunity to interact with new creative outlets. Video blogging through platforms like YouTube is seen as a form of social networking—productive play—rather than a “mode of cultural ‘production’” (Burgess and Green 2009, 26).

Through YouTube the ‘blurring of distinctions’ between producers and consumers, experts and amateurs (Sauter, 2014), is evident. Millions of videos uploaded to the website were created by individuals, not institutions or ‘experts.’ Moreover, consumers are producing their own videos to upload; they have become prosumers.

Entertainment in new media is also seen as a ‘sense of self-formation’ with individuals creating and developing their self through engagement. Sauter (2014) highlights how entertainment can be a relational, mean-making activity. How individuals present themselves reflects on their understanding of self, and interactions with others develops and improves it, again this can be seen on YouTube.

“YouTube has been mythologized as literally a way to ‘broadcast yourself’ into fame and fortune” (Burgess and Green 2009, 22). While millions of people upload original content to the website, most videos are scarcely viewed. There are however many, many ‘ordinary’ individuals who have made a name for themselves and established a following through YouTube; Tyler Oakley is an example. 

Labelled a “YouTube sensation” (Bloomberg L.P., 2011) and depicted to have “one of the loudest voices on YouTube” (Romano, 2013), Tyler has uploaded almost 300 videos to YouTube since September 2007; he has amassed over 4.2 million subscribers and more than 155 million total views (YouTube n.d.). Tyler has many endearing qualities that attract viewers: he is hilarious, relatable—he is a self-proclaimed professional ‘fan-girl’, talented, is commendably honest about his identity as a queer man and regularly supports great causes. Tyler’s weekly videos are reflective of pop culture and he regularly involves his fans and audience through ‘Q&A’ videos (see below).

The entertainment industry has transformed as a result of new media and through convergence, vernacular creativity, a blurring of distinctions and sense of self-formation audiences are more empowered and able. YouTube and user Tyler Oakley are examples of entertainment within new media and how the landscape has changed.

References Bloomberg L.P. 2011. Lady Gaga Honored With Google Inc. at 'Trevor Live' Presented by Audi of America and ING. [Press release]. December 5, 2011. http://www.bloomberg.com/article/2011-12-05/a5wTe6Q35C7M.html

Burgess, Jean and Joshua Green. 2009. “You Tube and the Mainstream Media.” In YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture, edited by Jean Burgess, Joshua Green and Henry Jenkins, 15-37. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

Romano, Aja. 2013. “Tyler Oakley Is A Bigger Fangirl Than You.” The Huffington Post, February 2. Accessed April 5, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/02/tyler-oakley-is-a-bigger-_n_2599750.html

Sauter, Theresa. 2014. “KCB206 New Media: Week 5 Lecture slides - New Media and the Entertainment Industry.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FcourseMain%3Fcourse_id%3D_108110_1