The 21st century has brought with it many innovative forms of technology that modernize the way we watch TV and films. Blockbuster is replaced with Netflix, advertisements are replaced with product placements and television is now on demand. This generation wants speed and efficiency when it comes to entertainment, which is why in this essay I will outline the positive outcomes of convergence and digitization in film and TV. Convergence is how institutions, audiences, and technology change in time, where as digitization is the actual process of converting analog information into a digital format (Evans, 2011). The media industry has definitely come a long way from small, pixelated black and white screens, adjusting bunny ears to get a better …show more content…
With over 450 million copies sold worldwide, and translated into a mere 67 different languages, Harry Potter has certainly captured a passionate audience. With smart marketing techniques, Rowling and her team made a very scholarly decision to expand her treasured stories to different platforms thereby successfully engaging the audience, even after the story is over (Jenkins, 2011). Since the Harry Potter books are enjoyed by such a broad audience: very young children, to parents and even grandparents, Rowling took that into consideration when deciding how to properly market her award winning series. Since the first movie was released, sales of the books from the first novel, to the last, increased almost triple the amount, making the brand value just over 15 billion dollars. By switching platforms from the written word to film, and bringing her stories to life, she increased her book sales extraordinarily. Not only were her books award winning, but her movies were increasing in popularity as the story developed. Once she realized the films weren’t enough to keep her demanding fans happy, Rowling and Warner Brothers created multiple video games, extra footage mini series, and even a virtual world called ‘Pottermore’ where players can play games, talk to other ‘potterheads’ and even find new exclusive writing from Rowling. Thousands of devoted ‘Potterheads’, as they call themselves, interact online and exchange newfound material and get to experience the world of Harry Potter as a student at Hogwarts (Jenkins, 2011). This website attracts a wide variety of fans, because it is available in 5 different languages, it is accessible on the internet, and could be used on laptops, phones, Ipads, tablets, the list goes on! By using this massively popular platform, and letting the readers interact and discover more about Harry
The many evils that exist within television’s culture were not foreseen back when televisions were first put onto the market. Yet, Postman discovers this very unforgiveable that the world did not prepare itself to deal with the ways that television inherently changes our ways of communication. For example, people who lived during the year 1905, could not really predict that the invention of a car would not make it seem like only a luxurious invention, but also that the invention of the car would strongly affect the way we make decisions.
The television's new “golden age” is now upon us. As the internet continues to make filmmaking more accessible to public, Hollywood will continue being one of the biggest and greatest influences on today’s society and politics. It is much easier to create and share your ideas through film than ever before. Independent studios before, greatly expanding the number of debates and arguments people have access to. Never has the power to express yourself and your views through film been so great, and we are better off for it.
As advance technology of fiber-optic developed and is on the rise, everyday there is another story about entertaining movies on demand and streaming online is with ease. Those developments which let movie’s viewers sit in the comfort of their home or anywhere with access to the internet can stream instance movies with a push of a bottom. They no longer need to make a trip to the movie’s stores for movies rental and return, so that is why movie shops fail and filed for bankruptcy bring a symbolic close to the “let’s go rent a movie” era. Blockbuster LLC, formerly Blockbuster Entertainment Inc., both owned and franchised American-based giant provider of home movie and video game rental services through video rental stores, later adding movies by mail, streaming online and video on demand. Due to the peak of fiber-optic and competition from companies such as Netflix, Redbox, and GameFly, Blockbuster became the victim of digital media and filed for bankruptcy on September 23, 2010 due to significant lost in revenue.[3]
Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.
As time and people are continually changing, so is knowledge and information; and in the film industry there are inevitable technological advances necessary to keep the attraction of the public. It is through graphic effects, sounds and visual recordings that all individuals see how we have evolved to present day digital technology; and it is because of the efforts and ideas of the first and latest great innovators of the twentieth century that we have advanced in film and computers.
Up until recently television has been the most prominent medium of entertainment and information in our lives. Nothing could beat Saturday morning cartoons, the six o'clock news and zoning out from the world by the distractions of prime time sitcoms. It is all of these things and more that formed television into what was thought to be the ultimate entertainment medium, that is, up until now. Television in the twenty-first century is not the television our parents watched or in fact what we watched as children. Today’s generation are no longer satisfied with the traditional television experience. Today’s audience no longer has to follow the network’s predetermined schedule nor is television the one dimensional experience it used to be. Viewers no longer need to schedule a fixed time in order to gather information or watch their favourite show (Smith 5). They can record it with the push of the DVR (Digital Video Recording) button or watch it on a device and obtain background information via the Internet. In addition, viewers now have the opportunity to interact with, share, and produce their own material from their favourite show (5). In order to not lose the authenticity of television, media theorists have created transmedia. This new twist on television gives the user more control and more involvement than ever before. The concept has been termed as transmedia storytelling. The online journal Infoline defines transmedia storytelling in its January 2014 issue as “social, mobile, accessible and re-playable.” Originally coined in the 1990’s it was not until 2003 when Henry Jenkins, a professor of communications at the University of Southern California, wrote his article “Transmedia Storytelling” that the term began being ...
Blockbuster's origins date back to the mid 1980's when the video cassette recorder (VCR) was the new hype and families all over America were quickly turning to movie rentals as a form of in-home entertainment. David Cook, who previously started David P. Cook and Associates, Inc. to offer consulting and computer services, saw an opening in the quickly expanding movie rental business. Eager to start a business, he jumped in making Blockbuster the Wal-Mart of movie rentals offering a wide variety of movies to customers in a family environment with standout buildings and bright lights. From there, Blockbuster growth exploded bringing in external investors and national attention.
As mentioned earlier in this paragraph, Pottermore is not the only way which Rowling accessed the area of transmedia storytelling but it has been one of the most successful. As Jeff Gomez, Pottermore creater and transmedia expert, states Pottermore allows the franchise to expand “from its basis in being a repurposed or repeated story world, into being a true transmedia brand.” The website is also multidimensional where it expands out to other popular social media outlets, this allows Rowling to release videos where she answers fans questions and reviel new information about the series. According to Gomez, what makes Pottermore so successful is the amount of interactivity within the site, this means that the audience feel as if they have a personal relationship with the author and also that the have an important imput in the story (Humphrey, 2011). Pottermore shows how websites and todays technology can be used to engage with an audience, and the website has proven to be a huge success not only for J.K. Rowling and the franchise, but also for the area of transmedia
27 Jan. 2012. Greenblatt, Alan. “Television's Future.” CQ Researcher, Vol. 17 (2007, February 16): 145-168.
Roscoe, J 2010, ‘Multi-Platform Event Television: Reconceptualizing our Relationship with Television’, The Communication Review, vol. 7, issue. 4, pp. 363-369.
Rowling’s writing sparks controversy with readers. Rowling has dealt with criticism about how her books teach children about witchcraft and evil powers (Kirk 103). To shield children from these teachings, schools and libraries across the world banned the books and occasionally, a book burning. “It conflicts with the values I’m trying to teach my children,” reports Ken McCormick, a father (qtd in Cannon and Cataldo). Evidently, the series’ plot teaches children revenge, and parents and teachers across the globe agree that banning the books will protect them from harmful lessons. However, her works have encouraged children read more. Today, fewer children and teens read for pleasure, causing a great drop in test scores, vocabulary, and imagination (Hallet). According to U.K.-based Federation of Children’s Book Groups, fifty nine percent of kids believe that Harry Potter enhanced their reading skills, and forty eight percent say that the books turned them in to bookworms (Hallet). In other words, Rowling’s books became children’s, in this day of age, video games. She published Harry Potter at a time where children, teens, and young adults were starting to consume their time with technology instead of reading. Without these books, generations across the spectrum would diminish in terms of reading skill. Rowling not only helps children improve their skills, she gives back to them through her
The Harry Potter phenomenon had its humble beginning all the way back in the 1990s, when the first book, written by J. K. Rowling, came out in the shops. The main protagonist, a scrawny, young child wizard, who wore round glasses, had an immediate appeal to the readers, but no one at that time knew that the young boy would turn out to be the literary icon of the last decade. The popularity of the book resulted in it being translated into various language...
Culkin, Nigel & Randle, Keith 2003, Facing the Digital Future: The Implications of Digital Technology for the Film Industry, University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire.
In the following text I am going to answer this questions focusing on television and movies in the near future.
Not only is there a sense of globalisation in the things we watch but also in the way we watch them. For example, digital television has become such a part of everyday life for the majority of UK viewers that many don’t even know they have it. The total number of households in the UK with digital television now stands at 15,715,178. We are now able to watch the same channels as people at the other side of the world, thanks to digital television. We have so much choice that we, at times, don’t know what to do with all of it. It has the availability to hold around 999 channels ranging from BBC channels to children’s cartoon channels, from DIY shows to adult content channels; it is all available to us.