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Chapter 3 Resource Demonstration

Page history last edited by wikiuser0023 9 years, 11 months ago

The Value of Media Engagement

 

Introduction:

While value is usually recognized as the monetary worth behind an idea or object, it can also be defined in many other, less tangible ways, and the internet is helping us develop ways in which we can analyze this worth. This chapter discusses the relationships between consumers and advertisers, and explains the ways in which content viewership can double as labor and a commodity, and explains how these give TV shows value beyond their Nielsen ratings. The internet has created techniques to divide audience into target groups, communities of like-minded individuals who enjoy similar content, advertisements, brands and strategies, which makes delivering entertainment a much more effective process. The chapter also discusses how old media artforms have evolved to become more immersive in nature, deepening the connection the audience feels with their content. When this incredibly immersive and tailored content is delivered to individuals, and the connection with the content is deeper, corporations have found the perfect formula for a mass of dedicated fan with open wallets. 

 

Guide:

ARE YOU ENGAGED? (p. 116)

In this section the author shows that the traditional ways that corporations track content usage are a bad measurements for popularity and engagement in the age of the internet. The example given in this section is TV shows, the traditional measurement, Nielsen ratings, do not capture all the viewership and engagement generated by the likes of illegal downloads and torrents.

 

The Challenges of Measurement (p. 118)

Current technologies used by the television industry aim, but fail, to shed light on who is really in the audience. The rating system employed can only create a statistical representation of the audience: who might be watching and how are they watching. Producers have tried to address this issue with 'direct-to-the-audience' media in the form of DVD's and online delivery systems such as digital rentals. However, this has not been adequate. As the Digital Senior Vice-President of the SyFy channel Craig Engler explains, "... online streaming and TV are fundamentally separate businesses that are usually distributed, funded and monetized in different ways. (2010)" The problem is that advertisers don't care how many people watched the show, only how many people saw their ad. If they paid a certain amount of money to run their ad on the network's TV channel, they don't care how many people watched the show online. Engler explains that while an advertiser could potentially by both network and online time for their ad, it is not yet standard practice. When CBS cancelled the show Jericho, they were bombarded by fans to renew it. The network's chief executive stated in an interview that he have no idea that the show, which had poor TV ratings, had a massive following on CBS's own official web stream. CBS eventually renewed the show but warned fans that they had better watch the show at the right time and the right way or the show would have no future. Given that only viewers with a Nielson box could be counted, their own advice is self-sabotaging, since users without a Nielson box watching online would help their ratings. 

 

Audiences as Commodity and Labor (p. 126)

An audience performs two vital functions in their relationship with content producers that allow for an exchange of information and a direct and impactful form of feedback that let these producers tailor their behavior and content to better appeal to one of several target audience groups. When the audience participates in social networking, they create the content within an online community that circulates and is redistributed amongst themselves, which deepens their engagement with said content. 

 

The Value of Surplus Audiences (p. 129)

Historically, advertisers, studios and networks have targeted TV shows at specific viewing segments; i.e. men aged 12 to 25. The surplus audience is any viewer that does not fall within this target demographic. The example given in this section is the American soap opera, soaps in the US are targeted at young women, however have a surplus audience of men and older women that are very visible in the online community.

 

Transmedia Engagement (p. 132)

Transmedia is the content that is produced based off of the popularity of an original form of content; i.e. Madden 2K14, a video game created about the television phenomenon created for the competitive season of the 2014 NFL line-up. Transmedia engagement works so well for two reasons; spreadability, being in so many formats allows content to appeal to new target audiences in ways it never previously could have; "drillability," because this content now appears in so many different formats, this phenomenon encourages fans to develop a "forensic fandom" in which the intimacy the audience member feels with the content is much deeper , almost drilled into their brain.

 

"The Total Engagement Experience" (p. 137)

Benefits of transmedia content:

  • Extra profit from re-publishing content in a new medium.
  • Yields more meaningful entertainment experience for different users.
  • Increase engagement by recognizing and rewarding the most heavily committed viewers.

Although transmedia content is expected to reach a large enough niche audience to cover the production costs, much of this kind of content is not produced in order to generate a profit. As Ghost Whisperer co-creator Kim Moses states, transmedia is a 'gift' to dedicated fans of the show since it rewards their investment with 'highly desired content'.  Moses refers to the marketing strategy of Ghost Whisperer as a "total engagement experience." The goal was to keep viewers hooked and excited for each weeks episode by use of transmedia content such as webisodes. "The total engagement experience gives you a bridge experience between each broadcast" (Moses 2009). The show worked hard to cultivate a strong connection between the content they broadcasted and what the fans wanted to see. "... the audience started to feel enfranchised, and they started to do things virally for us, [...]". This system creates an ecosystem in which the audience becomes a co-creator of the show. 

 

Valuing "Cult" Audiences (p. 141)

Historical cult audiences for TV shows and moves have been small and overly obsessed with the media that they fallow, this has led studios to shy away from cult projects in the past. However with the advent of the internet and social networks the cult audience has taken on new value for TV and movie producers. The cult fan base brings increased user engagement and can grow the media faster than traditional marking, it also creates a market for spin off media like fan fiction, video games related and more. 

 

 

But Which Fans (p. 148)

Not all viewers will keep up with all transmedia associated with a show. This presents producers with a huge problem. If you make the transmedia content important to the main narrative of the show, then you are requiring your audience to follow all of it, which can be a bad idea. For example, people playing the games may be a completely different group than those reading the webcomics and watching webisodes. The other option is to make the alternative media content relevant but not crucial to the content. Most producers take the second option. Therefore, transmedia practices often serve to give viewers something to do and something to talk about in relation to the show. Fan created content are another example. Fan made videos, sites such as Lostpedia, and blogs about TV shows all serve to raise awareness of a show beyond its initial point of distribution. Unfortunately, the narrow mindedness of age/gender targeting common to network TV shows also appears in transmedia content. This usually reflects a producer's desire to recapture a demographic they feel they have lost. 

 

Quotes:

"These "pirates" are not taking content because they refuse to pay for it (especially since they could watch it free when it is originally aired); they are seeking to change the conditions under which they view it (De Kosnik 2010).

 

"Ghost Whisperer co-creator Kim Moses (2009) [describes] transmedia works as "gifts" to their dedicated fans, rewarding their investment with highly desired content."

 

"in a world where audiences now regularly use twitter, facebook, blogs and videos-sharing sites to react to mass-media offerings, media producers and marketers increasingly recognize and respect the influence of these grass roots intermediaries." (p.142)  

 

"'Online, consumers evaluate quality together. They negotiate consumption standards. Moderating product meanings, the brand and rebrand together [...] Organizations of consumers can make successful demands on marketer that individual consumers cannot.'" (p. 128)

 

"These complex serialized narratives are now extending beyond the medium of television into webisodes, printed and digital comics, computer games, and alternate reality experiences, each becoming new sources of revenue and each further fueling audience fascination." (p. 134) 

 

Conclusion:

Historically media companies have used measures like Nielsen ratings to measure viewer engagement for tv show, in recent years with the increasing popularity of online media, using these traditional measures has begun to prove faulty. Viewers engage with content in different ways than just watching on tv, for example pirating the content on line, attending fan conventions like comic con, creating memes, webisods and consuming this extra media. Most tv producers still don’t take into account  this extra  engagement outside of the regular viewing audience. This has caused tv shows with huge fan bases to be canceled because of low ratings even when they may have most popular thing on the internet. This extra engagement also translates to value to the producer in the form of cd/dvd sails live performances and others.  

 

 

Resource:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_birds

http://angrybirds.wikia.com/wiki/Angry_Birds_Wiki

 

 

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