This week we expanded on the topic of audiences, except this time we looked at the concept in relation to technology and consumption. In the lectures we learnt about how technology and how it has enabled us to take from the media that we consume and that it is the factor in consumption of media products.
In this week’s set reading College Student net-radio audiences: A Transnational Perspective by Andrea Jean Baker, the developments in technology and consumption practices by audiences in relation to Internet radio are investigated. Baker states that she ‘examines characteristics of transnational youth net-radio audience and their associated values, attitudes, behaviour and cultural practices’ (Baker, 2010: 121).
However, her main argument that I took from the article is that net-radio is ‘a global media technology’ and how it draws powers from five characteristics of the Internet: ‘it is a multimedia digital platform of converging print and audiovisual texts’ and that ‘it is interactive’ (Baker, 2010: 122) which links to the concepts of convergence and interactivity learnt about within this week’s lecture, helping us to understand how the media and music work together and also how audiences do not really like to engage in individual practices but like to be interactive hence why social networking is a part of our everyday lives.
Another characteristic is that it is a ‘global medium’, it ‘provides on-demand access to 24-hour database’ and ‘it is a network of networks, encouraging niche alliances in a virtual community’ (Baker, 2010: 121-122), thus it is through this sharing of content online via these virtual communities and audiences becoming more engaged with certain brands that allows audiences to become more active- also linking to Hendy’s reading last week about how being an active or passive audience member depends on the context in which one listens to the radio.
Moreover, Tim Wall in Acquiring, Organising and Sharing Music argues that how consumers acquire, organise and share music- hence our consumption patterns- within the last decade has changed due to developments and advances in technology (Wall, 2013: 272). In relation to sharing music, Wall also highlights that is important to note that ‘music fans have always shared music and the online world has just extended the ways we can do that’ (Wall, 2013: 286) which links to what we learnt in this week’s lecture about technology enabling us to share music more thus making audiences more active- which is also what Hendy argues in last week’s reading in regards to the industrialisation of the radio sector and how it has helped to the develop the ways in which radio listeners consume radio.
Lastly, both discussions about audience and consumption in relation to technology written by Baker and Wall are similar in a sense that they both speak about how audiences become more active in how they listen to internet radio and how they consume popular music. Additionally, Wall states that popular music consumption: ‘amongst scholars has shifted from an antagonistic one to a more positive one of the consumer as active maker of meaning’ (Wall, 2013: 288) which ties all the readings- including last week’s one altogether- in arguing that consumers of both the radio and popular music are not merely passive, as theorists once argued, and that technology has given audiences the power to actively engage in products produced by radio and music industries.
References:
Baker, A. J, (2010). College Student net-radio audiences: A Transnational Perspective. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 8 (2), pp.121-137
Wall, T. (2013) Acquiring, Organising and Sharing Music. In: (ed) Studying Popular Music Culture. 2nd edn. London: Sage, pp 272- 288
In this week’s set reading College Student net-radio audiences: A Transnational Perspective by Andrea Jean Baker, the developments in technology and consumption practices by audiences in relation to Internet radio are investigated. Baker states that she ‘examines characteristics of transnational youth net-radio audience and their associated values, attitudes, behaviour and cultural practices’ (Baker, 2010: 121).
However, her main argument that I took from the article is that net-radio is ‘a global media technology’ and how it draws powers from five characteristics of the Internet: ‘it is a multimedia digital platform of converging print and audiovisual texts’ and that ‘it is interactive’ (Baker, 2010: 122) which links to the concepts of convergence and interactivity learnt about within this week’s lecture, helping us to understand how the media and music work together and also how audiences do not really like to engage in individual practices but like to be interactive hence why social networking is a part of our everyday lives.
Another characteristic is that it is a ‘global medium’, it ‘provides on-demand access to 24-hour database’ and ‘it is a network of networks, encouraging niche alliances in a virtual community’ (Baker, 2010: 121-122), thus it is through this sharing of content online via these virtual communities and audiences becoming more engaged with certain brands that allows audiences to become more active- also linking to Hendy’s reading last week about how being an active or passive audience member depends on the context in which one listens to the radio.
Moreover, Tim Wall in Acquiring, Organising and Sharing Music argues that how consumers acquire, organise and share music- hence our consumption patterns- within the last decade has changed due to developments and advances in technology (Wall, 2013: 272). In relation to sharing music, Wall also highlights that is important to note that ‘music fans have always shared music and the online world has just extended the ways we can do that’ (Wall, 2013: 286) which links to what we learnt in this week’s lecture about technology enabling us to share music more thus making audiences more active- which is also what Hendy argues in last week’s reading in regards to the industrialisation of the radio sector and how it has helped to the develop the ways in which radio listeners consume radio.
Lastly, both discussions about audience and consumption in relation to technology written by Baker and Wall are similar in a sense that they both speak about how audiences become more active in how they listen to internet radio and how they consume popular music. Additionally, Wall states that popular music consumption: ‘amongst scholars has shifted from an antagonistic one to a more positive one of the consumer as active maker of meaning’ (Wall, 2013: 288) which ties all the readings- including last week’s one altogether- in arguing that consumers of both the radio and popular music are not merely passive, as theorists once argued, and that technology has given audiences the power to actively engage in products produced by radio and music industries.
References:
Baker, A. J, (2010). College Student net-radio audiences: A Transnational Perspective. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 8 (2), pp.121-137
Wall, T. (2013) Acquiring, Organising and Sharing Music. In: (ed) Studying Popular Music Culture. 2nd edn. London: Sage, pp 272- 288