“Digital media have in many ways changed how we consume media products”. Who do you think benefits the most- audiences or producers?

New and digital media has had a major impact in various different areas in our society. Institutions with old media products such as print news and TV broadcasting, have had to adapt to the new platform; e-media, in order to obtain and increase the amount of consumers. Not only are consumers consuming media, but the existence of e-media and web 2.0 has allowed them to become producers, creating user generated content, or UGC. Common critical issues and debates concerning new and digital media, is whether institutions of old media can survive on the e media platform when it’s being bombarded with thousands of pages from normal people; so who can really benefit most from the changes?

The impact of digital media on TV broadcasting has lead to the availability of TV content on the internet, which makes consuming TV products much easier for audiences. Audiences no longer need to stick to the rigidness of scheduling and therefore do not have to be overpowered with control from the institution. Much of the TV content is now available on the internet, either from the broadcasting institution’s own website or other hosting sites. For example, Channel 4’s TV shows are available on channel4.co.uk/shows or even hosted by YouTube, PlayStation 3, Virgin Media and more recently BBC iPlayer. This content is available to audiences all the time and due to the convergence of technology, they can now consume with their portable product such as a mobile or tablet almost anywhere in the world. As a result this widely and easily accessible content means viewing TV content can happen where and whenever audiences choose to consume.

As TV content is free online, many assume audiences always expect free content and will do things like opt out of the license fee so institutions like the BBC will lose out, but that isn’t always the case and there are possible opportunities for the institution to benefit from it. Micropayment is a small business for paying small fees for TV content, which has often been criticised as audiences are too comfortable with watching free content. However, according to the entertainment company, Freemantle Media, their research says audience are “willing to pay small amounts for on-demand TV programmes from 5p up to as high as £2”. This infers that pay-walls and micropayments could have a successful place online because the institutions will benefit from the audience who are willing to pay for an online service. This has been a similar idea of Rupert Murdoch who has added a pay-wall for his successful and well regarded online version of the news newspaper, The Times (thetimes.co.uk/tto/news). The success of the pay-wall hasn’t been fully analysed but the institution expected a loss of 90% of consumers, but so far has only lost a third. Therefore, if institutions decide to put up a pay-wall for TV it would be beneficial as it is clear that audiences are happy to pay for TV if they choose not to stick to scheduling.

Due to the introduction of web 2.0, audiences are able to be more involved with creating and sharing information which has had an impact on news. Consumers are becoming more active and want to have an input in what they and others consume. As a result, the Guardian newspaper online (theguardian.co.uk) has a section called “comment is free” where audiences can comment on articles and create their own discussions. This shows how the institutions are willing to adapt to audience’s needs and therefore benefit both consumers and themselves.

Some argue that institutions are losing out due to citizen journalism, but it can benefit both the consumer and the producer. When audiences share on the internet, it seems news is beginning to lose its place in terms of its importance. Audiences trust citizen journalism as much as news institutions as they provide different accounts and angles of an event. That’s why the journalist researching the Ian Tomlinson case was successful because he embraced the “mutualisation of news. The guardian journalist, Paul Lewis, came across someone who had filmed Tomlinson getting beaten up by the police and later that day Tomlinson died of a heart attack. Without the user generated content from the citizen journalist, the police wouldn’t have discovered what had happened to Tomlinson, which shows that new and digital media can be benefit both producers and consumers.