Discuss Technology (U24: P2, M1)

Learning Objective 1 (U24): Understand the products that are produced within and across media industries

P2

M1 - Unit 24 - Discuss how industry standard has utilised development in technologies 

Production technologies have improved drastically over the past years allowing the media companies to make higher quality content with the use of their new technologies such as higher quality cameras, digital editing and manipulation and more advance sound recording making a lot easier film crews to add separate sound effects. While all these could have been done before at a much slower rate. The advancement in technology means that even the smallest creator can make a video or series of images to a high standard. The most obvious example of advancements in technology is now that people can film content on there phones and upload them to platforms such YouTube, Instagram and Facebook within minutes. A new multi-billion industry that’s catching traditional tv and cinema was created because the way we film and deliver technology has become purely digital. Photography has also done the same thing, we can now take a photo, edit it and post to millions of people all in one app. Although this is great and has allowed the professional to push their content further, it has allowed people to not need the professionals anymore. We have seen the introduction of the influencer, who can make a video or take a selfie and sell products once again online all in one app. 

Marketing has completely changed in recent years; one key area marketing has changed is through the use of internet cookies. Cookies are small files which are designed to hold data specific to a particular client or website. For example, if I was, I was to be looking flights to go on holiday, I would than see adverts relating to that on my social media. Cookies can be used by companies to specifically target there and target market allowing them to not waste money on unneeded advertisement that will not hit their target market. Social media has also had a massive impact on the way products are marketed for example you now have the ability to share products on social media extensively and on top of this the social media companies know that there are certain psychological effects that are triggered when buying from social media sites. This once again linked with the use of influencers it feels more like we are out shopping with friends then actually sitting alone and spending money. We now have a smartphone that is in our pockets or by our sides 24 hours a day and when we are bored or in difficult real-life situations we turn to our phones as an escape. The more we spend on them our digital footprint becomes larger allowing online companies to target us with emails and notifications that mean we never escape the constant offers of money spending. Social media heavily relies on the use of hashtags, which further increases the awareness of the brand or words associated with the product. Brands such as Coke, Nike and Apple rely on hashtags as it allows their followers/consumers to interact with one another and spread awareness about a product.

Distribution and the way in which audiences can now accesses products has massively changed over recent years.  From times of having to go blockbuster to get a movie (who went bankrupt in 2013) to now being to stream movies and content on Netflix within seconds, the same can be said for the music industry where you would by a CD where’s you stream and download music from platforms like Spotify within seconds. In it’s hay day HMV (his masters voice) had over 350 stores globally and that when it opened it’s flagship store on oxford street celebrities such as Bob Geldof showed up help with opening. Since the 1990s/ early 2000’s HMV has been in decline firstly because of the iPod which meant you could buy and download music from the comfort of your home and then after that we saw the rise of Spotify. You don’t even need to download the music to listen, this was all helped by the price of the Spotify being cheaper than most albums.

As well as the music industry being a lot more convenient for the consumer, we also have services like amazon that allow us to buy a product on the go and most will now deliver to our doorstep in the same day. So for a product to be made, manufactured and distributed with out us leaving our homes that is why such stores like HMV are leaving the high street. 

To conclude the update and change in technology has completely changed the way we live our lives and the media industry its self in both positive and negative ways. For example, it has allowed us to be to accesses media in a very quick manner and it to be very accessible this means the advertisement industry will be able to project there materials a lot more efficiency and more productive through the use cookies , on the other hand they will have to produce a lot more content just to stay relevant with in the market.