Films
Media as Industry
Radio TV, videos, cinema, magazines, comics are all part of Cultural production. We can hate it or we adore it, whatever the case may be but we cannot deny the importance and forcefulness of Media i today. Everyone talks about it. We need it like air. Even if we don’t want it in our lives but it has become like an omnipresence in our lives which tags around our existence. Some sees its relevance while others have their own bias. We tend to politicise it thus in turn publicising the very aspect. It is the current flow that looks to keep its foothold for a long time. Various aspects of media contain meanings, thoughts, values, ideas that work at different levels unlike regular productions of things and items. But the similarity between them is also striking. Like these mundane products, cultural production is also developed in mind its mass reachability and access. So they also need to be developed cheap and in abundance. The reason being, there is a constant thirst for new production as there is ever growing market for new content. The new idea will always have more currency and acceptance. Moreover in current scenario there is a strong mergence between the technological and economic aspect of the industry that in turn help it in thriving in it full potential!
In Television, mostly ratings and the advertising rule the content available for the viewers. This give birth and nurtures well the concept of drama, scandal, propaganda. In fact it has become the fuel driving majority of economies. It has power strong enough to deviate from the more important issues and has the capacity to stay focus on the non-important topics due the the hype and uproar created in its favour. In films since they have wider money backings and support from investors, banks etc. so they have more choice and leverage to control their content and production. How far and strong they go about doing it is all together a different matter.
Newspapers, magazines and Alternative news have a more cut-throat competition an they have more number of mergers and acquisitions. Due to this there are more 24 hr. news channels, n obnoxious level of increased competition. This results in point-to-point marketing, target-oriented advertising and sales to engage variety of more and more viewers and consumers. So media studies focus on different perspective of of media industry. For instance what is produced, how is it done. What does it imply. Who controls the production. What is its impact, who all are represented here. What ideologies are promoted. Who are the consumers and how do they consume any product or content etc. There are so many more questions attached to this ever growing industry and we know that the answers lie very well inside this rabbit hole as well. What is further more important is are we going to deliberately look for them and try to break the vicious cycle of Media behind an industry and vice versa?
