This Week’s Insights: Are video games the new common culture?… Public media discovers the age of audience divide (literally)… TV networks come up short… My live in headphones (and how that changes the world)… City tells arts centre to sell more tickets or else.
- What Art Form Now Expresses Common Culture? It used to be TV. Or movies. But in our content-soaked age, it’s difficult to believe there’s anything that unites or articulates anything like a common culture. But perhaps there’s now a case to be made that it’s video-game culture that best expresses where we are.
- How Public Media Discovered The Great American Audience Divide: it was simple, really – asking. But the answers were a bit surprising. What researchers found was that age 58 is the magic number. It’s the age that defines the generational divide between donors who want more on-demand programs and those who are less likely to know that those programs are even available. It also correlates to how much members are willing to pay for content…
- Coming Up Short: The YouTube generation has come of age. Indeed, YouTube is now the preferred platform of choice for young people. Short YouTube content has dominated. And now it’s making its way into mainstream TV. Once the purview of DIY YouTubers and aspiring creatives looking for a big break, short-form now commands a deep well of resources – the backing of major studios, streaming-service budgets and top talent. And as the slate of original content continues to expand, scripted short-form TV may become the new normal on TV. Networks are trying out short 15-minute episodes and reconfiguring longer shows into shorter scenes.
- The Audience Is Controlling More Of Its Surroundings: Here’s the first-person story of someone who wears headphones all the time – to shut the world out, to concentrate, to mask sound, to sleep. “To those who lived before headphones, it might seem as though I want to exist in the world without actually being part of it. And to some extent, that’s true. Urban Millennials like me don’t inhabit a world that allows for much privacy. We’ve been squeezed into closely packed offices, closely packed subway cars, and closely packed apartments. Everyone else’s noises are constantly everywhere, so your head is the only personal space you can get.”
- Make More Impact Or You’re Out, Says City To Arts Centre: The Scottish governments of Perth and Kinross are dismayed by attendance at local arts centers. Impact? Nope. What the council wants is to sell more tickets. And it’s given managers a year…
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