This Week’s Insights: A public broadcasting model for social media?… What role does ticket price have in attendance?… Charging up fake news… Why the Emmys tanked on TV… Live performance built for your smartphone.
- Do We Need A Public Broadcasting Model For Social Media? The American public broadcasting models (they’re different for radio and for TV) were created to serve up programming that wouldn’t be done by commercial for-profit broadcasters. It’s been a mixed success. With social media companies now under siege for their privacy and problematic content issues, perhaps what we need is a public media version of social media platforms? Maybe the answer to fixing social media isn’t trying to change companies with business models built around products that hijack our attention, and instead work to create a less toxic alternative.
- Ticket Prices As Audience Barrier? “The popular misconception that price is the chief barrier to access to the arts has taken hold in the sector, while in reality, price is only one of a complex set of factors affecting engagement with ‘hard to reach’ groups.” In the UK free museum admission has increased audiences but also changed the way those audiences use museums and the kinds of audiences that come. Other forms of entertainment are as or more expensive as the arts, but still manage to do well. So what factor is price?
- Fake News, Viral News, And What They Have In Common: Fake news provokes reaction. It’s designed to provoke. “What we do is share content that gets people riled up. Research has found that the best predictor of sharing is strong emotions — both emotions like affection (think posts about cute kittens) and emotions like moral outrage. Studies suggest that morally laden emotions are particularly effective: every moral sentiment in a tweet increases by 20 percent its chances of being shared.”
- Why The Emmy Broadcast Ratings Tanked: These were epically low TV ratings. And this in the Golden Age of TV. If the shows are so good why is the audience so down? Various production choices — no host (unless you count Homer Simpson), crummy disco music, a puerile announcer — are partly to blame. But the main problem is the award itself. The Emmys don’t mean much to the American public because last night’s big winners — “Game of Thrones,” “Fleabag” and “Chernobyl” — are done, off the air, out of production, kaput. Sure, you can go back and watch them on HBO on Demand or on Amazon, but you’re not likely to.
- Performances Built To Attract Your Smartphone: As part of the grand opening of its big new store in central London, Samsung put up a three-story, 30-foot stage and presented a rock concert on it. Why? “Research … found 94% of smartphone users are now engaging with their devices vertically, and 79% find vertical videos the most interesting.”
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
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