How does new-media (the internet, cell-phone technology, etc) play a significant role in the success of reality TV, as well as cult TV series such as Buffy?
Internet
Most people use this everyday to catch up with their friends, read up on the latest goss and watch video clips of things on YouTube. Here people can talk about their likes and dislikes, their day and what they plan on doing later in their lives (be this a month, a day or a minute). The internet is the best tool for advertising due to the reliance people have on it for their everyday lives. Reality TV, cult TV and in fact, every single kind of popular genre is affected by this incredible new-media invention. Here are some of the websites that add to the success of all of these genres:
- Facebook - millions of users logon everyday and talk to their friends about what they watched, or are about to watch on TV, what their favourite novels are, what new movie is coming out at the cinemas. This generates a lot of hype for the TV show, book or movie, making more people want to see or read the texts so that they can add their two-cents in. It's like a never ending loop where one person mentions something and then that person mentions it to someone else, and so on and so forth.
- YouTube - people tune into this popular website every single day to look up anything and everything video related. Be it trailers of new movies, interviews with their favourite stars or just the music aspect of it, videos are constantly being watched for informative and entertainment reasons. Advertisements on videos is generally the best way for popular genres to achieve recognition as they are all over the page, drawing people's attention to them. Buffy, for example, has over 44,000 hits with the generic search of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
- Fan-fic sites - people LOVE to make stories up, however only a few of them write them down for fear of being told it's bad or whatever, the great thing with fan-fic sites is that you can post whatever you want anonymously about whatever tickles your fancy. There are heaps about different reality shows, what people thought should have happened, what people think will happen and characters that people want brought in. There are plenty of cult TV fan-fic's, it is a very popular genre (pun intended) to write about. This adds to the success of these genres as it generates more interest from other people who read the fan-fics. It can also be a source of inspiration for the writers who are feeling under-appreciated or need new ideas (J. K. Rowling actually asked a few of her fans if she could borrow some of their ideas for her books).
- Program specific sites - these obviously work as the fans who want to know more about plot, characters, release dates or anything else can go to these sites and run wild. It's another medium to generate interest and fill in the fans eagerly awaiting the next season/episode/installment with stuff that they can get excited about.
Phones
Obviously, the main reason why phones work for adding to the success of TV shows is because it works like facebook: you talk to your mates about what you liked and disliked about a film/TV show/book and they go and check it out in order to understand what you've said or to counter your opinion.
Smart-phones
Applications on iPhone's and Androids are becoming super popular and this also works like the internet as the application connect to specific sites. 'IMDb' is a very popular website and application that people use to find out about all things film. TV shows and movies, characters and actors, everything is on this website. Another good one is 'Sidereel' which allows you to see when your TV shows are due to come out and find links of where to watch them online.
New-media is the best way to generate dialogue and interest based on reality TV, cult TV and any kind of movie, novel or TV show as people use these devices so often, it's impossible to ignore the advertisements for trailers or news articles about your favourite celebrities, they are the digital billboards for the online world.
Interesting commentary on the various New media paltforms and their relationship to fan practices and the success of reality and cult TV. BtVS actually gets 11,800,000 hits though.
ReplyDelete