NDM: The key concepts of audience and institution

1) What was the relationship between audience and institution in the pre-digital age?

In the pre-digital age, the relationship between audiences and institutions were, in some sense, a lot simpler than what it is now. There was a one way flow of media where the economically powerful institutions, distribute packaged media products to carefully defined audience members. This accentuates the strong dominance that institutions held in comparison to the audience, who had not much opportunity for democracy in terms of media production and conveyed ideologies.

2) The article gives a lot of examples of major media institutions. Choose three examples from the article and summarise what the writer is saying about each of them.

ITV - There is a great value in appealing larger masses of audiences as this is an institution that relies on advertisements.

Sky One - Exclusive content is very necessary as this institution depends on subscription fees, meaning that they must be able to attract audiences who are willing to have a long term commitment.

The Mail Online - Including controversial and scandalous images and headlines would be very beneficial for this institution as they generate income from the length of time that a reader spends on the website. This means that there content must be very attractive and shocking.


3) The article ends with a section on the digital age. Summarise this section in 50 words.

As the digital age has only just begun to thrive, there is much room for improvements. Now, institutions are still dependant on audiences’ preferences and many traditional media forms may be slow to respond to this change. Due to this, technology companies such as Google and Yahoo are striving.

4) How do YOU see the relationship between audience and institution in the future? Will audiences gain increasing power or will the major global media institutions hold sway?

In the future, I think that the audiences' power may become almost equal to that of the institution's and may even become more successful when producing media as the ideologies conveyed are very alternative yet revealing and fascinating for other audiences. Despite this, there are still possibilities that this could not happen as institutions have great support from the elite, who aid them economically in order for them to produce top quality productions. Audiences would be unable to get such backing however, if they do receive such support, this is where they will cross the boundary from being part of the 'audience' category to becoming part of an institution.