As a class, we have talked about power imbalances on social
media sites between users producers or designers. We have looked at how user generated
data is capitalized on by producers to create different forms of exploitation
and we focused on the importance of both users and designers to populate and frame
these sites of communication. During my presentation I suggested that mass
media and social media are currently integrated to change the viewer/ user
experience. I found this even more prevalent with the recent release of the first-ever,
scripted television show on Instagram: Shield 5. It will consist of 28
episodes, each 15 seconds long, with one episode released per day.
Check it out here : Shield 5
Gehl (2014) suggested that online advertisements are now more
covert and through social media and I draw on Fuchs’ reading which further
states that advertisers are able to create more directed advertisements to
target audiences based on corporations accessing users’ online behaviours and
constructed “profiles” using big data (2014). By streaming Shield 5 episodes on the widely
used platform of Instagram, with what appears to be an action-packed, teen or
young adult drama, I believe that the producers of Shield 5 are able to reach
their target audience and are able to track audience reception more easily. This
particular age group can be more easily reached through this particular social
media site, rather than through mass media television.
Instead of having fans individually talk about the show on
social media themselves, the producers make this process more accessible, by
producing the show on social media. Each video already has thousands of likes
and comments! This encourages more interaction between users and further
popularizes these episodes by creating more buzz and discussion on Instagram,
where viewers can watch and directly talk about it to other viewers. Through
this platform, the producers are able to utilize hashtag and enable the
producers more power to suggest how this series should be discussed in the
public domain. Herman acknowledges the ability of users to express their
opinions based on the affordances of the social media platform itself. Using
hashtags allows the video to be included within relevant spheres of
conversation between users following these hashtags on Instagram. Borrowing
from Slack and Wise’s articul
Following the first episode, a picture was uploaded to the
Instagram account including a wanted poster of the main character introduced in
that episode, to suggest a multimedia approach to the show. By producing
artifacts on the site, to suggest clues about the plot to the viewers, it
furthers discussions about the show and creates even more interaction between
users.
I personally think the producers capitalize on this process,
through Castel’s framework of the network theory which claims that sites generate
value from their users. I applied this sense of value not only through the
collection of big data but also on the producers’ abilities to capitalize on
the increased exposure of the show, through a multimedia approach. This may
lead to more loyal or dedicated fans, as they further discussion about the show
using the interactive platform, in which the show is actually aired. McVeigh-Schultz
and Baym suggest that affordances of technology are nested within various
levels of interaction, on a scale. I believe that the affordances of viewing
this show on Instagram, increases the shows ability to be discussed on this
particular platform. Instagram users are familiar with this site’s affordances:
by knowing how to access the show on this platform, users have to capability
and are more likely to comment and interact with other users on this platform.
To be honest, this sounds kind of cool. But that's what they want me to think, so I'll take a stab at it from another angle. This sounds -- typical and unsurprising. Instagram may have run up against its own affordances -- oh look, another vegan dinner -- and, like many social media platforms before it, is looking to expand not only the target audience (those already on Instagram) but to also CREATE a new audience (new users) by dangling little snippets (really just glorified vines) in front of users' eyes. They are capitalizing on a culture of binge watchers -- once we see something we like, not only do we consume it entirely in a short time span, but we also shout it from the rooftops, or from our Facebook wall (Making of a Murderer anyone?). Instagram is also hoping to capitalize on prosumers telling other prosumers about this show -- not in person, but on other social media websites. Can we say Instagram is tapping into the affective labour of other sites -- is this 'double' exploitation?
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting case study to draw upon! Using social media as a platform to produce a short series such as this is brilliant. In this way users can interact more freely with the content, as they can comment directly on the video itself.
ReplyDeleteI think it is essential that each episode is only 15 seconds long—especially since it is on a social media site. When using social media, people scroll through posts and pictures, not taking much time to pause and seriously consider anything. As such, I tend to think that peoples’ social media attention spans are not very long. Therefore, 15 second episodes are perfect for maintaining an ideology of quick perusal.
To Karly’s point, these videos are just glorified vines, I agree. This series, though, is held together with a (presumably loose) story line. However, short videos are very popular on social media sites. Therefore, I think Instagram is attempting to capitalize on a new fad and ‘jump on the band wagon’ in the pursuit of profit. Excellent points made by both Amara and Karly!
I think that the 15 seconds is important to tie into Karly's point about tapping into the binge watching audience that Instagram attempts to capitalize on! These clips are an attempt to carry enough information to keep the viewers locked in and reveal just enough of a cliffhanger to keep them going with a particular narrative.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the idea of having others share the information and popularize the show speaks to the new participatory culture that Jenkins describes in the book titled "Spreadable Media" from 2013. This is increasingly a way for even social movement activists to bypass the cost of mass media and promotional tools to have users generate the buzz about their ideas. I believe that this was a good idea in theory; however, I found that the short time span was not enough for me to be engaged in a fully developed narrative. I believe that more supplementary materials such as Q&As with viewers or even more personalized profiles of each character could have been included to have viewers more invested in the series.
Then again, I have been binge watching Netflix during this time, so my attention and social engagement has been drawn into shows elsewhere. Maybe if Instagram encouraged the release of several shows to follow at a time, it could engage viewers with a choice to watch different series and maybe even develop this notion of a 15 second show. Netflix capitalizes on the ability to not offer quality shows, but the ability to offer choices of television shows and movies. There has been number of times when I settled on a random movie on Netflix that I didn't necessarily like, but was drawn to the platform of Netflix because of the massive amounts of choices that it offers.
This speaks to the perceived affordances offered to users to encourage engagement -- a common theme we have talked about throughout the semester. In Fusch's reading, we discussed the power of the choice and how it enabled participation without the user questioning how much agency they had as choices masked their ability to have limited autonomy. Maybe with the development of this 15 second show, the same process can be applied to Instagram with multiple series of shows that allow users to choice what they would like to watch
Throughout your post all I could think of was how genius the marketing team at Instagram is. As you’ve pointed out, Fuchs discusses the notion of choice on the side of the user to use or to not use an application. Often, through social and societal pressures, social media platforms becomes almost impossible to avoid and becomes a type of necessity for modern life. While I don’t think this platform will become necessary in terms of watching videos (like Netflix), it is true that the more a platform can offer to its users, the more “necessary” it becomes.
ReplyDelete