In our project brief 4 we have settled on the above question to explore within our audio essay. We have decided to use a debate structure between someone representing “big broadcasters” versus “user generated media makers”. This will hopefully make our essay engaging and comedic, I’m thinking an ABC2 production aesthetic. Something Mark Fennell would be on ya know.

The arguments we’re discussing is the power shift between broadcasters and audiences, with key topics being media ownership corrupting news sources with a case study being the ‘stalking’ of Julia Gillard, and the media coverage of the prime ministership. This also plays into big broadcasters pushing their ideas of nationalism, which is often conservative to meet the alignments of the Packers/Murdochs.
Another case would be advertising. The argument is that big broadcasters are dominated by advertising, whereas small media productions who try to stray from advertisers still need sponsorships and product placements to be visible when there is so much UGC.
Finally is the Fandom point. Audiences have power over media production, yet on the defence, have little power in the “real world”.

Hopefully this will come together in a concise and clear way!!!