18 May, 2017

This week’s lecture is about broadcast television and Netflix; The theme of Project Brief 4 that we chose is broadcast television and post-broadcast television as well. However, because of culture shock and government policies, I am not familiar with Netflix because it is banned in China, so I even never heard it or used it before. In this initiative blog, I just want to share my personal experience about television and some applications or companies that similar with Netflix.

In my opinion, the frequency of watching television is decreased. When I was a child, I liked to watch cartoons on the television with my parents. My mom watched romantic drama series, my dad watched documentaries about animals, but also watched some drama series. During that period of time, television is an important machine for entertainment, especially during the festivals because the whole family would watch TV after meal.

However, television was not very common to use later because of the development of technology. Smartphones and some electronic products took us most of time. In the first stage, the phone cannot use by touching the screen, so it is just the product for us to call and send or receive messages. At that time, television still play a crucial role in our life, because we just can watch drama series or news on TV. However, with the improved of the technology, touchscreen phones were published. The functions of the phone is not only for texting and calling, but also for watching online and playing games. Gradually, more and more people rely on their phones, including myself. In the modern days, who can life without the phone??? Take myself as an example, I rent the home in Melbourne. I do not have a television at home, but I still enjoy my life and do not feel bored because I have phone and computer! I can watch everything I interested in online, even I am in Melbourne, I still can watch Chinese drama series and news online. The television cannot have these functions because it has limited channels and limited by localization. Thus, I think television is being replaced by other electronic products. However, it is still works for the elderly because elder people prefer to watch on TV.

Then, I want to discuss about applications or companies that similar with Netflix. Although I never used it before, I know it is the company that rent DVD. I remembered I went to some local small companies that rent DVDs to citizens in my hometown when I was a pupil. When I want to watch some cartoons, but it is difficult to watch the whole series on TV, I will go to borrow DVDs and pay for them. I am not sure if Netflix is similar with these companies. However, nowadays, we have many online applications for publishing movies and dramas, such as youtube, IQIYI (a Chinese application) etc.

Although we do not watch TV frequently now, it is also have some other functions, such as for playing video games! Moreover, I do not know the reason, but I always think television can create a sense of home. The place I am living now do not have television, so I always miss home, I want to sit in the living room with my parents and watch TV or have meal.