The document discusses the concept of proliferation in media which refers to the increase in available hardware, content, and distribution options due to emerging technologies and digital convergence. It provides examples of how the success of the iPhone led to many similar smartphones flooding the market, and how technologies like 3D TVs have merged different media forms. The digital age has shaped film distribution through easier and cheaper online distribution methods as well as issues like piracy. Overall proliferation has increased the ways consumers can access content through both old and new converged media platforms and shifted some control to audiences.

2.  Proliferation is the increase in the amount of
hardware and content available to both
audiences and institutions through the
emergence of new and old media

3.  iPhone is a big hit so companies learn that
consumers want a touch screen phone that
has lots of apps. Suddenly there are lots
(albeit lesser) smart phones with similar looks
and attributes = Proliferation

4.  Proliferation could occur from the
breakthrough in technology which allows a
lot of companies to enter the market
 For instance technological convergence
through the digital age
 Technological convergence = combining two
or more technologies (hardware)

5.  Emerged through the digital age
 Trend of technologies to merge into new
technologies that bring together a number of
different media
 E.g. Smart 3D TVs – 3D
technology, Internet, TV

6.  When it comes to distribution the digital age
has shaped how we distribute and receive
films from downloading, piracy, file
sharing, and even promotion of films using
online advertising
 Digital technology has improved things for
low budget film makers and distributors as it
is cheaper and easier to distribute.

7.  Today there is a proliferation in the way we
can consume the content through both old
and new media, and how these have
converged.
 i.e. TV, Newspapers are now converged
online with the use of the internet. Where
websites have video new and also people
writing on their blogs with their view

8.  Due to the proliferation of new media with
more options to communicate, more user
generated content people can now exchange
info about films
 Think about YouTube clips of films fans have
made, reviews on amazon, twitter

9.  Downloading – iTunes, iPod, Apple TV
 Digital Piracy – DVDs, File sharing
 Social networking sites – marketing and buzz
 Accessibility – EVERYWHERE
 Control – Industry AND Audiences

10.  Downloading from unofficial sources –
Limewire, YouTube downloader
 Piracy – DVD recordings of films in cinema
 Accessibility – everywhere and anyone had the ability
to so this because of convergence of technology and
affordability of this
 Control – moves from institutions to the audience. But
it is the smaller companies that are effected more
why?
 In what ways have institution tried to stop of halt this?
Think of the ways they have used technology to stop
this or initiatives e.g. cheap downloads
 Piracy is a major concern

11.  An improved overall experience as a result of better sound and
images reproduction
 A heightened emotional experience as a result of a stronger
sense of empathy with characters who in some way seem
more real
 Enhanced spectacle
 Improved ease of access
 New, easier and intensified ways of using film to pleasure
themselves e.g. IMAX
 Enhanced intellectual experience
 The chance for new, ever cheaper and more compact devices
to make films for themselves

12.  The chance to repackage and resell old products, esp
cult films, thereby establishing a new audience base
for an old product
 An opportunity to place products for sale in a new
‘window’ thereby lengthening the commercial life of
each film
 The chance to encourage multiple purchases of
essentially the same product
 A means of still managing to make profit on films
that initially perform poorly at the box office

13.  Discuss technological convergence and
proliferation in relation to
production/distribution/exhibition/exchange
of your focus film
 Think about if your focus films are benefiting
from new technology and proliferation?