How far have improvements in technology made a difference to the quality of audience experience?

Media production has increased throughout the twentieth century to give audiences the opportunity to experience stories told in a range of media: cinema, television, magazines and on the internet and the task of attracting audiences to see films at the cinema has not become easier, but arguably, more difficult with so much competition.

The daily newspapers are an important source of information about new films and film stars. The tabloid press can be generally relied upon to reveal any particularly interesting gossip about stars or directors. The audience can be persuaded against a film by reviews or criticism/gossip about stars in exactly the same way that they can be swayed to go and see it. Nevertheless, magazines that make the reviewing of films and their stars a central focus are a vital source of distribution for film makers. Also the internet has become a powerful, new marketing tool for film distributors as it is in the film industry’s interests to use new technology to generate interest in stars and films. Social Networking is a technology that provides the potential for ordinary fans, audiences and web-surfers to create their own kinds of interest. The film industry attempts to control the image of a star we, the audience, are given. In all publicity there is careful attention paid to how the star is to be represented to audiences. It does not have control, however, on how fans/audiences re-interpret and re-represent that information themselves in things such as reviews or fan sites. As for audiences watching a film they now have more options at the cinema when a film is first being shown such as 3D, 2D and Imax, this creates a different type of experience that is more appealing to a lot of people also at home there are more options such as HD and 3D TV’s that are more less expensive but higher tech. this means that people can have this cinema experience in the comfort of their own home.