Seismic Shifts: Platforms,Content Creators and Spreadable Media

Abstract

While traditional media are grappling with an increasingly fragmented audience and (the further threat of) declining revenue, some players are excelling in the new landscape. The increasing popularity of Netflix and other online broadcasters and platforms is signalling seismic shifts in the way that content is created, consumed and distributed/circulated. As part of this shift towards what Chuck Tryon (2013) broadly describes as an ‘on-demand culture’, we are experiencing an accelerating trend in which digital platforms are beginning to act as TV networks, and amidst this transition independent content creators are empowered by the flexibility of digital media and the proliferation of funding and release possibilities.