Oopsfamily.23.11.13.kay.lovely.family.crush.xxx...
If you are studying entertainment, the biggest question is: "Why do people enjoy things that make them sad, scared, or angry?"
This paper established the Mood Management Theory. Before Zillmann, many scholars assumed people watched TV or movies purely for information. Zillmann argued that entertainment is primarily used as a tool to regulate our emotions.
What does the next decade hold for entertainment content and popular media? OopsFamily.23.11.13.Kay.Lovely.Family.Crush.XXX...
To understand where entertainment content and popular media is going, we must first look back. For most of the 20th century, popular media was a monologue. Three major television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and a handful of film studios dictated what the public consumed. If you wanted to watch a show, you tuned in at 8 PM on Thursday. If you missed it, you missed the cultural conversation.
The arrival of cable television in the 1980s and 1990s began to fracture this model. MTV, HBO, and ESPN proved that audiences craved specificity. However, the true revolution began with the internet. Napster, YouTube (founded in 2005), and Netflix’s transition from DVD-by-mail to streaming in 2007 shattered the gatekeeping model entirely. If you are studying entertainment, the biggest question
Suddenly, entertainment content was no longer scarce. It was infinite.
Title: Entertainment: The "Functional" Approach to Enjoyment and Its Implications for Understanding Media Effects Author: Dolf Zillmann (University of Alabama) Year: 1984 (Published in the Journal of Communication) This friction is leading to "subscription fatigue
The economics of popular media are in flux. For years, the "streaming wars" prioritized subscriber growth over profit. Now, Wall Street wants profitability. Consequently:
This friction is leading to "subscription fatigue." The average household now pays for 4-5 streaming services. As costs mount, we are seeing a resurgence of piracy and a return to ad-supported free TV (via services like Tubi and Pluto TV).