24 MediaMagazineOnline | December 2010 | english and media centre

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!"#$%"&!'!"#$%"&!'Illegal Audiences: Pay or Piracy?

How have changes in media technologies affected audience consumption and behaviour patterns – and how do these in turn impact on the economics of the media industries? Michael Parkes investigates the murky world of illegal downloads and piracy, and argues that there may be some longer-term benefits for media institutions.

By now you will have probably come across all manner of audience theories in your study of the media. Each approach attempts to understand how audiences consume media texts and address the possible effects of the content on people. From the Hypodermic Needle model to Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model; uses and gratifications to two-step flow, all are the by-product of research into audience’s behaviour, consumption and reading of the media.

However, all of these approaches are problematic. All media theories take for granted one important factor that, when questioned, destabilises their ability to analyse the audience.

They all take for granted that the audience is consuming the media legally – that they are paying for it and investing in the experience. Audiences have given something up (usually money) to take part in the process; or they are part of a secondary or tertiary audience consuming content in a process in which they and the media institution are complicit.

However in today’s media landscape, personal investment and paying for the media doesn’t always happen; the internet has radically changed the way we consume – to the point that audiences are regularly downloading content illegally, not paying for it, and more importantly, not investing in this experience.

If this is the case, should we be reconsidering our approach to audience consumption? If the audience is consuming the media without investing in it, is this a different experience? Does watching a film or listening to a piece of music change when we get it for free?

10 Years of Change Illegal downloading started to create a stir

in the news and in media studies over a decade ago with the threat of Napster. Media analysts reacted quite quickly, addressing the fear that this was a major threat to both the industry and individual artists and that it would change the way in which audiences consumed the media. Institutions reacted and attempted legal proceedings on a number of example cases to send the message that illegal pirating would not be tolerated. Media technology and formats have had to change to control content and release dates, making it harder to copy media texts, although at the same time making institutional distribution and manufacture easier. The internet has given audiences an almost unlimited choice of content and in the case of individual artists; there are now excellent opportunities for unsigned bands, as you can get your music to a global audience via social networking marketing; whilst at the same time making it easier for institutions to find artists that are already popular with the public.

Fears that illegal downloads would lead to financial ruin for the music industry have also seemed to be unfounded. We are starting to see growth in both CD album sales and tickets for live events after 10 years of decline, almost as if the young downloaders of the last 10 years have matured and now have the disposable income to spend on music. If this is the case, then the future looks optimistic. Teenagers who have comparatively little money are given access to downloadable music during their youth, and when they have their first job and earn more money, they can then start to contribute to the legal media industry. They are also likely to spend more than any generation before them, as they are used to a certain amount of musical ‘intake’ which they will attempt to maintain in their 20s and 30s.

Co-opting the Texts We Consume

We have also started to see some changes whereby audiences appear to be consuming the media in new ways, negotiating mainstream media and fragmenting the media text. The music album has become more and more open to interpretation as fans download and re-sequence favourite tracks that reflect their own personality.

More recently audiences have started to do the same with films, re-editing their favourite clips, adding different music or even totally recreating and uploading to YouTube to reflect their own identity. In her opening speech

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at Cannes last year Danah Boyd, a respected academic researcher at Microsoft and Harvard, referred to this process as ‘co-option’, which recognised the way in which new audiences are co-opting media texts restructuring them to construct an external manifestation of their identity in the same way in which we would traditionally use fashion.

So things have changed dramatically over the last 10 years. Despite this, the theories we use to understand audience consumption have not. They still take for granted that audiences are investing in the initial experience, despite the evidence that they are not. Therefore we need to address these changes and come up with new approaches to understand new audiences.

What Drives Illegal Download Choice?

The mainstream media are full of choice and guidance as to what to consume and how to consume it. Advertisements, trailers for films, iTunes recommendations and poster campaigns all of which attempt to get you to give up your money to buy and invest in a specific media experience. Thanks to this process we can pretty much predict which media texts are going to be the most popular; whichever has the biggest advertising campaign or most media coverage is likely to be the most successful.

in terms of film, the link between advertising budget and film success is especially noticeable during the summer blockbuster period, when cinema trailers, TV spots, merchandising, McDonald’s tie ins, toys and even social networking and online advertisements can guarantee a film’s success. If you analyse 2009’s list of Top 10 films at the box office, it closely matches the top 10 advertising spend. Awards are also an indicator of possible success and large sections of the audience rely on Oscars and BAFTAs to inform their decisions before handing over cold hard cash at the box office.

However, the top 10 ‘illegal’ film download list doesn’t always match the advertising spend, award lists or mainstream box office success. Online illegal downloading audiences are still exposed to the advertising campaigns of the big blockbusters, but this success does not translate into downloads. Last year’s Top 3 illegally downloaded films according to Torrent Freak are Star Trek with over 10 million downloads (more than The Dark Knight the year before), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at number 2, and more surprisingly, Rock n Rolla at number three, with over 9 million downloads; however, the same film ranked at 168th at the Box office in 2008 when the film was released.

So what dictates the success of these films in illegal downloading? Well in Rock n Rolla’s case it’s the ‘aXXo’ uploader, which, due to the success and ease of use of the software, guaranteed over a million downloads. The success here seems to be primarily due to technological reasons. Technological capability and age plays an important part in understanding the success of these films; both Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are targeted at a teenage audience already savvy with download culture and with access to the necessary hardware to consume in this way. Traditionally money has been the barrier to how many films you can consume, in today’s media landscape this is no different, but the focus is on what the money is spent on i.e. the technology that allows you to download.

Targeting Illegal Audiences Although age is a clear indicator of a film’s

online success, there is, however, an anomaly: namely Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The Number One film at the official box office in 2009 appears in the top 10 illegally downloaded films at Number 7. This is a film that is clearly marketed at a young technologically savvy market, reflected in the number of official online advertisements for the film prior to its release. So why wasn’t it at number 1 in the download list?

If we look carefully at the top illegal downloaded films there appears to be a pattern forming. In 2007 the top illegal downloaded film was Transformers; in 2008 it was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and in 2009 Star Trek. All of these films fit into the science fiction/fantasy genre; but more importantly, all carry with them an existing audience from their previous incarnations. Star Trek has a legacy audience dating back to the 1960s; Transformers from the 1980s with its back story and toy merchandise; and Indiana Jones from the previous Spielberg films, also from the 1980s. The intended target audiences for these films are both young teenage males, but also older teenage males from the 1980s who are now well into their 30s, with the disposable income necessary to spend on watching these films at the cinema. So why download?

When daunted by the prospect of sitting amongst teenage boys with no appreciation of the legacy and back stories of these films or the importance of their previous incarnations in constructing their identity as children and teenagers, the older male audience chose to download. When put in this position, were the older members of the audience more likely to illegally download rather than admit consuming their childhood favourites at the cinema?

Both Star Trek and Transformers are excellent examples of Ien Ang’s Ideology of Popularism. Ang is an Australian Professor of Cultural Studies. In Watching Dallas (1985,) her influential study of audiences for the US soap opera, Ang argues that a media text’s status as an imported expensive cultural product is a key part of its success. In this case, both films reflect Ang’s ideas – both films have big budgets, special effects and major marketing campaigns. However, both also carry an un-fashionable ‘geeky’ heritage. You don’t have to look very far in the media to see stereotypical images of the sci-fi geek – see, for example, the cast of The Big Bang Theory. Was this in turn part of the reason for the films’ online success? Did mainstream audiences want to go and see these films at the box office but not to be tainted with the ‘geek’ stereotypes, so opted to consume them in the safety of the home? It

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MMis also worth noting that the top illegal downloaded films (possibly with the exception of Indiana Jones) have a key theme of technology running throughout the narrative. We have already addressed the importance of technology and the role that it plays in the success of illegal downloads, but is it possible that the theme of technology in a film feeds into the way in which it is consumed?

Institutions are quick to address the financial problems associated with illegal downloading. Anti-downloading advertisements draw attention to the poor picture and sound quality, the low social status of the film downloader (the Knock-off Nigel campaign), and the consequences of breaking the law with downloading. However, the idea that stealing a handbag from an old lady in the street is on a par with downloading an invisible media text from media monopolies is met with humour by audiences.

There are possibly some positives that come out of illegal media consumption; sales are starting to rise, there is more choice, audiences are more engaged and interactive and we spend more time consuming and spending on the media than any generation before us. However, the cost of this consumption is not going to go away. Institutions are developing newer technologies and methods to curb illegal distribution and consumption of the media, 3D cinema being just one example. The costs of these developments will be passed onto the consumer, through more expensive cinema tickets or merchandising. In Hollywood there really is no such thing as a free film.

Michel Parkes teaches Film and Media Studies at Bilborough

College, Nottingham. He is studying for a PhD on Audience

Theory and Illegal Audiences.