Clay Shirky

End of Audience Theory

Clay Shirky's end of audience theory is about how audiences are more active while they watch media products. Meaning that instead of just watching something as background noise, the audience is much more involved and interactive. Shirky's reasoning is because he believes that with the change in technologies our behaviours and expectations as an audience have changed as well. This is shown in many different forms of social media today such as instagram and facebook, being able to like and comment on media is expected.

  With the rise in technology, the demand for paper copies news papers and magazines are dropping. Shirky's theory of end of audience allots the audience a level of power, thanks to the accessibility of social media it is a lot easier for an audience to tell the producers what they want to see and what they dont want to see as well as giving some feedback. This allows the producers to get a better idea of what their audience likes and how well they are responding to the media. 

Some real life examples of this is in Taylor Swifts Red Taylor's Version website. She created a vault on her website which includes a series of games and clues to solve the puzzle and be let into the vault. Unfortunately the vault is no longer up on her Red Taylor's version website but I have found a video of someone as they unlock the vault. This allows the audience to get involved in the launch of the album and connect better with the artist.  https://redtaylorsversion.taylorswift.com/

Another Taylor swift example is her Blank Space experience game. With the launch of her hit song 'Blank Space' Taylor created a 360 degree experience app so that her audience could interact with the set of Blank Space and thus feel more connected. 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/21232643/Taylor-Swift-Blank-Space-Experience-360-App

Another example of Clay Shirky's theory is the rise of interactive movies. These movies allow the audience to choose their path by making a series of decisions throughout the film that will affect the outcome. Below are some examples of interactive movies.