Media audience has ever since expanded from a group sitting in front of a screen together to a dispersed community where everyone might have the same experience but not necessarily at the same time or same place (Turnbull, Lecture Week 2). Learning about this shift in definition recalls my recent trip to Sydney to celebrate the first overseas New Year’s Eve.  

I and my friend, Nithya, despite an effort to arrive two hours earlier, were overwhelmed by the bumper crowd trying to squeeze in for a good spot at Darling Harbor. All were here for the same reason – a spectacular show of fireworks being the most awaited throughout the year. So was I.  

Performance of the fireworks did not fail to meet my expectations. Tens of thousands of pyrotechnics emerging in striking colors constantly kept my jaws dropped. Nobody breathed a word, casting utter silence on attendants which is enough to hear their pounding heart. One fascinating thing I noticed is that much as people were deeply engaged in the moment, they were in fact semi-focused. The audience, while gluing their eyes to the radiant pulse of fireworks, were working on another thing – pointing their camera at the sky. I came to realize that not only those who made it to the event were celebrating. The actual crowd could be from anywhere in the world thanks to such devices that were live streaming and updating pictures about the fireworks. 

All in all, the fantastic show has undoubtedly outweighed certain drawbacks such as torrential rain that drenched the participants, massive crowd in a confined space and long waiting hours in between the welcoming and official performance. I do not regret travelling to Sydney for this once-in-a-year event because everything pulled off perfectly in the end.

One important takeaway I have from this experience would be how concept of audience is changing at ceaseless pace in faces of new media technology. Audience is not necessarily counted by their physical presence in a room anymore. In addition, Rosen (2006, n. p.) has once said: “People today are using the technology that is at hand to connect with each other and to produce their own media”. As an audience, people are not only consuming content but at the same time producing one and sharing with others. Therefore, it helps drive the accessibility of media as a perk to any digital citizens: knowing everything about the world anywhere anytime.  

REFERENCES:

Turnbull, S 2019, Lecture Week 2

Rosen, J 2006, ‘The people formerly known as the audience’, Pressthink, 27 June, <http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html&gt; (accessed 20 November 2012)

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