Making media: Production

Q1: Considering the various trends and developments shaping media production, we argue that processes of disruption and consolidation co-exist within the media industries when it comes to media production practices. Organizations and firms can choose to experiment and pioneer to develop new products and services, or opt to double down on existing ways of doing things. What key trends do you observe in this context, and what about this trend makes you hopeful about the prospects for media makers?

ELIZABETH SAAD CORRẼA: The co-existence of disrupting processes and the consolidation of existing ones provides balance to media production, considering the constant IT innovations. It is a trend that is almost mandatory within the media industry. The choice between pioneering or just preserving familiar processes depends on how the organization is engaged in an innovative strategic profile. It also depends on different cultural, social, and economic aspects of each media company. Visual/video storytelling and longform journalism using different visual and graphic resources are evolving trends in the Brazilian media industry. We can find interesting examples, such as UOL Tab, with a specialized team working on developing longform stories, and Nexo Jornal that uses infographics and data journalism to explore news contextualization.

ANTHONY FUNG: I see four possible prospects. First, digitalization. Digital platforms are now ‘the media’, a new notion that we haven't seen before. Second, under digitalization, cultural production, curation, distribution, and sharing (as these platforms are all social media or carry the function of social media) may be newer concepts offering new opportunities.