Digital transformation is a profound change in the way we live, work and interact to a social, mobile and cloud-based world. As consumers turn their attention to digital channels, media companies are turning to digital transformation to save costs, increase revenue and improve customer retention. One thing that many people don’t realize about today’s media industry is how much of it has been revolutionized by digital technologies. From the visual mediums that we see, to the social and economic models that these industries are built on, to the end-user viewing experiences that we have, all of these different aspects of entertainment and information have been impacted by and continue to be transformed by new media technologies. That being said the impact of the digital transformation of the media industry has been significant. The benefit of this transformation has greatly enhanced the way in which people consume and interact with media content, from music to books and film. Rodowick believes that these technological ‘advances’ are nothing less than the disappearance of film and photography as it has been experienced for 150 years and therefore the digital technologies are a subsidised version: “Unlike analog representations, which have as their basis a transformation of substance isomorphic with an originating image, virtual representations derive all their powers form numerical manipulation […] where analog media record traces of events […]digital media produce tokens of numbers” (Rodowick, 2007, 9)

The media industry has always been at the forefront of technological advancements in the arts, whether it be theatre, painting or photography. Over the past century, it has pushed forward the boundaries of its industry with concepts like movies, broadcasting and post-cinema, each representing an evolution of the way media is created and distributed to consumers. The media industry today is currently undergoing a digital transformation that will further change the ways in which we consume entertainment content and create new forms of visual expression.

references

Rodowick, D. N. 2015, , ‘What was cinema’ The Virtual Life of Film pp 25-88

By Amelia Keegan.