What impact has there been on the way in which the audience now consume the media products/ texts involved in your case study? How does it differ from what went before?

Social Historical Economical Political

The gaming industry has changed significantly over the years, benefiting from the improvement in technology. The development of new consoles such as the Ps3, by Sony, has provided a platform for video game creators to take gaming to a whole new level. Modern day games such as Little Big Planet, created by Media Molecule, has given the power to consumers like never before which is supported by David Buckingham, Professor of Media and Communications at Loughborough University who had this to say, ‘In the age of Media 2.0, ordinary people are no longer mere consumers of media, but also producers. A game like Little Big Planet lets the user become a producer in various ways, from designing your own sack boy to creating your own levels, these features are specific to Little Big Planet however, every modern game lets consumers become producers through YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing website which is commonly used by gamers to upload user generated content of them playing a specific game in the form of a video. One would think giving the chance for consumers to become producers would increase the popularity and sales of games however the gaming industry has suffered a decline recently, ‘in 2011 retail sales of video games fell by 8% which was followed by a further 20% in 2012’. Although in recent times there has been a large decline in sales of video which may have been due to the struggling economy it is predicted that in the coming years the gaming industry will grow to a staggering $82 billion by 2017 which could provide a huge boost to our current economical state.