Feature Story pt. 1

The starting steps for this project have proved the most difficult for me. I know what I want to cover, but narrowing it down to something doable has proven much more problematic than finding the overall subject. I want to look at the digitization of entertainment media. Music transferring from records, tapes, and CD’s into mp3 and streaming formats. Movies and T.V. shows going from VHS tapes and DVD’s to mp4 .mov files and streaming services. And video games going from cartridges and discs into .exe files, or even just watching other people stream live. More specifically I want to take a look at the private ownership of these different mediums. When they are in the physical form, that is a tangible object that belongs to someone, even when they are digitized, that specific file exists for the owner. But streaming starts to get into a grey area where someone might own a subscription to the media, and they are able to consume it just about the same way as the other mediums. The certain effect this has on people is what I am struggling to find a way to focus on. Does this digitization make people more or less social? Do we consume more or less media now then we did before?