Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit: A Future Consumed by Greed
By Emma Smith
At the heart of the human experience lies the art of storytelling. We’ve used forms of storytelling to pass down generational familial stories, record our collective history, and, from a more modern lens, entertain. Cinema is just one of the many forms that have developed how we can tell our stories. From the vitascope to the modern-day iPhone and IMAX cameras, how we capture and convey the human experience will only continue to progress with innovative technologies.
Social media is one unmistakable example of innovative technology that has shaped the course of cinema’s future. Social media has democratized storytelling, making it accessible to virtually anyone with an internet connection. Five to ten years ago, it was seen as a competitor to traditional art forms, but now, social media is seen as a collaborative way for brands, companies, and filmmakers to easily connect with their audience. It has become a platform designed for the proliferation of millions of ideas and stories. It has changed how storytelling has become profitable, how to measure success, and most importantly, what is deemed as ‘a story worthy of telling’ in the modern digital age. All of these topics and more were discussed at Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit, which I had the privilege of attending, where panelists discussed “advancing technology’s impact on TV, film, gaming, music, digital media, and consumer brands,” and thus the direction media is heading in the future (Variety). Some of the more well-known panelists included Tracee Ellis Ross, actress and CEO of Pattern Beauty; Jason Blum, CEO of Blumhouse Productions; Kareem Daniel, chairman of Disney Media and Entertainment distribution, and many other executives, writers, and industry professionals.
Many panels discussed how social media changed the way companies approach marketing while simultaneously becoming a medium through which storytelling can be accomplished. Social media has expanded the amount of content that exists within the world of entertainment. There is more content to create and distribute than ever before, but one thing has remained consistent with this exponential growth: the value and desire for high-quality and creative storytelling. This value of high-quality storytelling was discussed in the panel titled “Titans of TV Programming,” which included representatives from Netflix, AMC Studios, and Sony as panelists. Each panelist described how this saturated environment is even more challenging to navigate as it has been increasingly difficult to identify a story that will bring success (money in the case of these profit-motivated companies). A more active and participatory audience expects a certain level of social competency from their media providers. However, the question remains: will media providers rise to their audience’s challenge or manipulate the industry further for their benefit?
Based on the questions and responses from the panelists at Variety’s Summit, the answer to this question is unfortunately the latter. Representation has become a commodity for profit-oriented companies to further exploit and mask their capitalistic tendencies. Representation in media has increasingly become more political in the twenty-first century as discourses about inequalities against minority groups are becoming mainstream, especially in the media consumed. This trend is something that production companies have manipulated to grow their profit. Representation has been reduced to simply adding seemingly diverse individuals (token characters) to their stories to appear more ‘woke’ and representational of the ever-changing landscape. Incorporating diversity by adding diverse bodies is simplistic, bare-minimum even, often relying on stereotypical, non-lead characters who are shells of what a well-written, three-dimensional character should be. To companies, this is mainly a business strategy, with the positive social impacts coming as an unintentional byproduct, in which catering to a broader, more diverse audience allows profit-oriented companies to continue to compete in a rapidly changing market. Representation is now purely an addition that companies can tag to their projects to check diversity off a list of requirements rather than actually act on this social responsibility.
Take Ghostbusters (2016), the reboot, as an example of inserting those of different races, genders, and sexualities in an ensemble cast with hopes of generating positive discourse around representation and diversity initiatives. Unfortunately, not only is this a lousy movie story-wise, but its characters fall into stereotypical tropes for their identities. For example, Leslie Jones’s character, Patty, heavily leans into the stereotypical characterization of Black women as being loud and angry for comedic effect. Continually, Jones is the only Black lead in the film compared to her all-white co-leads. This film’s performative and inauthentic attempt at inclusive representation feels so forced that Sony’s initiative backfired on itself and other arguments for increasing diversity elsewhere in the industry.
A follow-up question remains: if representation has become a commodity in the entertainment industry, does it still matter in the bigger picture? The answer will always be yes. On-screen representation has evolved since the late twentieth century to be constituent, not just reflexive. It works in tandem with society, affecting it just as much as societal trends affect the media we consume (Imre). Continually, whether acknowledged or not, representation in media helps with identity development and formation, as seeing parts of our identity within a character makes us feel seen and heard. In addition, representation opens up space to create communities of those with shared experiences; it is inherently part of social discourse and the human experience.
What irked me the most about the Variety Summit was the lack of questions about representation. Most questions were designed specifically for each panel’s topic or concerned with how companies utilized new technologies and analyzed trends within their respective fields. The only representatives who brought up their initiatives and desires for representation identified themselves as part of a racial, ethnic, or sexual orientation minority. However, the conversation always steered to how representation would appeal to specific groups or niches of individuals, revealing the tendencies of companies to exploit their audiences’ desires for representative content for views and profit. For example, in the “Titans of TV Programming” panel, Rosina Romando, representative of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, which creates content for US Hispanic audiences, described a unique balancing act that her company faces in regards to bringing in new, non-Spanish speaking audiences while retaining Telemundo’s current audience. Romando discussed how Telemundo Enterprises aimed to create stories that are representative of their existing audience and a new audience composed of individuals from bilingual and bicultural backgrounds. While Romando brings up the challenges of adequately representing bicultural audiences, she circles the conversation of representation back to the retaining and addition of Telemundo’s intended audience, demonstrating how representation is used as a negotiating force for profit. To sum up, the entertainment industry is a business aimed at aggregating eyeballs at any chance, even if it means manipulating the intent behind quality representation.
Another critical discussion at Variety’s Summit revolved around acknowledging Generation Z’s vital role in eliciting change from companies that dominate the industry and often control what stories are told on a larger, blockbuster scale. Gen-Z is more ethnically diverse than any other generation, making up about 20% of the United State's population (Parker). The direction of our future in all spheres of life, from media to politics to economics, lies in the hands of the next generation: Gen-Z. Individuals from this generation are often involved with activism, like raising awareness for identity politics. They, therefore, are more open to calling attention to the drastic need for more innovation surrounding representation, especially from large production companies. Those from Gen-Z can often see through inauthentic marketing techniques and tactics and have made their mark in exposing weak attempts at diversity in online discourse. An example of this was the creation of the term ‘queerbaiting.’ While it does not have a true dictionary definition, Judith Fathallah suggests that it may be defined as “a strategy by which writers and networks attempt to gain the attention of queer viewers via hints, jokes, gestures, and symbolism suggesting a queer relationship between two characters, and then emphatically denying and laughing off the possibility.” Emma Nordin furthers Fathallah’s idea that the term originated in internet communities and fandoms with the emergence of Tumblr and other social media sites designed for sharing opinions on any topic imaginable.
However, this is arguably not the most significant area Gen-Z influences; Gen-Z grew up with access to the internet from youth, being a native of the digital era that started in the late 2000s and early 2010s. For most, if not all, of their lives, they have had access to smartphones, meaning they’ve consumed most of their media differently than any previous other generation. A substantial amount of this consumption takes the form of short-form content today, which is different from the traditional long-form content production companies are accustomed to. Nevertheless, to appeal to a younger audience, companies and brands are adapting their content and stories to translate to short-form content or at least utilizing short-form content marketing strategies for their larger, blockbuster films and shows.
Because Gen-Z is native the digital age, social media and creation are something that most are accustomed to doing. This adds to the saturated environment for companies to compete with independent amateur creators for the attention of their intended audience. So how have production companies adapted? First, they have inserted themselves into the spaces where Gen-Z commonly consumes content: Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and other social media platforms that spread vertically-formatted, short-form content. Due to the effects of social media shortening attention spans and iPhones that easily support vertically-shot content, films and other companies that tell and distribute stories have shifted their marketing ads to fit this new norm. However, other companies have taken it further and shifted to creating an entire production segment to something that better coincides with Gen-Z’s consumption habits. For example, the show Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (2022) held a special online red carpet on a TikTok live stream where the actors made appearances and were able to interact directly with fans (Variety). Similarly, in 2021, Netflix followed in the footsteps of Tiktok, Instagram, and Snapchat and tested its short form content, titled “Fast Laughs,” on its mobile app and has since added it to its TV app. While Netflix’s version operates differently than traditional social media short-form content, a streaming service is even attempting to introduce short-form content to their platform speaks volumes for the direction media, streaming, and film are heading towards.
Returning to how representation has become a commodity in today’s storytelling methods, appealing to Gen-Z audiences with authentic and diverse representation can be seen as a motivator for production companies to treat representation more seriously. Sure, it will still be seen as a commodity because adding authentic representation will always be about increasing and retaining an audience, but any poor attempt or less genuine representation will immediately decrease viewership from Gen-Z. Again, Gen-Z is the most ethnically diverse generation and has a collective desire to see versions of themselves on screen. It’s now becoming more important that the stories being told are more representative of the audience to receive a marker of quality from the younger generation.
A question asked repeatedly in about every panel at the Variety Summit was: how do you measure success within such a saturated landscape filled with different niche stories? Since many films have returned to solely theatrical releases after the pandemic, measuring success can be estimated with box office statistics. However, the answer to this question gets more complicated when examining films and television shows that are straight-to-stream. During the “Brand of Storytelling Elite'' panel, Nadja Bellan-White, the global chief marketing officer of Vice Media Group, suggested that success is led by culture and the audience. The audience decides which medium and platforms are the most successful based on interactions and usage rates of said platforms. Bellan-White further elaborates how companies may feel uncomfortable relinquishing control to an audience and dictating their content creation direction based on what the audience needs to stay engaged. Another panelist, Asa Tait, Head of Production at Lego Entertainment, reiterated that Lego measures success through engagement and affinity; however, the two are not easy to measure with data. Within media, impressions are traditionally used to measure success. However, that term has been changed to the ‘impact’ of the stories, an even broader category for collecting hard data because ‘impact’ means different things for different brands. In another panel titled “Strategies in Stream,” TV show executives from Paramount, Peacock, and A&E Entertainment stated that their companies heavily rely on numbers that represent their subscriber growth to measure success. This approach isn’t culture-driven or audience-driven and therefore falls short with me. Number-driven data provides its companies with quantitative, hard evidence of their companies’ growths and losses, which is excellent for the company but not so much for the consumer.
While Variety’s Summit generated excitement for the future of media-based industries with the new innovative technologies and strategies being implemented, it only reinforced how profit-driven companies are. In many cases, the representatives of the media companies answered questions in a way that painted their company in a positive light. In reality, most of these companies are competing against each other for viewership. Therefore, this summit is a way to discuss how technology has impacted the way media and television operate worldwide while simultaneously acting as a platform for these companies to promote themselves and gain traction amongst other industry professionals within a competitive market. In noticing this, even the premise of hosting an Entertainment and Technology Summit seems like a calculated move to gain profit. Mark Garner, Executive Vice President of A&E Network’s Business Development sector, even mentions how many of the panelists at Variety’s Summit work for for-profit companies and are mainly motivated by profit, with the social and cultural influences of media coming as a byproduct or coincidence of streaming and social media’s unprecedented impact. At least he’s seemingly self-aware.
What discourages me the most is how invaluable assets like representation and activism are being seen as additives to sustain a profit with this technological advent in the media industry. While we arguably have more diverse and representative stories in the mainstream than ever before, I believe it is becoming increasingly imperative to step back and ask ‘at what cost?’ to examine the trajectory of storytelling in media and help change it from its current status as a profit-motivated medium to a medium that promotes formidable and sustainable change in the entertainment industry and society.
Works Cited
Fathallah, Judith. “Moriarty’s Ghost: Or the Queer Disruption of the BBC’s Sherlock.” Television & New Media, 2015, journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527476414543528.
Imre, Aniko. “TV and Identity: Race, Class and Nationality.” CTCS 191, University of Southern California, 21 September 2022, Los Angeles, California, Lecture.
McDaniel, Allison. “Netflix Could Bring Its ‘Fast Laughs’ Short-Form Video Feature to Apple TV.” 9to5Mac, 22 Feb. 2022, 9to5mac.com/2022/02/22/netflix-could-bring-short-form-video-fast-laughs-to-apple-tv/.
Nordin, Emma. "From Queer Reading to Queerbaiting: The battle over the polysemic text and the power of hermeneutics." (2015).
Parker, Kim, and Ruth Igielnik. “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know about Gen Z so Far.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, 14 May 2020,www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/05/14/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far-2/.
Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit. Panel discussion. 15 Sept 2022, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA. https://variety.swoogo.com/entertainmenttechnology/home?i=pxywV5HjAFSO1AYVvV xDaI1qgr9k8hCG