FUTURE MEDIA EXPERIENCES

We are developing a hybrid model integrating human centred design with performance workshops.

Media Experience Prototypes (MEP) will be created from the insights that are generated in audience workshops and through engagement with media makers.

The prototypes are small scale media experiences that will be built so we can test the ideas before scaling to full offerings. They will operate at different levels of resolution depending on what is required to achieve the results needed. For example, a MEP can be a conversation, using a few paper props to help participants imagine the story or experience. Or, as it develops, the MEP can be high fidelity, using digital or social media to explore their potential.

As an example, it could be trialling how stories are consumed via WeChat, as a micro-series, on the commute to and from work, and then seamlessly transferred to TV when the user returns home. Alternatively, the MEP could be a Series on Medium, with short videos and text, which can be added to with participatory media from participants in the network.  

The platforms used for these will be open, fast to populate and high quality. The reach is global, and the cost is minimal.

Opportunities

Accelerates digital audience growth and meaningful engagement. Many organisations do not have the research facilities to deeply explore the multitude of challenges facing contemporary media. This project will draw together expertise to research, workshop and design responses to these challenges. It prioritises the rapid knowledge building and sharing required to create the next generation of media-making, with a strong focus on the audience. Human centred design translates into audience-building in the media space, where new stories are discovered, new ways to tell them are experimented with and new media experiences created.

Alternate digital platform The appropriate audience data, prototypes and reviews will be hosted on a community site for access by core members, project partners and others with access privileges.  The aim is that this site becomes a dynamic and discursive community of practice, where ideas and insights are created, shared and published.

Audience knowledge The ultimate aim is to re-cast the audience as co-creators of the next generation of media. This includes serving their interests as they become apparent as well as opening up ways of representing diversity, which goes beyond the stereotype.