The Research Of Cultural Production, Promotion And Consumption In Internet Age

Mark Weiser, the father of ubiquitous computing, once said, "the most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." The internet is such a technology, which is now changing people’s life styles and consumption habits in all directions. The Internet has also resulted in the new forms of network economy and cultural industry development, making the boundary between them increasingly blurred. In the increasingly flattening world, the internet changes the interaction between "communication" and "audience" fundamentally, and deeply changes the styles of cultural production, promotion and consumption. In the internet era, the connotation and denotation of traditional audiences have been extended. The initiative, immediate interactivity and butterfly effect of public voice of audiences are manifested. There are three living spaces for the cultural content in the internet world. They are entertainment, information and social contact which make up almost all of the internet society and cover all the netizen’s motivations of entering into the network world. When the audiences in the network era are receiving and consuming cultural content and commodities through the terminals of computer (desktop or portable), tablet PC, smart phone, smart TV and wearable smart devices, they are also performing the "reproduction", "repromotion" and "reconsumption" of cultural content. The internet makes the netizens become the dominant force. So it is worth discussing, analyzing and discovering the influence of internet in our country on the cultural content, promotion and consumption from the micro, middle and macro points of view.Currently, Internet Plus is emphasized continuously by all sectors of society. In this context, this paper will deeply discuss the changes of cultural production, promotion and consumption brought about by the network technology and network medium, and investigates the directions and paths of business model innovation in the era of Internet Plus. Starting with the transformation of audiences, we will perform the analyses by comparing the operations of traditional and internet cultural industries on the basis of relevant theories and industry practices from the perspective of development of technologies and media. Not only do the cultural production, promotion and consumption represent the procedure of market activities of cultural industry but also they are the basis of other elements of cultural economy. In order to inquire into the effects of Internet on the operation of cultural industry, it is necessary to study the cultural production, promotion and consumption.The cultural production is the origin of traditional cultural economic activity. Furthermore, it is also the core vitality of cyber cultural economy. The cultural content production is a special production form. It develops from the original totem worship, witchcraft, myths, legends, rituals etc. to the mass commercial cultural production and network culture content production. Every change is always associated with the innovation of media technology. Traditional industry operations of mass culture are a linear process and production activity is the beginning of all the cultural economic activities. The network and digital technology can change the appearance of cultural content. And what’s more, it brings new ecological environment for the cultural content production. In this ecological environment, netizen is the dominant force of cultural content production. The content creation, sharing and clicks from netizens give fundamental support to the free or paid operations of cultural content providers and operators. In addition to cultural production organization, the participation of all the netizens injects new vitality into the cultural economy. The production activity of "DIY" cultural content based on immediate interactivity can both meet the requirements of audiences’self-expression and self-realization, and immediately communicate with cultural economic operators on the network platform. The production activity of "microcontent" from audience can be the evaluation or feedback to a cultural content or commodity and can also be the publication of original microcontent. Obviously, all these things are the continuation of the cultural economic vitality."Intangible" cultural promotion is the guarantee of realizing and exchanging the value of cultural content commodities. Compared with the traditional cultural marketing, promotion of network cultural content commodities emphasizes the "soft" marketing information, interactive marketing communication and integrating omnimedia. In the Internet environment, the activities of cultural marketing tend to more intangible and soft. Audience’s attention to the tangible cultural products or services usually needs to resort to transmission of intangible cultural content, feeling, idea, and experience, enterprise culture and so forth. Marketers don’t directly show the value of cultural content products or services to the consumers, but the consumers need to proactively discover the value of the commodity and to complete the exchange. On the other hand, compared to traditional push marketing, the interactivity of network cultural marketing is the core competence. In the environment of cultural market with kinds of commodities, the key to success of cultural marketing depends on how to promote different commodities to different audiences according to their characteristics. Network marketing technology, which is the most suitable means of promoting cultural content commodity with strong subjectivity and individuality, can be used to accurately gather, analyze and push information, and can promote cultural content commodities to different audiences with different network living habits in different ways. The fragmented cultural content market and fragmented audience together constitute the new vitality of the cultural content commodity. The word of mouth has become the most important reference of measuring the quality.Cultural consumption is both the process of exchange value realization and the beginning of content value regeneration. The achievement of consumption in the traditional linear cultural economic activities means the end of an economic activity. The Internet changes the end of cultural consumption into the beginning of reproduction, repromotion and reconsumption. Network cultural economy is a kind of sharing economy. It follows the economic law of decreasing marginal cost and increasing marginal utility. The cultural content consumption in network space puts more emphasis on self-worth realization, spiritual experience and interactive sharing. It is because of the characteristics of proactivity and sharing in network cultural consumption that audiences, in the process of investigating, communicating and sharing cultural content commodities, has unintentionally taken part in the activities of cultural content reproduction, repromotion and reconsumption. This circular process, i.e., the activities that audiences participate in from cultural content production, promotion and consumption to its reproduction, repromotion and reconsumption, forms the large ecology system of network cultural economy. In addition, network cultural economy breaks through the weakness of traditional cultural consumption which is limited by space and time, means of payment and income. Network cultural economy also overturns the laws of economics of traditional cultural industry and brings more audiences and experiences to cultural consumption.In response to the changes of cultural production, promotion and consumption in the era of "Internet Plus", it is necessary to drive the innovation of cultural industry business model. By synthetically considering the changes of cultural content production, promotion and consumption due to Internet and the obviously dominant role of audiences in network society, the author synoptically proposes the "content is king", platform and "free" business models for cultural industry operations. Cultural content is the most important sign both for cultural commodity and for cultural enterprise. Cultural content is also the core source of audience’s adherence and the fundamental element of all network cultural economic activities going on. The connotation and denotation of "content is king" is expanded in the Internet era. Network platform nowadays is the important component of people’s life. Relying on the Internet platform and information, the cultural producer can engage in content creation, the promoter can effectively push the information into the view of audiences and the consumer can conveniently participate in the activities about content investigation, communication, choice, purchase experience and sharing. Network platform has great significance to benefits regulation of cultural industry and audiences’sharing. "Free" is a business model which is often adopted in network economy. It overturns the traditional commodity pricing strategy. By means of the "cross subsidization", the cultural content platform can make profits well above that from traditional fixed price sales of cultural content commodities. "Content", "platform" and "free", which are intertwined in network operations of cultural enterprise, together make up the main business model of cultural industry in the network environment.