Changing Expectations: High-Quality Content

     Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple lines of business  within my employer were shut down/inoperable. Luckily, thousands of my coworkers (and myself) were able to continue working from home.  During this 2-year period, we were able to stay in contact with upper leadership via zoom calls and team chats.  The success of this method required that we have a high-speed internet connection and strong audiovisual equipment (headsets and webcams).  Sometimes, management officials (in the corporate sector) would upload companywide updates that left me rather disappointed as an employee.  I couldn't grasp why corporate managers in a Fortune 500 company were not being given the tools to upload high-quality video content if it was the main method of communication.  

    My sentiment is mainly based on the fact that because we as a society have access to high-quality technology, we should be able to generate higher-quality media in comparison to someone living in the early 2000's.  I believe that this sentiment is also shared by digital media users.  Digital media organizations need to be aware of the fact that they have to utilize a variety of tools to reach their audiences. These tools include audio, video, text, and image-based communication.  However, for these tools to be successful, they must be of a quality that is acceptable to the time period.  In our current day and age, there is no reason why a digital media organization should be transmitting in any quality less than high-definition 1080p. If an organization utilizes audio podcast as a main method of reaching their audiences, they should ensure that they have a high-quality microphone with noise-reduction qualities.  The same can be said for social media organizations that are created with the intent of encouraging the sharing of information between users: if Facebook allows video sharing, it should allow users to upload larger video files with higher quality.  If Instagram is utilized for photo sharing, users should be able to upload stunning photographs without fear of a reduction in quality.  Youtube has understood this requirement, as it has allowed users to upload videos in 8K definition since 2015; to this day, not all users have a computer with the capability to view these videos as they often cause lower-performing computers to freeze or crash (Griffin, 2015).  It is super important to note that although many of these apps have high-quality upload capabilities, the setting is typically turned off in an effort to reduce the bandwidth needed to utilize the app.  According to Nield (2022), popular social apps such as Whatsapp, Google Photos and Twitter are preset to compress photos (reduce in size) prior to publishing in order to reduce bandwidth; users are able to turn this setting off to harness the full power of these apps. 

References

Griffin, A. (2015, June 10). 8K video launched on YouTube with films so high definition they break computers. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/8k-video-launched-on-youtube-with-films-so-high-definition-they-break-computers-10309314.htmlNield, D. (2022, January 18). Tweak your message app settings to upload photos at their best quality. Popsci. 

https://www.popsci.com/diy/photo-sharing-settings/