The Uncertainty of Documentarism
What is the significance of the authenticity and representation of the truth in the media that you consume on a daily basis? What is the role of a live broadcast?
On a daily basis, authenticity is very important in helping people generate ideas and make decisions. The more authentic the information we get, the more complete the decisions we make, especially when talking about the consumer. When shopping, no matter online or offline, people tend to know more about the products that they are buying with their scenes as much as possible. People do this to gain information to help them decide whether to buy or not to buy. For offline shopping, consumers can touch, smell, and observe the product closely enough to tell its material, how well it works and so on. While shopping online, the ways of sensing the product are limited because there’s a screen in between the consumer and the product. They cannot communicate directly with each other, and the information consumers could get is from the seller, rather the product itself with all its features.
I believe that this limitation of shopping online has driven the popularity of “live broadcast”, especially in China. In Chinese it is called “直播”, which refers to the progress of a host showcasing the products of a particular store by touching and using the products. In this way, the audience, or we can say the potential consumer, can have a view on features of the product, and have a higher tendency to purchase. I would call live broadcast a new type of interaction media.
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