Media & Entertainment

Source: Network Journalism & Death Sports; Media History, Part 4

With the ability to record and share our own sensorium and universal access to production apps and tools, the line between amateurs and professionals/celebrities has blurred. Transhumanity is drowning in media creators.

The New Journalism

For decades, news outfits struggled to find business models that were compatible with digital technologies. As social media rose to dominance, journalism relied entirely on the whims of their news aggregator algorithms for views and revenue. This left them largely subservient to corporate interests, limiting their adversarial role to power. The rise of the new and transitional economies, however, have led to a partial renaissance. In the inner system, small and agile news hypercorps focus primarily on local and niche interests; much of their reporting now produced by ALIs. Elsewhere, unfettered from corporate control, a range of diverse and independent media voices proliferate throughout the system. Though quality and authenticity vary, rep networks and verification services help media consumers measure reliablity.

Now that individuals are walking audio/video recording and editing platforms, journalism itself has democratized and live amateur reporting is common. Media hypercorps have adapted, developing apps that allow anyone to submit potential content for their network feeds. ALI systems sort through content submissions, curating material from witnesses on scene and paying by the second for the best live footage, encouraging multiple freelancers to compete viciously. X-casters with strong emotive outputs capture a larger audience, as people experience the thrill of being there through their sensorium.

An early casualty of networked journalism was in-depth, investigative reporting. Few companies had the budgets to fund long investigations only to have their scoops copied by others within minutes of release. This was compounded by short attention spans, more widespread transparency, and the drift towards ALI news production. Most public attention remains turned towards lists, luxuries, celebrities, and attacks on political rivals. Some pundits even argue that coveillance and widespread transparency have replaced the need for gumshoe reporting. Its proponents argue that the stories are still there, they're just buried more deeply — and thus the need is even stronger. A new breed of covert journalists have risen to fill the void, taking advantage of resleeving, hacking, and other infiltration methods to expose well-hidden secrets and scandals. Adaptive algorithms allow these stories to be personalized; someone already familiar with the subject gets more in-depth detail, whereas the skimmers and newly introduced get a lighter, more explanatory touch.

The Glitterati

The ability for almost anyone to cultivate an online audience with the right combination of perseverance, skill, and luck has led to a new pantheon of media personalities. Whether they built their brand with a niche demographic, capitalized on a viral sensation, or acquired public acclaim through other means, these gamers, commentators, athletes, comedians, and other performers now compete with traditional celebrities for the public’s attention. They are joined by the scions of ultra-rich hyperelite families, a new class of always-on socialites. These glitterati go to great lengths to capture more likes, views, and rep: moonlet-sized gala parties, death-defying sports, lascivious displays of hedonism, reckless thrill-seeking, and staged drama and rivalries.

Metacelebrities

The first metacelebrities performed in mid-twentieth-century theme parks, where characters from popular works, often princess heroines, would interact with their young fans. Modern metacelebrities are more sophisticated personas and brand identities. Some began as real performers, such as actress Angelique Stardust, who sold off her character rights before retiring. Others are entirely fictional media creations, devised to market intellectual franchises, such as Sun Mi Hee of Two Leopards, Two Guns fame.

Unlike socialites who revel in resleeving, metacelebrities stick to the same morph (or an exact duplicate) as often as possible for recognizability. Each is an ongoing method-acting performance by a rotation of trained actors who may have undergone psychosurgery to more accurately present the persona in line with previous versions. Their round-the-clock performances are designed to maintain the illusion that fans are interacting with a real person.

Some glitterati take offense to the “manufactured” nature of metacelebrities, resulting in public feuds waged by small armies of social media engineers.

As a profitable brand and performance art, metacelebrities are aggressively marketed and legally protected as intellectual property. Performers are required to sign contracts that control what they can say about the experience or character development after retiring and must be willing to play the part without gaining personal fame.

Digital Distractions

Digital entertainment comes in many formats, featuring various levels of complexity and interactivity.

Video

Though it has declined in popularity, video media remains widespread, especially when viewed via AR, as it does not overwhelm your sensorium like XP or VR. Vids now come with choose-yourpath options, multiple endings and soundtracks, embedded links and commentary, and the capability to switch to different visual perspectives, allowing you to customize each viewing experience.

Augmented Reality Media

AR is much like video, except more immersive, mobile, gamified, and interactive. AR media allows you to take the role of the protagonist, other characters, or switch between them. AR news can put you on the scene, no matter where you are, with everyone and everything tagged and hyperlinked. AR games are networked and multiplayer, enabling people to interact while going about their daily lives.

It is not uncommon to see people interacting with their AR on the street or in habitat corridors, acting out a scene in the latest drama or participating in a fantasy raid in a massively multiplayer alternate reality game. These MARGs are the most common format of current gaming, with some games now running for decades. Because they can be confusing for others to witness, risk injury, or be used to manipulate overeager players into committing acts they otherwise wouldn’t, most habitats require AR players to broadcast their in-game status to warn others and make law enforcement aware. Some AR games coordinate massive cross-location special events, and in-game developments for popular games frequently make the news.

  • Cloak & Dagger: Spy games and secret missions. Rumors that players are recruited for real-life espionage are unconfirmed but persistent.
  • Footy: Football club team play. An expansion pack allows you to sabotage other clubs between matches.
  • Innsmouth Nights: The Cthulhu mythos and all its nightmare tentacle goodness lives on.
  • MechaMash! Giant fighting robots  —  in space! A popular mod re-skins mecha as kaiju.
  • The Weald: This multiplayer fantasy RPG is set in a unique sylvan artificial world. It is a strong competitor to ongoing classic games such as Wyrmwood and War of Wizards.

Experience Playback

XP media is a mix of amateur and professional. Anyone can and does make XP, so the mesh is flooded with shared clips of every conceivable subject matter. They are favorited as they allow viewers experiences they otherwise have no opportunity to have, from hyperelite soirées to gatecrashing missions. XP is also versatile, as it can be viewed as POV video via AR. The real bite to XP, however, is in the emotive channels. Nothing provides a rush like the actual X-caster’s adrenaline, fear, or arousal. Obsessive fans have been known to mimic their favorite X-casters' emotional states with psychosurgery. The personal nature of XP also sometimes creates problems for professional X-casters when fandom has escalated to stalking.

While XP reporting dominates newsfeeds, media companies continue to break ground with XP dramas and action sims. Like AR media, these are loaded with enhanced features and allow you to switch to the POV of different characters. Actors with strong or unique emotive outputs are highly valued.

Virtual Reality Media

VR media and games allow for larger and more immersive settings than AR, accommodating far more players and bots in simulspace. VR games limit players to those in the same habitat or cluster to avoid issues with communication lag. Though VR is less accessible due to its hardwired requirements, it has an advantage with time contraction, allowing players to complete full story arcs in short real-time periods. Some VR games have large modding communities, such as the sci-fi thriller Breakout, whose fans create extensive “hardmode” levels.

Sports

Physical sports remain popular in all media. Simulspace provides opportunities for play where limited habitat space or environment wouldn’t allow. Professional team sports are usually limited to large habitats, but even remote fans are encouraged to interact with their favorite teams. VR or AR “pickup games” with simulations of real players are extremely popular.

The classics never go out of style: football, basketball, hockey, even curling. But new sports include low-g and micrograv takes on traditional sports, racing on glider wings, kick volleyball, speedgate, and even chess boxing, which alternates rounds of chess with concussion-prone boxing. In a friendly low-g habitat, you can usually find players for C-ball, a fastpaced game with an ever-changing set of rules suggested and tracked by your muse. Anything goes!

With the availability of synthmorphs, healing vats, and resleeving, extreme sports are on the rise. Though some still consider it distasteful to flirt with death, the XP clips are incredibly popular. Dueling, group mixed-martial arts bouts, roller derby, and pit fights are surging and provide opportunities for illegal gambling. Risk-taking has also increased in traditional sports. Injuries from freeclimbing, parkour, and orbital/high-altitude diving have sharply increased post-Fall, leading to concerns over long-term psychological damage even when bodies are repaired or egos resleeved.

Resleeving also allows for all competitors to participate with standardized and calibrated morphs. This is common in high-level combat sports, where skills and gameplans become the edge — no cutting to make weight and then rehydrating above that weight.