Special Edition: Are We Losing Shared Culture?

**Amanda Lotz** (0:00)
The world that we see is often a little cluster of things that are related to our interests, and even those things that are hits aren't reaching nearly the size of an audience that they once did.

**Erica Mandy** (0:13)
Today is Saturday, August 8th. Remember when it felt like everyone was watching the same movie, hearing the same song, or talking about the same big moment on TV the next day? Now that's not really the case. Even people in the same house may have completely different algorithms feeding them different content. So are we losing the shared media culture that once gave Americans something easy to talk about? And if so, what's replacing it? Today, we're joined by Amanda Lotz, a media scholar, author, and consultant who has spent more than two decades studying how digital technology is changing media industries and their role in culture. She helps us understand how we got from a world of mass hits and water cooler moments to a world of personalized media diets, and what that means for the way we connect, discover, and understand each other.
Welcome to The NewsWorthy Special Edition Saturday, when we sit down with a different expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news. Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes where we provide all the day's news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica Mandy, it's now time for today's Special Edition Saturday.
Amanda Lotz, thank you so much for joining us here on The NewsWorthy.

**Amanda Lotz** (1:22)
Very much my pleasure.

**Erica Mandy** (1:23)
Are we losing the shared mass media culture that once gave Americans something easy to talk about?

**Amanda Lotz** (1:29)
I think the the burb tense there is lost. That moment that was typical of, I'd say the period of the 50s through the 80s, has been well and truly over for quite a while.

**Erica Mandy** (1:39)
That's true across all different types of media, right? You got TV and movies, music, news even, social media is more personalized these days.

**Amanda Lotz** (1:48)
Right.
It can be really confusing because as a culture, we still talk a lot about shits. And of course, whether it's in TV and movies, or it's Taylor Swift, or certain news stories, we have the sense that there are things that are consumed by more people, and that is true. The thing that has changed is what percentage of the population those hits are actually reaching. And so it's really changed from a world in which half the population was watching, if not aware of, popular television shows, to a world where it could be 2 and 3 percent.

**Erica Mandy** (2:22)
And so, I mean, you mentioned Taylor Swift. We recently had the World Cup. A lot of people were talking about that. How many people does that, or what percentage of people of America does that, those types of things reach?

**Amanda Lotz** (2:34)
There's a great analysis about Taylor Swift. If you look at the number of albums sold, and it's tricky now because we don't sell albums, but they've done sort of comparative analysis.
And the difference between the number of folks that even Taylor Swift streamed reach, and I believe it's the number of people who bought one of the Eagles albums in the late 70s. There's this giant gulf. As people who are trying to understand culture, we have to keep reminding ourselves that the world that we see is often a little cluster of things that are related to our interests. And even those things that are hits, aren't reaching nearly the size of an audience that they once did.

**Erica Mandy** (3:14)
You know, we talked about sports. That does seem to be the thing that has more shared culture, especially when it comes to live media.
Is that an exception, do you think?

**Amanda Lotz** (3:26)
It definitely is the most mass, most regular form of media that we have now. And that explains a lot about what we see in terms of the amount of money that different broadcast networks are willing to continue to put into it or even the streamers. I think we also need to be aware of the many different ways people are consuming now.
Young folks, in particular, are often only consuming highlights, even though sports really is hanging on to a lot of that experience where if you went down the street, multiple households would be having that content on and be aware of it. We are probably going to see that erode in time as well.

**Erica Mandy** (4:04)
And it does seem like it's created maybe smaller communities that all can talk about the same thing. I mean, when you're thinking about TV or books, there's maybe one group that's into Netflix's Stranger Things, and others deep into like Bravo or Love Island, and there's Book Talk, and then specific sports. So do you think that all of these smaller communities have popped up, and that's where people gravitate towards?