The Spoiler Age versus the Bootleg Age
social media November 26th. 2008, 8:32am
Today is the day that the Batman dies.
Today, the last issue of the Batman: RIP story arc is published and a story which has promised the death of the Batman finally comes to an end.
SPOILER: no, he doesn’t actually die. Not physically. But he will be betrayed and Bruce Wayne will stop being Batman. Someone else will take on the role of the Batman. That’s what both old media and the new media are saying. EDIT: erm, better check the end of this post for the real story…
(Note: if you’re not an avid comic book reader and you’re not quite sure what’s going on with the DC Comics character Batman, who also happens to appear in TV shows and movies, this article from IO9.com will give you the quick update as to what this Batman RIP story is all about. Consider it another spoiler.)
# # #
Welcome to the Spoiler Age, which has been in progress for several decades. In some ways, the Spoiler Age makes the bootleg phenomenon redundant. You don’t have to make an illegal copy of a commercial work; someone with insider knowledge can give you the secret details of what’s going to happen so that you don’t even need to get the bootlegged copy!
Social media - all media - have empowered the Spoiler Age by making it easier for people to communicate. There are few surprises in either popular culture or news media
Like I said, this isn’t new. People have been stealing copies of Star Trek movie scripts for years, “spoiling” the movie-going effect by revealing important plot details before the movie is released. The same is true for movies and TV shows. The comic book industry is rife with spoilers and speculation about what will happen to our favorite characters and villains. Websites like IO9.com and Newsarama.com would probably lose significant traffic if they couldn’t give us previews of what’s going to happen.
You can argue that the Spoiler Age changed how we consume content on a large scale. People don’t want to be completely surprised by what they see anymore. They want some certainty that they’re going to like what they buy before they get it. When you think about it, it’s pretty logical. In a similar vein, the accepted versions of spoilers, product reviews, are still highly popular.
Likewise, in politics and business, the art of the deliberate “leak” or “spoiler” is valued as much as the uncontrolled leak of information is loathed.
Social media is taking over large parts of old media’s role in supporting the Spoiler Age because social media can do it faster and cheaper. Everything that I see indicates to me that the Spoiler Age is alive and well. You could even argue that we’ve become heavily dependent on the spoiler.
This leads me to another thought about both the Bootleg Age and the “free” business model, whereby the consumer doesn’t pay:
If cost is no longer an issue, it means that we can get virtually any digital media at almost any time we want (leaving legalities and distribution methods aside; neither of which are huge barriers). Therefore, there’s almost no barriers to getting what we want.
At the same time, the Spoiler Age continues to rule. We still love surprises. We still love to be know what’s going to happen before it happens. And social media is the means to get it.
It’s almost like advance knowledge about a thing is as important as the thing itself. This is true for the financial markets (and thus a subject of government regulation).
You might think that the Spoiler Age would have completely destroyed big media, but it hasn’t. People are more concerned about losing sales to bootlegs than to advance knowledge of what’s going to happen. After all, if I already know what’s going to happen, why do I bother to experience something? Isn’t it just a waste of time?
So, we like free (legal or not), we like fast, and we like spoilers. Given all three attributes, is there a market for paid content anymore?
Clearly there is a market for paid content because we want quality content (well constructed, planned, tuned to our desires, etc.) But more and more high quality “free” content is emerging amongst poor and average quality content, so people are less willing to pay for content.
Question: is the spoiler one of the last tools of content creators and distributors to get us to buy content, by building anticipation? Or is that a dead end and should they instead go back to total secrecy as a means of protecting?
Here’s the thing: if you already know that the Batman is (or isn’t) going to die via the spoiler, what would entice you to buy that last issue and see it with your own eyes?
EDIT: now, in what might be seen as rather ironic, it looks like the old media spoiler about this story that was leaked about a week ago was, in fact, false. Here’s a synopsis from IO9.com of Batman # 681, the end of Batman:RIP. I guess I forgot about the classic “fake-out” or false information spoiler…)
If you're new here, welcome! Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed to stay up to date with my latest posts and articles. Thanks for visiting!
