The Theory of the Long Tail, in my opinion, is a theory that very accurately describes our economy and culture’s shift from mass media to a more specialize media market. According to the textbook, our economy is shifting away from a small number of hits at the head of a market, to a much bigger number of hits in the “tail” of the market. In other words, the focus is not on one large mass media audience, but on numerous smaller markets. According to the lecture on Thursday January 26, 2012, what is considered a hit show today would be labeled a flop 20 years ago. The reason being, television shows today are targeting specific niche markets, not just one large mass media market. The hundreds of television channels or the millions of songs on iTunes, allow distribution to focus on many niche audiences. Conclusively, the advances in our technologies are allowing consumers to have access to an array of niche content, thus expanding the long tail.
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Image retrieved from: http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/images/rawtail.jpg
