Yet, it would be reductive to frame exclusivity solely as a loss. For marginalized voices and niche genres, the direct-to-consumer model has been liberation. Streamers have proven willing to fund international dramas ( Squid Game ), LGBTQ+ romances ( Heartstopper ), and experimental animation ( Arcane ) that would have been deemed too risky for the mass-market, ad-dependent networks of the 1990s. In this light, the fragmentation of popular media is not a collapse but an expansion. There is more content, for more people, than ever before. The problem is that these audiences no longer overlap. The "popular" in popular media is shifting from a measure of shared viewership to a measure of intense, passionate fandom within a smaller, exclusive circle.
We are currently living through the fragmentation of the monoculture. In 2010, most Americans watched the same Super Bowl commercials and the same American Idol finale. Today, popular media exists in silos. amateur2023danielaanturybrokendownxxx108 exclusive