Livin' on the Edge Digging Deeper

    During the Fordist Era, "the entire national audience was the primary target of culture industries (Curtin)."  They did not have hundreds upon hundreds of channels for a variety of different demographics to watch, so they had to pay more attention to the families.  Now, unlike the Fordist Era, "the Post-Fordism researchers now gather and sell information about demographically defined subsets of the national audience, and advertising agencies now commonly advise their clients that particular groups of viewers are often more important than synchronic national exposure (Curtin).  It is easy to see how edgy content is now allowed to be created.  During the Fordist Era, it was simply not possible for a broadcasting companies to create edgy content due to much fewer channels that were available.  With the few stations that you had, you wanted to make the most out of what you had, and that needed to be tailored for families.  Now, in the Post-Fordist Era, particular groups are what make this edgy content thrive.

    There are several examples of edgy text such as video games like that of Red Dead Redemption, and movie series like Jackass, but I'm going to choose Grand Theft Auto as my "edgy" text.  This example goes back perfectly to what Curtin said about the Post-Fordism era.  This game does not have synchronic national exposure.  However, what it does have is a particular demographic who follow it like a cult.  I have played this game like many other people my age and you cannot buy just one game, you have to buy multiple different series.  This is how the game is successful.  It does not need 50 million different people to buy the game.  All Rockstar needs are 3-5 million loyal gamers who will buy all 5 or 6 games as they keep making new ones.
 
    Now, onto why I think this text is edgy and if I think it divides or unites society.  It's obvious that the content is edgy just from the picture of the cover of the game.  It is not a normal video game cover.  There are men hanging out of a car doing a drive-by shooting on the cover of the game.  Obviously, I do not believe media texts like these unite society, however, I do not think they divide society.  Yes, there are people who play this game who will commit stupid crimes like they see in the game, however, I believe those types of people will commit the crime no matter what game they are playing.  I have played this game for hours upon hours, and it has not divided me from any part of society.  It did not unite me in any way, but it definitely did not divide me.  Is it problematic or an example of creativity?  If anyone has ever played the games all the way through, they would obviously say it is an example of creativity.  The amount of thought and information that goes into all of the Grand Theft Auto games is overwhelming.  The video above shows some of the creativity in Grand Theft Auto.