Many industry insiders attribute the recent falloff in audiences for movies, recorded music, network television, DVD, radio, newspapers, and video games to changes in technology; people are finding new ways to access content. And while this is certainly true to a degree, others say that in this age of concentrated and hypercommercialized media, audiences are simply being turned off. Would agree with the critics? Why? Can you give examples from your own media consumption?

This topic is something that I have been teaching in my media class for the last ten years. Based on the information that I have been tracking over those years, I think the initial writing prompt that is provided here is a bit misleading. The prompt seems to suggest that media consumption has fallen off. That simply isn't the case. Studies are abundant that show the overall amount of digital media being consumed has continued to rise over the past decade.
The question initially starts with saying, "Many industry insiders attribute the recent falloff in audiences for movies, recorded music, network television, DVD, radio, newspapers, and video games . . ." Perhaps what that is referring to is the falloff of audiences paying for certain items that are listed there. Movie ticket sales have had a general decline since 2002; however, current 2018 ticket sales are higher than they have been in ten years. In fact, the 2018 ticket sales are nearly up to what they peaked at in 2002. That movie consumption information just takes into account box office numbers. It doesn't at all take into account that paid movie viewing services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu have all drastically increased their number of paid memberships in recent years. Video game sales don't claim that kind of drastic increase, but video game sales have been steadily increasing since 2015.
I don't think it's realistic to say that audiences for TV shows, music, movies, and video games have fallen off in recent years. There is too much evidence out there that shows media consumption is on the rise. With that said, I do think the initial writing prompt brings up a good point about changes in technology changing media consumption habits or formats. It makes sense that DVD or CD album sales have fallen off. People don't feel the need to purchase a DVD when they can stream the movie from a variety of sources. Even if a person wants to own the video, it's easier and more convenient to purchase a digital download copy from Amazon or a similar source. The prompt indicates that anecdotal evidence is acceptable. I digitally downloaded a film for my media class today instead of purchasing the DVD and waiting for it in the mail. Sales of DVDs might be declining, but movie viewership is not. Music sales are similar. Plenty of users still pay for single song downloads or even entire albums. Additionally, people pay for certain music services like satellite radio and/or premier memberships to things like Pandora, Spotify, or Google Play; however, all of those services also offer free music streaming with a limited number of skips. User growth on these kinds of services has continued to increase in recent years. A user can't necessarily listen to a particular song at any given moment, but that's what Youtube is now often being used for. Anecdotally, I haven't paid for music in nearly decade. That is because I have access to so much free music that I don't see the point in purchasing music albums. I'm sure that each person can give solid evidence of their own about how he or she listens to music without having to purchase anything.
Cable TV is possibly the one area in which declines are being seen. As competition from companies like Netflix and Amazon increases, more and more people are dropping their paid cable subscriptions; however, the number of Charter cable subscribers nearly doubled in 2016. Statistics like this and those that streaming services keep showing provide strong evidence that people are not being "turned off" as a part of the prompt hints. For example, American teenagers consume an average of eight hours and fifty-six minutes of entertainment media per day. The audience for various forms of media isn't falling off. It's getting bigger and staying on longer.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/census_researchreport.pdf