It’s autumn. The leaves are falling, the nights are drawing in and the rain is falling. Something else is falling: apples off trees. It’s harvest time for Britain’s apple farmers. In orchards across the country Braeburns and Granny Smiths are being picked by the cartload. They’ll be sorted, separated, stored, sold or squished to a pulp and made into cider.
Apple pickers, whether using machines or their own hands do an amazing job. They gather a valuable bounty. The quality with which they do their job materially affects the size of the harvest. Fruit picked too late or too carelessly is lost. Efficiency is the watchword.
However, as efficient as the apple pickers are, there is a limit to the harvest they can bring in. They don’t plant the trees, feed or protect them. They don’t control the size of the orchard or the weather. That’s in someone else’s gift, or in the case of the weather, in no one’s control.
So, there’s my simple overview of the role of digital media.
How do you like them apples?