The Relationship Between Audiences and Producers Report (Assessment)

The relationship between audiences and producers has shifted in recent years especially because of advanced technology. The advent of technologies such as web 2.0, videogame and blogging has revolutionized the way in which audiences interact with the content that producers put in the media.

The content is becoming more personal and audiences are becoming increasingly confident that it will even get more personal in the next decade. The use of sophisticated gadgets such as smart phones and tablets allow audiences multiple platforms through which to interact with content. An example is the use of mobile phones to access internet, social media, and video games.

The audience, especially the young one, is becoming unresponsive to traditional media like TV broadcast because of the apparent limited levels of control over the content. This tutorial will discuss arguments about the shifting relationships between audiences and producers and the implications of users becoming producers.

The discussion questions include the opportunities the new media present for audiences to become producers, internet as a “grassroots” medium as opposed to a “top-down” one, and the effect of creative “prosumers” on the diversity of media products available online.

Miekle, Graham, and Young (2012, p. 106) provide Google Earth as an example of convergent media technology that allows the audience to be both producers and consumers. Through Google Earth, it is possible for any one with access to it to take a Sightseeing Tour of the globe.

You can take a tour through Paris and watch Eiffel Tower, cut through Egypt and see the pyramids, swim across to Brazil and see Jesus’ statue, and come back to Google Earth headquarters in the United States. The opportunity to transform to a “prosumers” (producer and consumer) comes in the ability to tag self and friends in the panoramic images.

From the comfort of your house, you can edit these images, tag friends, and link it to a continuous movie by use of computer applications. You can then upload it on YouTube and share it to your friends through social media.

The ability to make your own movie and make it available online gives the modern audience an opportunity to become producers and increase the content available online. The fact many people can access internet through smart phones, watch YouTube and social media portrays internet as a “grassroots” medium.

Jenkins (2006, p. 150) argues that Star Wars is the predecessor of audience-made films. He asserts that the “widespread circulation of Star Times has placed resources into the hands of a generation emerging filmmakers in their teens or early twenties” (132). Modern technology has afforded the young generation an opportunity to shoot movies, provide background music, and customize the content to suit their personal tastes.

In spite of losing popularity, web 2.0 has offered new platforms for film contents especially through unofficial sites. The clamor for personalized content is not just from audiences but also from fans. Jenkins (2006, p. 108) describes the modern fan as “the most active segment of the media audience, one that refuses to simply accept what they are given, but rather insists on the right to become full participants” (133).

The fans have become increasingly aware of their opportunities to be participants rather than mere observers that the web provides. They are thus making “amateur” movies and posting them online. This again pontificates the view of internet as a “grassroots” rather than a “top down” phenomenon.

Miekle, Graham, and Young (2012, p.109) argue that the media environment is increasingly becoming participatory. Encoding and decoding model was the most dominant audience model in the 1970s. In this model, producers had a message they wanted to pass across.

Audiences on the other hand decode the message in their own ways. Jenkins (2006, p. 109) however disapproves the model by quoting a case of a young uneducated girl who was supervising her more educated peers in writing for a magazine about an imaginary school.

This is an example of the changing trend in which audience wants a participatory style of interacting with media. Jenkins (2006 p. 110) emphasizes that the young fans want to “share and collaborate, make decisions, as well as express interpretations and emotions” (156). Web 2.0 has especially contributed to realization of a participatory audience and fans.

Through blogging, people can express their emotions in an elaborate way that can reach many. The point to ponder is; does this increase the diversity of media products available online. Invariably, the increase in access to internet has made it easy for fans to create online blogs free. They are thus able express their thoughts and emotions in an unedited version. The presence of a comment box allows for global interactions.

Having discussed the content of the primary texts in the course, it is instructive to engage in a stimulating activity that will enable us understand active audience. In groups of four, you are going to brainstorm on several questions we will raise. This is a set of three questions for each group and a discussion by the whole class will follow. The questions to various groups are as follows:

Group 1

1. What opportunities do mobile applications provide for active audience?
2. Do the applications give more advantage to the audience over the producer?
3. Does this portend any danger to producers’ profession?

Group 2

1. Think of video games and brainstorm what opportunities for participatory media the audience enjoys.
2. What opportunities do video games offer to audience to develop and consume personalized content?
3. Are videogames the future of convergent media? In what ways do videogames constraining full audience participation?

Group 3

1. How has web 2.0 revolutionized the ways in which audience interact with content?
2. Do you agree with Jenkins’ assertion that web 2.0 will render rigid producers obsolete? Give reasons.
3. At personal level, has web 2.0 changed the way you interact with media content?

Group 4

1. How regular do you read blogs and what content do you prefer?
2. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the effectiveness of blogs in expressing personal thoughts and emotions? Give your reasons.
3. Would you create a blog? Explain your reasons.

The relationship between audiences and producers has shifted to a great deal especially because of advancement in technology. Previously placid audiences now have the opportunity to not only participate in the new media environment but also to become producers.

Internet has changed people’s ability to interact with various online contents. Additionally, the content available online is now more diverse because of access to internet. Going into the future, producers should be more responsive to audiences’ demands for a participatory platform through which to interact.

References

Jenkins, Henry 2006, “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars” in Convergence Culture, University Press, New York

Meikle, Graham, & Young, 2012, Media convergence: networked digital media in everyday life, Palgrave Macmillan Basingstoke, Hampshire.