Everybody wants an audience, especially for our media workers. Without them, we are nothing. We want to be recognized as individuals, but there’s only one way to do it—that is to make the audiences see you. Aren’t the whole point of our existence is to be recognized in some sort of way?
In the broadcasting era, we are passive audiences. The need for recognition(for audiences) was only among friends and colleagues. Passive audiences are usually seen as brainwashed by the media outlets which may be controlled by governments. It was a one-way game. However, as we slowly enters the post-broadcasting era, things and rules are turning out quite differently. With our knowledge expanded, vision widened, we are looking forward to a global village ideal powered by the developments in the areas of internet, transportation and other new orders. The bigger picture gives us a more ambitious expectation—to be recognized by the whole world. So the characteristics of this post-broadcasting era is about more active audiences. We audiences are not simply audiences anymore. We are more than that. We are also the producers, a terminal in this big internetwork.
(Fandoms, fandom is also a group emerged in this post-broadcasting era even though there are examples like the fans of Sherlock Holmes went viral when the author Doyle killed him. )
All above, is talked about during this week’s lecture. “The people formerly known as the audiences” is a reading that react to the calls to more engaged audiences, more participatory audiences. Their voices should be heard and recognized by the professionals in the media industry as the need for this is the trend in our era that we must face and cope. The tide of this will not cease until we find a way to accept and deal with it.
