In order to be a future web content creator, it is vital that a person not only has a wide and in-depth knowledge of the Internet, but they too participate, interact and understand the constantly changing nature of the Internet. In this technological boom of the 21st Century, spectators are becoming less passive in their reception of media and more active. Not only are audiences actively engaging in media content they receive, they are now able to become the creators and producers of media content, which can be shared to millions of other people, for free. In the age of rapid globalisation, audiences are now prompted not only receive information, but to then question the source, look to enhance and develop the information, and also investigate it in various ways. For potential content creators of the future, it is very important to realise this evolution in the way audiences now receive technological information. The Internet is a never-ending source of information, and is easily accessible. Just like there are film and music celebrities, there are now prominent Internet celebrities. These figure’s have the power and access reach millions of people from their computer at home, utilise the communication tools the Internet has to offer. Examples include bloggers or video bloggers. In the current day and age where more cyber contact is made between citizens on the Internet as oppose to physical contact, it is now vital that people have a clean and clear Internet persona and reputation. “You contribute to them and in turn can share what others provide” (Miles, 2007). The Internet provides a network of infinite connectivity, which is unpredictable in its function. The Internet provides audiences opportunities to interact with the information they’re receiving, whether that be by them responding in a way, ‘liking’ subject matter that other people then observe, or ‘sharing’ a piece of information to others. People cannot resist being a part of this universal community. The Internet as a whole encourages user participation; it is now an easily accessible source for people to make their opinions, thoughts and ideas be heard. It is vital for future media creators, or more specifically web content creators, to for one, acknowledge the influence the Internet now has on the world, as well as its ever-changing nature. Secondly, it is important to participate in all ways possible, which will ensure a greater qualitative understanding of the use of the Internet for the future.
A term that can be related to the current relationship between media content producers and consumers is ‘Produsage.’ Produsage is a portmanteau of the words “production” and “usage”, popularised by Australian media scholar Axel Bruns in the book “Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage”. Produsage refers to the type of user-led content creation that takes place in a variety of online environments such as Wikipedia, open source software, and the blogosphere (Bruns, 2007). According to Bruns, produsage has four defining features: 1) Open participation and communal evaluation; 2) Fluid heterarchy through ad hoc meritocracies; 3) Palimpsestic unfinished artifacts in a continuing process; and 4) Common property and individual rewards (Bruns, 2008). Open participation: A key characteristic of produsers is that they collaborate to create content rather than working as individuals. The creation of content is frequently done by a number of different users rather than one single author (Bruns, 2008). Fluid heterarchy and holoptism: Another characteristic of a produsage environment is that there is often no clear hierarchy or centralized leadership in place. In order for produsage sites to function, they need to attract a large number of participants thus arise the need for balancing between open participation of the users and sense of cohesion without being oversight by other individuals (Bruns 2005). Palimpsestic artifacts and granularity: In relation to open participation and communal evaluation is that a produsage content is often unfinished and in a continuous process of development. Common property, individual rewards: Bruns argues that with the creation of collaborative contents, strict enforcement of conventional intellectual property rights is likely to stifle the palimsestic collaboration of users to work on the materials of their predecessors. This view on the collaboration of creating content mimics the ideology of websites like Wikipedia and ccMixter, and anyone who hopes to work in the field of online media would benefit from adhering to this concept.
ccMixter is certainly a leading example of collaboration creating content. ccMixter is a produsage community music site that promotes remix culture and makes samples, remixes, and a cappella tracks licensed under Creative Commons available for download and re-use in creative works. Visitors are able to listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in a variety of ways including the download and use of tracks and samples in their own remixes. Most sampling or mash-up web sites on the Internet stipulate that users forgo their rights to the new song once it is created. By contrast, the material on ccMixter.org is generally licensed to be used in any arena, not just the ccMixter site or a specific contest. The ccMixter site contains over 10,000 samples from a wide range of recording artists, including high profile artists such as Beastie Boys and David Byrne (ccMixter, 2014). ccMixter is arguably a stepping stone of online social collaboration and more sites like these may play a huge part in our future media considering the sharing abilities. Social collaboration is recognisably one of the most unbiased aspects of our social sphere. This component of online collaboration will open up future career opportunities because participation in knowledge, rather than simply learning it, will be a new form of education.
Social media also displays elements of social collaboration. Strong networks are created through the use of various sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Individuals have the opportunity to communicate and share ideas with a wide range of people and followers. Social media has developed into a strong tool for advertising and close interaction between producers and consumers, which in turn form them into contributors. We continuously witness social media being used as a tool of advertisement, promotion and interaction amongst producers and viewers, in turn forming them into contributors. In comparison to an advert seen on television or print media, digital platforms allow for active audience response. Groups of users are formed who share common interests; they can be catergorised by producers and targeted as a whole. Social media’s “capacity to enable people to connect, share and collaborate has made it’s use increasingly common in the personal, business and educational domain” (White, King, Tsang 2011) and it only continues to grow more prominent and popular amongst all aspects of our social and cultural world. In the end, to be prosper in the media world, a user must focus on social media, and actively participate and commit to becoming part of a social community or network.
Social media can generally form “groups” can spark movement of social activism. Online activism see users utilise social media is various ways to make their opinions on certain issues public, and also prompt some sort of response in their audience, whether that result in a ‘like,’ a ‘share’ or maybe their audience attending a physical event such as a protest. “Online activism is comprised of proactive actions to achieve a certain goal” of awareness, advocacy, mobilisation and reaction (McCaughey, Ayres, 2003). Digital activism derives from the conception that people with shared notions are able to represent these principles in public forums. Online activism has seen social movements formed. An example of this is the Arab Spring, which began in 2011. In several Arab-speaking countries, to escape punishment a citizen’s voice could only be heard and through voicing their opinions on Facebook. The technological boom has sparked new concepts such as these ‘web protests’. In some circumstances the Internet has the power for one person to reach millions of other people through a simple click of a button.
The Internet is so important in today’s world, and will continue to be vital in some way or another in the future. To be successful professionally in relation to the Internet it is vital that a person participate in online communities to achieve not only a network but also relevance within the network. It is also vital that they utilise the Internet through online collaboration and participation.
References
Bruns, Axel (2007). “Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation”. Creativity and Cognition: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity & cognition, ACM, Washington, DC.: 99.
Bruns, Axel (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond. From Production to Produsage. Peter Lang. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8204-8866-0.
Bruns, Axel (2008). “The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage”. Fiber Cultural Journal 11.
ccMixter (2014). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CcMixter
Lih, Andrew. (2009) “The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopaedia’, Hyperton.
McCaughey, Martha. Ayres, Michael. (2003) “Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practise”, Psychology Press.
Miles, Adrian. “Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge.” Screen Education Autumn.45 (2007): 24–30.
White, Bebo. King, Irwin. Tsang, Philip. (2011) “Social Media Tools and Platforms in Learning Environments”, Springer science & Business media.