Producers, User Generated Content and the Emergence of Produsage

With the introduction and development of social software and new media technologies, significant changes have occurred with the way in which audiences consume media. Audiences now have a more substantial relationship with media producers, having more choice and influence over which media they consume and how they consume it. ‘Produsage’ highlights the fact that there is a shift towards user generated content within online media that has increased the cultural and social power of these virtual communities. Axel Bruns, refers to these individuals as the new, hybrid, produser.

With the emergence of social software and the 'Web 2.0 environment’, participatory culture is breaking down the barriers between producers and consumers. Traditionally, there has been no relationship of any substance between media producers and audiences. In fact, this process has actually enabled media audiences to act as users, producers, or both. According to Bruns (2008), this new brand of producers do not engage in traditional content production, but are instead involved in ‘produsage’ or, “the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement”. This process has also changed with the rise of peer-to-peer media forums and has enabled audiences to respond to producers at an unprecedented degree. Bruns (2008) suggests, “As this trend continues and the balance between mass and networked media shifts further in favour of citizens, it is increasingly likely that the traditional model of politics is no longer sustainable”. As such, new media consumers now have the opportunity to delve even further into online participation and increase their cultural power within the ‘produsage’ democracy.

Media producers have also embraced this concept, ensuring that audience loyalty is consistent. Additionally, these networks provide producers with an insight into how audiences feel about the content of the program. This variation of control provides audiences with cultural power over the media they consume, allowing the expression of personal opinions and criticisms of media content, and inturn, a sense of authority over media decision making (see Media Spy). Over the past decade, online communities and user generated content have “granted audiences control over media flows, enabled activists to reshape and recirculate media content, lowered the costs of production and paved the way for new grassroots networks” (Jenkins 2002, 167). By doing so, media producers have given audiences a degree of social control over media by allowing them to produce their own content via mediums such as YouTube. This has also led to various social opportunities and economic benefits. As such, the relationship between media producers and audiences has indeed changed, as the two entities network and overlap responsibilities.

Produsage.org has identified four key principles that can be applied across all produsage environments:

• Open Participation, Communal Evaluation
• Fluid Heterarchy, Ad Hoc Meritocracy
• Unfinished Artefacts, Continuing Process
• Common Property, Individual Rewards

These principles are further explored in the book Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, and on the accompanying Website Produsage.org.

Some examples of ‘produsage’ include open source software development, citizen journalism, applications such as Wikipedia, and Second Life, alongside a wide range of other sites of collaborative content creation.

References

Bruns, A. 2008. The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage

Jenkins, H. 2002. Interactive audiences in Harries, Dan, The New Media Book, London: BFI Publishing, pp.157-170.