annotatedbibliographies
Michael Millward
Dr. Geoff Stahl
MDIA103
28 April 2015
Bird, S. Elizabeth. “ARE WE ALL PRODUSERS NOW?” Cultural Studies.
Routlege, 2011. 502-516. Print.
The rise in convergence culture has changed the way we see the audience of media, and has lead to the defining of the term ‘produser’, which represents the merging of consumer and producer in an interactive environment. S.
Elizabeth Bird argues that although produsers are becoming the more popular way to view the media audience, the majority of people are not produsers.
Members of the audience can still be considered to be active, without being a produser. Bird provides the example of commenting on media as being an action of an active audience, not a produser. The concept of ‘produser’ evolved from ‘prosumer’, which describes the shift from the once passively consuming audience, to a more critical audience. The prosumer is an individual who is the bridge between professional and consumer, who will prefer to provide a service or source it locally. In the presence of prosumers, businesses now have less control of their products, brands or messages. Bird believes that produsers do have a form of power (similar to that of the prosumer) over the media industry, but she does however argue that media producers and marketers still hold a fair amount of control over the media industry. Bird believes that marketers knowingly use the enthusiasm of the active audience to sell to them more effectively. Produsers often give
companies the rights to their produced content, and users, often unknowingly, provide valuable data for companies – generally to do with social behaviour.
Bird argues that in the study of the media audience, there may be an overemphasis on online audience creativity, which neglects the larger questions regarding the ability of the media to influence its audience. Bird highlights that most participation and content that is produced online lacks sophistication and is superficial. Bird even suggests that
Dr. Geoff Stahl
MDIA103
28 April 2015
Bird, S. Elizabeth. “ARE WE ALL PRODUSERS NOW?” Cultural Studies.
Routlege, 2011. 502-516. Print.
The rise in convergence culture has changed the way we see the audience of media, and has lead to the defining of the term ‘produser’, which represents the merging of consumer and producer in an interactive environment. S.
Elizabeth Bird argues that although produsers are becoming the more popular way to view the media audience, the majority of people are not produsers.
Members of the audience can still be considered to be active, without being a produser. Bird provides the example of commenting on media as being an action of an active audience, not a produser. The concept of ‘produser’ evolved from ‘prosumer’, which describes the shift from the once passively consuming audience, to a more critical audience. The prosumer is an individual who is the bridge between professional and consumer, who will prefer to provide a service or source it locally. In the presence of prosumers, businesses now have less control of their products, brands or messages. Bird believes that produsers do have a form of power (similar to that of the prosumer) over the media industry, but she does however argue that media producers and marketers still hold a fair amount of control over the media industry. Bird believes that marketers knowingly use the enthusiasm of the active audience to sell to them more effectively. Produsers often give
companies the rights to their produced content, and users, often unknowingly, provide valuable data for companies – generally to do with social behaviour.
Bird argues that in the study of the media audience, there may be an overemphasis on online audience creativity, which neglects the larger questions regarding the ability of the media to influence its audience. Bird highlights that most participation and content that is produced online lacks sophistication and is superficial. Bird even suggests that