Posted by: jami19 on: May 26, 2009
I remember the day I signed up for Myspace, interestingly enough I was more concerned about making the profile visually appealing, then reading the terms and conditions. I would spend hours searching for the best background, and then when I discovered another person had the same, I had restart my mission. This is one of many, examples of online DIY Design.
When you combine the previous 4 topics such as Produsage, Citizen Journalism, Wikipedia and the Pro/AM divide, one remaining factor is the produsers freedom and accessibility to DIY design profiles, accounts, blogs and networks. The main example I will be referring to is Myspace. When I look back in my ‘myspaceaholic’ days I find it difficult to believe that I could spend up to 3 hours straight ‘myspacing’. What on earth did I do in that time? You can only comment so many people, read so many bulletins and browse through so many photos before you start to look like a stalker. I actually spent a lot of the time figuring out how to add the latest devices and widgets to make my profile stand out. In this situation I am sure that I am not alone. Well, I hope.
It is because of New Media with web 2.0 that online users or produsers can make, alter, design and share many different examples of creative work. Axle Bruns describes this process as ‘turning products into artifacts’. He believes this market follows a ‘trial and error’ process. Many disputes that arise with online creative work and design, is the ownerships and copyright. This is where Creative Commons has become very useful in preventing many disputes. Common copyright issues relate to ‘who owns the products or the artifact?’ For example a creative unique drawing you illustrated yourself, you then scanned and shared this through your myspace profile. Does Myspace own the image? Or Do you?
This leads me to the potential future of Produsage and where this controversial and versatile, medium platform is going to take us. Lets recap. Produsage, with its vastly expanding popularity, it is becoming a great threat to traditional mediums such as the printing press to the family favorite, television. Citizen Journalism, many produsers are becoming citizen journalists, with no demand for qualifications and experience, anyone with a computer and internet connection, is capable of sharing their journalistic flare. Wikipedia, is a network which encourages collaborative learning from anyone, anywhere. Often this site criticized as an unreliable source, because of the limited control over user contribution. The Pro/AM divide, with all these mentioned factors evolving, many professional and academic work is difficult to distinguish from amateur work online. DIY Design, produsers, can now create their own virtual world and share their creative instincts, by designing the appearance of their profiles, blog pages and networks.
New Media, it’s a world of its own. Is it the world of our future?
References:
Axle Bruns 2008 From Production to Produsage. In Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond P387-415 ed Jones S. New York. Peter Land Publshing
Posted by: jami19 on: May 19, 2009
Britney Spears vs. Christina Aquilera, Green Peace vs. Japanese Fishermen, The Broncos vs. The Titans, Michael Jackson vs. Jesus Juice, Amateur Bloggers vs. Professional Journalists. It is a new rivalry, it is a battle, it is the Pro/AM divide.
Cast your mind back to the PI period, also known as the pre-internet period. When libraries and newspapers thrived, and information we read was at academic standards. The information we relied on was collaborated by professionals with qualifications and big heads. Compare it to now. Today we can just open our internet explorer, go to google and access information we require in just a few short clicks. With so many produsers out there, the world of creative writing and expression has shifted.
Bruns discusses there are two different online contributors, ‘experts and dilettantes’ however there is no precise way of distinguishing these two different contributors apart, especially on sites such as Wikipedia as discussed in my previous post. But at the same time, raises concern regarding how the two different categories are defined. Especially with people such as myself. Undergraduate students who are studying media in Creative Industries. Is my contribution academic? Or is it still on an amateur level? This is where the pro/AM divide becomes very ambiguous.
What I found fitting to this topic was a Blog titled : ‘Amateur Video Blogs vs. Professional Media Blogs’. In this article Alex describes in the new media world the style of writing and appeal has changed. Instead, in order to develop an online quota your writing should contain a ‘sense of humor, 1 in 3 quality posts per day and use of various media types ie. A video camera.’ Many serious online geeks often go and read other posts on the topics and compare notes and comments. However, this raises concern, if Bloggers are getting their Blog information from other amateur Blogs, how organic is the post in the end?
Bruns explains that Sanger one of the co-founder of Wikipedia is trying to reinstate professionalism on Wikipedia. The steps followed to do so are as follows:
But is this enough?
With so many networks online and websites, while this may enhance Wikipedia’s authenticity, in distinguishing the ‘Pro’s’ from the ‘AM’s ‘other sites will still remain vague.
Is shift in media a burden, or a blessing, for future generation’s education and knowledge.
Stay tuned for next weeks blog on ‘DIY design to Production’!
Reference List
Bruns A (2008) Folks and Experts. In Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond. Ed Jones S, p 199-224. Peter Lang Publishing. New York
Alex. April 2008. Amuseline: Amateur Video Bloggers vs. Professional Media Blogs. (http://www.amuseline.com/amateur-video-blogs-vs-professional-media-bloggers) accessed May 19 2009
Posted by: jami19 on: May 12, 2009
It was 2007 and I was in the midst of my final year of schooling. I will never forget the day my friend and I sat quietly in our math’s B class, as the boys were being boys, rating female others they meet over the weekend. There was the usual “id tap that” remarks, and “only if I was drunk” but then a new remark came into play, “that chick was SEEDY!” Seedy? My friend and I looked at each other with puzzled faces. That afternoon, I had to clench my hunger and figure out what this meant. So, like all curious people would do, I visited the almighty, Wikipedia. I typed in seedy and my hunger was dispersed.
Yes this blog is about Wikipedia. A collaborative online encyclopedia, which is a prime example, of citizen journalism. The idea of Wikipedia is a site which allows users to view the online communities knowledge, unfortunately with this type of environment, knowledge may not always be fact. Many university students would be able to relate to the familiar and constant sound, of tutors and lectures reminding us that ‘Wikipedia is NOT an academic source! So don’t reference it!’ As Axle Bruns notes “it does not guarantee quality, nor accuracy”(Bruns 2008 p110). What is fascinating is the freedom users are given. For example the allowance of corrections and revision of posted articles. Anything posted and viewed has a very high chance of at some stage being corrected or edited by another user.
Unlike the traditional Encyclopedia, Wikipedia contains meanings of fad words. Such as my own example of the term ‘Seedy’. In-fact you can even find an intellectual meaning of popular vulgar words. Proof of the rate that words are edited and altered by other users is my very own example, ‘Seedy’. If you were to go to Wikipedia today and type in ‘Seedy’ to the search engine, you would discover that it is the name used for a bands album. Which hinders the question, why were those boys in my math’s B class comparing that girl to the name of an album? The answer is simple, they weren’t. In 2007, something along lines of ‘ a growing breed of humans with monster-like appearances’ or ‘the epiphany of ugly’. Would have been in the article. Yes, teenage boys are shallow heartless creatures.
Wikipedia, is full of knowledge, from around the world. Greg Jenkins believes it is a ‘self correcting adhocracy’. Over the years Wikipedia, has become more and more popular, proving the communities ability to embrace in Produsage. It is collaborative learning at its best. Wikipedia is collaboration, it is learning, it is accessible, it is Produsage, it is citizen journalism, it is new media.
Posted by: jami19 on: May 6, 2009
The Citizen Journalism Blog…
Journalism has expanded vigorously thanks to web 2.0’s platforms and popularity. This has resulted in many citizens or ‘amateur’s’ as such, being able to contribute to online content, thus being named ‘citizen journalism’. This piece of writing itself is a example of citizen journalism. Blogs, web-pages, articles and wiki’s, writing opportunities have allowed the journalism industry to be completely reshaped. As Axle Bruns explains “citizen journalism and open source software development are directly related, and the open . community based, hierarchical, and meteoritic ethos of open source is shared in full by citizen journalism.” (Bruns 2008 p70)
After many in depth observations and comparisons between citizen journalism and professional journalism. This term is often referred to as ‘decentralization’ as identified by Axle Bruns. Each of these forms of writing rely on different research methods and sources. Citizen Journalism, comes from a lot of comparison and evaluation of other articles or documents. In contrast, professional journalists work accesses new sources to find new information and interesting content. Initially the idea of ‘Citizen Journalism’ is a result of ‘produsage’, therefore, online readers must be weary of the reliability and authenticity of online article and documents.
Citizen Journalism has impacted many journalistic industries and news platforms. Such as the ‘ideology as Journalism as a profession’ (Flew 2008 p155). Flew discusses that during the 1960’s through to the 80’s there was the common idea of a journalist becoming a hero like figure. These were highly qualified and dedicated journalists who would spend late nights researching for their impressive and powerful article. However, now their job is becoming invaded by online users, who express their thoughts in an online article, accessible to anyone, anywhere. Are the days of the heroic journalist fading away?
Another effected industry of citizen journalism, is celebrity news, gossip and lifestyle printed press. ‘Tabliodisation’ has become more readily available and published. Once upon a time it was the ‘gossip magazines’ which could make or break celebritys popularity. This has now diversified. Consider, the amount of online video content on Youtube of Britney during her infamous breakdown. Citizen Journalists can now contribute to this industry. Terry Flew notes that many office workers prefer to consume ‘small chunks’ of the online celebrity news content rather then the tabloid magazines. Is this the beginning of the end for tabloid magazines?
As discussed in my last blog, there was once a time when consumers would simply, consume. And producers would produce. Produsage has defied this theory and resulted in Citizen Journalism. While this opens up new doors, for new writers and new writing styles to expressed online. There is a fear that is professional journalists may begin to fade. Online content is now written for the community and by the community potentially making it more appealing. Will there be a day when the title known as a ‘Journalist’ will just require a computer and an internet connection?
References:
Bruns, A. (2008) New Blogs and Citizen Journalism. In Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond, From Production to Produsage. Ed Jones S p69-96. Peter Lang Publishing. New York
Flew, T (2008) Chapter 8: Citizen Journalism. In New Media an Introduction. Ed Flew T. p143-164. Oxford. Melbourne Australia
By: Jamie-Lee Currey
Posted by: jami19 on: April 29, 2009
Produsage is a direct result of new media and expanding platforms. Produsage origins stems from combined actions of, producers and consumers. New Media is allowing users or consumers to also be producers. This occurs on the continually expanding internet. The internets functions and accessibility, allows a more collaborative and communal (Bruns 2006 p11) domain, in comparison to mediums such as the traditional television. Amateur input through blogs is now available, and feedback through online ‘commenting’ can be made. This all combines to result in the idea established by academic Axle Bruns known as a ‘collective intelligence’.
Linear lines of production are no longer the main driver online. Unlike other mediums which offer the equation, which flows through, the producer, to the distributor finally to the consumer. Online content can be created by basically anyone, virtually anywhere. This has many positive and negative effects for the online community. The general positive effects are, the ‘collective intelligence’, personalization, categorization and immediate feedback. By someone creating blogs as such other members of the network can add their comments and feedback, and in many cases further information or links to particular details. Axle Bruns, refers to this as ‘customer feedback’. This makes platforms readily available to those researching or just interested in the particular topic. Personalization, refers to users being able to select their online information. In many cases the internet gives users an ‘information overload’ (Bruns 2009). However when filtered and categorized effectively, the users online content can become a lot more personalized and relevant to their online habits and preferences. Immediate feedback, is very useful and advantageous for amateurs. With professionals also accessing the online organization, feedback and comments are very beneficial in assisting the users improvement, whether it is in writing techniques, the general content or offering other useful websites. These characteristics as described by Axle Bruns allow more information and more accessibility online.
In contrast, Produsage can have a negative impact as well. While amateur work can be very honorable it is difficult to distinguish if people identities and qualifications are legit online. This can result in fraudulent or false information, which can mislead the consumers. Another potential misleading factor is the idea of the information “being shared and not owned’ (Bruns 2006 p20). The line between who owns online products, is highly distorted. Is it the creator of the website? Or is it ‘produsers’ of the network? Unfortunately, users rarely take notice of the heavy terms and conditions when initially signing up for their online account or network. Which in most cases mean that online content is no longer owned by the initial creator.
Produsage in the future may have a highly powerful effect. It is distressing potentially to the economical industry. Perhaps Produsage is a contributor to the feared ‘recession’ we are currently encountering. Libraries, magazines, books, newspapers, news programs, television shows, movies, music and games, can be uploaded and consumed online. Directly affecting these industries. Produsage is continually expanding and becoming a very strong driver behind the online networks.
By Jamie-Lee Currey
Reference
Bruns. A(2006) The Key Characteristics of Produsage. In Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond, From Production to Produsage. Ed Jones S. P9-35 . Peter Lang Publishing. New York.
Posted by: jami19 on: April 22, 2009
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