I wanna be a producer
Wear a tux on op’ning nights!
I wanna be a producer
And see my name “Leo Bloom” in lights!
The term ‘produser’ was coined by Axel Brun (2007) who defines the hybrid role as one who participates in “the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement”, which is called ‘produsage’. Basically, while the roles of ‘producers’ and ‘users’ used to be distinguished in terms of ’senders’ and ‘receivers’ of content, people are now able to resume both positions and are able to more actively shape their accessible media, in collaboration with others (Bruns, 2007). A key example of this is seen in Wikipedia, where anyone and everyone can share and evaluate their knowledge on a subject of interest.
From produsage.org
So who can be a produser? Well, anyone with access to the technology. New media technologies have developed to create better access, connectivity, and interactivity which allows a range of people to share their knowledge to be evaluated by others, thereby creating a ‘collective intelligence’ which anyone can contribute to (Flew 2008). Today, you can showcase your photos (Flickr), your interests (Digg), your thoughts (Twitter), and your life (Facebook) for all to see.
Critics of ’produsage’ argue that, while these technologies exist to cater for more people to be content creators and evaluators, most people do not choose to participate in the knowledge creation and instead are “content to be consumers, relying on the more highly motivated minority to safeguard their interests.” (Public Strategist, 2008). Sure, not everyone will create a blog, rant their comments on forums or edit a Wikipedia page. But isn’t something as subtle as updating our Facebook status, becoming a ’fan’ of our favourite brand, or sharing a Youtube video with our friends contributing to ‘collective intelligence’ of our community? Not everyone wants to be seen, but most people do want to be heard. And today we have the technology to show the world what we’ve got - so what are you waiting for?
LEO:
I wanna be a producer…
Hold everything! What I am I doing here? Mr. Bialystock was right!
There is a lot more to me than there is to me!
Stop the world, I wanna get on!
Reference
Bruns, A. 2007. Produsage:A working definition. http://www.produsage.org/produsage (accessed 22 April 2009).
Flew, T. 2008. New Media: an introduction. 3rd Ed. South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.
Lets Sing It. 2006. The Producers – I want to be a producer lyrics http://artists.letssingit.com/the-producers-lyrics-i-want-to-be-a-producer-xdj7vmf (accessed 22 April 2009).
Public Strategist. 2008. Producing consumption and consuming production. http://strategytalk.typepad.com/public_strategy/2008/01/producing-consu.html (accessed 26 April 2009).
3 comments
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May 2, 2009 at 9:31 am
Barbra Kurkowski
Firstly, I would like to commend you on an interesting and creative way that you have introduced your blog post. It instantly caught my attention.
I think that it is a great idea that anyone who has access to the technology can become a produser by sharing photographs, movies, interests, and their life with others online. The popularity of websites such as Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, suggest that the concept of produsage is evolving rapidly.
However, I believe that there is more to produsage and “collective intelligence” than just these websites alone. My own blog considers the limited credibility of online resources that are often a product of collaborative projects and produsage. A popular example of produsage is “Wikipedia”. I often question the quality and credibility of this website when universities strongly detest the use of this website in assessments.
Maybe produsage is only successful for personal and interest-related purposes, rather than professional and scholarly purposes?
May 4, 2009 at 7:38 pm
sailingfu
I like this idea which is saying “i want to be a producer”. And there was the big shift between new media consumers and producers. Nowadays consumers can influence media production not only by having a voice to producers, but also, more importantly, by joining the process of producing media. For example, some video game company hire their custumer to take part in giving considerable feedback, encouraging others to join the discussion and so on. Here, this consumer is one who plays this video game, while he is also a real producer.
On the other hand, I still think the current relationship between consumers and producers is complex. Although media consumers are more powerful than in the past, but this shift is not transfered totally from producers to consumers. In the case I said before, this firm does put users’ feedback as very significant position, but the staff realised that some ideas from their custumers are creative without thinking about certain requirements. Those requirements could include the technology, budget or other users’ needs. So producers still need to select the suggestions from consumers to improve their products.
May 4, 2009 at 10:57 pm
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