“Playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information” (Wikipedia, 2008, Citizen Journalism).
Citizen Journalism, also referred to as public journalism or participatory journalism makes it possible for all citizens to participate in the act of journalism. A form of journalism largely created by the revolution of Web 2.0 and the array of networking environments that came with it, and so the people began expressing themselves through weblogs, mobile computing, chatrooms, wikis and messageboards (Wikipedia, 2008, Citizen Journalism)
So how does one become a citizen journalist? Bruns (2008) suggests that citizen journalists begin with an idea that interests them and that will interest their peers and starts developing, similarly to open source software development. Their peers and the wider community then comment and evaluate the information, add their own views, displaying in its essence produsage at work.
“Gatekeeping selects the stories to be covered in the products of mainstream journalism”, ‘Gatewatching’ relies on the users to ascertain what is interesting and worth sharing with their peers (Bruns 2008, 71 - 74). Axel Bruns identifies ‘gatekeeping’ and ‘gatewatching’ as important elements in controlling citizen journalism.
“Industrial software production operates on a principal of ‘develop to marketable quality, then release,’ whereas open source releases its projects in no more than embryonic versions, divides the production process into granular produsage tasks, and then engages in the open and communally organized development of software to what we continue to refer to as ‘commercial quality’” (Bruns 2008, 74).
Bruns is arguing here that the new concept of produsage is reversing the conventional industrial production process by releasing projects into the marker that are unfinished or only in the early stages of development.
We have evolved to an online, multiple networked environment where a citizen journalism movement has developed, and so in order for this movement to take its place across the many websites that make up the movement it has developed a “sophisticated array of processes, tools, and technologies” (Bruns 2008, 70)
Producers are now users and for journalists to survive and succeed in an online environment they must begin to embrace produsage and encourage users to also produce and explore the elements of the news.
Bruns concludes with (2008, 85) “Produsage-based citizen journalism is the first step towards restoring access to the public… produsage based citizen journalism has broken the commercial hold of industrial capitalism in the journalistic industry.
Bruns, A. 2008. AB. News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: Perpetual Collaboration in Evaluating the News in Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, 69-100. New York: Peter Lang
Axel Bruns. (2008). Wikipedia: Representations of Knowledge in Axel Bruns, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, New York: Peter Lang, pp.101-136.
(Wikipedia, 2008, Citizen Journalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Journalism)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Producer or Prouduser
I am a producer, a creator – You are my audience, my reader.
I am solely creating the content that is being streamed from my blog, to my readers.
I am a user – using the means of blog to further my understanding, my education
I am creating content that is being streamed from my blog to my readers – to further my understanding of Blogging, tagging – The World Wide Web – to further my education.
So am I a producer, a creator or a user? Can I create and use simultaneously?
The difficulty of definition is that the concept of audience suggests a passive consumption of a message and a creator is an inventor who preaches to an audience. As Livingstone explores (2008) a ‘consumer’ has changed over many years, no longer are they a passive audience who sits back without engaging.
The world has been in awe since the invention of the internet, but what society has always craved is their own 15 minutes of fame, a chance to make their mark, and now that is all possible. People can now create their own online communities allowing them to post their opinions, share their thoughts, and collaborate with peers (Flew, 2005)
The internet is not a tangible product, it is a wealth of untouchable, indefinable experience. It is a medium to be explored by consumers and users, one and the same, sitting in offices, at home, on the bus, on a mobile phone who can add to the building blocks who can create networks, publish thoughts and information and much more.
So there is no single creator, there is no owner or boss there is a mass of equals uploading content and downloading content. Producer equals Consumer. Alex Bruns (2007) coined these producers “produsers” a term which accurately describes their dual functionality. The process does not stop with dual functionality however, every producer adding information is helping to build the knowledge base, thus creating collective knowledge, maintained and improved only by the users themselves, not a central control base (CSE 2008).
At a minimum the internet has overcome the barriers blocking progress and its produsage capabilities have exponentially increased the ways we can organize information and effectively communicate.
Banks, J. (2002) "Gamers as Co-Creators: Enlisting the Virtual Audience - A Report From the Net Face," in M. Balnaves, T. O'Regan and J. Sternberg (eds) Mobilising the Audience. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press
Flew, T. (2005). New media : an introduction. Melbourne: OUP
I am solely creating the content that is being streamed from my blog, to my readers.
I am a user – using the means of blog to further my understanding, my education
I am creating content that is being streamed from my blog to my readers – to further my understanding of Blogging, tagging – The World Wide Web – to further my education.
So am I a producer, a creator or a user? Can I create and use simultaneously?
The difficulty of definition is that the concept of audience suggests a passive consumption of a message and a creator is an inventor who preaches to an audience. As Livingstone explores (2008) a ‘consumer’ has changed over many years, no longer are they a passive audience who sits back without engaging.
The world has been in awe since the invention of the internet, but what society has always craved is their own 15 minutes of fame, a chance to make their mark, and now that is all possible. People can now create their own online communities allowing them to post their opinions, share their thoughts, and collaborate with peers (Flew, 2005)
The internet is not a tangible product, it is a wealth of untouchable, indefinable experience. It is a medium to be explored by consumers and users, one and the same, sitting in offices, at home, on the bus, on a mobile phone who can add to the building blocks who can create networks, publish thoughts and information and much more.
So there is no single creator, there is no owner or boss there is a mass of equals uploading content and downloading content. Producer equals Consumer. Alex Bruns (2007) coined these producers “produsers” a term which accurately describes their dual functionality. The process does not stop with dual functionality however, every producer adding information is helping to build the knowledge base, thus creating collective knowledge, maintained and improved only by the users themselves, not a central control base (CSE 2008).
At a minimum the internet has overcome the barriers blocking progress and its produsage capabilities have exponentially increased the ways we can organize information and effectively communicate.
Banks, J. (2002) "Gamers as Co-Creators: Enlisting the Virtual Audience - A Report From the Net Face," in M. Balnaves, T. O'Regan and J. Sternberg (eds) Mobilising the Audience. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press
Flew, T. (2005). New media : an introduction. Melbourne: OUP
Web 2.0... different? Better?
Today I aim to answer the question ‘How is web 2.0 different, or even better, than web 1.0?’,
If we were to use the numbering system it would be logical to assume web 2.0 came after web 1.0 and it is therefore the new and improved version. Web 1.0 can be considered a delivery medium, something to be passively consumed, Web 2.0 on the other hand is an interactive environment inviting its viewers to interact, rather than being user-read information it has progressed into “user-led content creation” (Bruns, 2008).
Although most of us studying now at QUT and interacting with Web 2.0 can barely remember Web 1.0, four years the first Web 2.0 conference was held, four years ago I was 14, and a school student. Web Web 1.0 was in vogue we were consumers not producers, now we have evolved into Web 2.0 where we create online content, whilst this may be as simple as creating an online Facebook account we are creating the content that is shaping Web 2.0.
Alex Bruns terms this interactive relationship within the Web 2.0 environment “produsage”, meaning we as consumers and users are also the people creating the content. Whilst creating a MySpace or Facebook account is a fairly simple task for most, it is a specifically useful example that the content is created purely for the use and consumption of their users, by their users.
Web 2.0 entrusts its creation to its users, providing only a platform for its development, Jenkins (2008) and others believe that platforms like this are leading to the collective intelligence in society.
So, in essence web 2.0 stands far above Web 1.0 not only in its numerical value but in its usability. Web 2.0 is a format for creation, interactions and consumption. Web 2.0 is not a new World Wide Web it is an improvement on the original, but in its vast improvements Web 2.0 has warranted Web 1.0 obsolete.
The social software of Web 2.0 has enabled users to ‘Do-It-Yourself’, with online publishing, blogs, tagging and podcasting, society is now creating content. Essentialy Web 2.0 is a more organized and functional providing a Do-It-Yourself medium.
If we were to use the numbering system it would be logical to assume web 2.0 came after web 1.0 and it is therefore the new and improved version. Web 1.0 can be considered a delivery medium, something to be passively consumed, Web 2.0 on the other hand is an interactive environment inviting its viewers to interact, rather than being user-read information it has progressed into “user-led content creation” (Bruns, 2008).
Although most of us studying now at QUT and interacting with Web 2.0 can barely remember Web 1.0, four years the first Web 2.0 conference was held, four years ago I was 14, and a school student. Web Web 1.0 was in vogue we were consumers not producers, now we have evolved into Web 2.0 where we create online content, whilst this may be as simple as creating an online Facebook account we are creating the content that is shaping Web 2.0.
Alex Bruns terms this interactive relationship within the Web 2.0 environment “produsage”, meaning we as consumers and users are also the people creating the content. Whilst creating a MySpace or Facebook account is a fairly simple task for most, it is a specifically useful example that the content is created purely for the use and consumption of their users, by their users.
Web 2.0 entrusts its creation to its users, providing only a platform for its development, Jenkins (2008) and others believe that platforms like this are leading to the collective intelligence in society.
So, in essence web 2.0 stands far above Web 1.0 not only in its numerical value but in its usability. Web 2.0 is a format for creation, interactions and consumption. Web 2.0 is not a new World Wide Web it is an improvement on the original, but in its vast improvements Web 2.0 has warranted Web 1.0 obsolete.
The social software of Web 2.0 has enabled users to ‘Do-It-Yourself’, with online publishing, blogs, tagging and podcasting, society is now creating content. Essentialy Web 2.0 is a more organized and functional providing a Do-It-Yourself medium.
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