New Media and the Audience

“As we have seen, the increased interactivity of audiences in a New Media context is also articulated in poststructuralist theory whose tendency is to conceive the audience as active participators in the creation of meaning.  Websites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook appear to reflect this recent understanding of ‘participatory culture’; not only creating virtual communities but also allowing audiences to be ‘producers’ as well as ‘receivers’ of the media.” (Creeber, 2009, p.19)

 

In the above quote, Creeber discusses the role of the audience in the production and representation of New Media forms.  The forms Creeber has outlined such as YouTube or Facebook have only scratched the surface of what audiences input can impact in the creation of meaning in new media forms.  Twitter is becoming a more and more common method through which audiences can discuss television programmes as a sideline while they are watching live, and since the audience has done it regularly, shows such as The X Factor now show relevant hashtags on their broadcast in order to spur on the twitter discussion.  On the most recent series of The X Factor tweets are even read out to the judges live on air, this is a perfect, up to date example of how audience participation can affect how media forms are produced.

 

Another example of audience participation the Creeber outlines is online blogs which he describes as “Citizen Journalism”. (Creeber, 2009, p.20)  Citizen Journalism relates to the countless online blogs created by consumers as a means through which to review products, put across their individual political views, review television and movies, and so on.  This has allowed audiences to find unbiased reviews of films, games or television series which they are interested in.  Creeber goes on to describe this as “the increased ability of ‘ordinary’ people to become actively involved in the very production of the media; moving power away from the ‘author’ and into the hands of the ‘audience’. (Creeber, 2009, p.20) 

 

These aspects of new media have allowed for the consumers, or the audience, to have a louder voice and make them heard by the producers, or the author.  Because of this, New Media forms are of a higher level of production, they are more interactive, and more accessible.

 

Bibliography

Creeber, G. (2009) DIGITAL THEORY: Theorizing New Media & Cubitt, D. (2009) Case Study: Digital Aesthetics in Ed. Creeber, G. & Royston, M. (2009) Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media; Maidenstone, Open University Press