Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Outline

PRODUSERS NOW ? Convergence and media audience practices

2011

https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2011.600532

Abstract

This article offers a critical analysis of the relevance of convergence culture to the field of media audience study, opening up new ways to see audiences as active cultural producers. At the same time, I argue that the enthusiastic embrace of Web 2.0 practices as the new model of audience activity may hinder a full understanding not only of the importance of non-web-based audience practices, especially in non-Western countries, but also of the continuing power of media industries.

References (50)

  1. Abadi, C. (2010) 'Iran, Facebook, and the Limits of Online Activism', FP: Foreign Policy Magazine, 18 May, [online] Available at: http://www. foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/12/irans_failed_facebook_revolution? page0full (accessed 23 July 2011).
  2. Abah, A. L. (2009) 'Popular culture and social change in Africa: the case of the Nigerian video industry', Media Culture Society, vol. 31, pp. 731Á 748.
  3. Bailey, S. (2002) 'Virtuality and the television audience: the case of Futurama', The Communication Review, vol. 5, pp. 239Á257.
  4. Bennett, W. L. (2003) 'New media power: the Internet and global activism', in Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World, eds N. Couldry & J. Curran, New York, Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 17Á 38.
  5. Bird, S. E. (1992) For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids, Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press.
  6. Bird, S. E. (2003) The Audience in Everyday Life: Living in a Media World, New York, Routledge.
  7. Bird, S. E. (2008) 'Seeking the historical audience: interdisciplinary lessons in the recovery of media practices', in Explorations in Communication and History, ed. B. Zelizer, New York, Routledge, pp. 90Á 106.
  8. Bird, S. E. (2010a) 'Mediated practices and the interpretation of culture', in Theorising Media and Practice, eds J. Postill & B. Braeuchler, Oxford, Berghahn, pp. 85Á104.
  9. Bird, S. E. (2010b) 'Beyond audience response: news practices in everyday life', in The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism Studies, ed. S. Allan, London, Routledge, pp. 417Á 427.
  10. Bird, S. E. & Dardenne R. W. (2008) 'News as myth and storytelling: lessons and challenges', in Handbook of Journalism, eds K. Wahl-Jorgenson & T. Hanisch London, Routledge, pp. 205Á 217
  11. Bruns, A. (2005) 'Axel Bruns at iDC', Institute for Distributed Creativity, [online] Available at: http:// distributedcreativity.typepad.com/idc_events/2005/ 09/axel_bruns_work.html (accessed 24 May 2010).
  12. Bruns, A. (2006) Towards Produsage: Futures for User-Led Content Production, [online] Available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/4863/1/4863_1.pdf, 1Á 10 (acce- ssed 24 May 2010).
  13. Connors, W. (2009) 'Nigeria moves to address chronic power outages', Wall Street Journal, 25 April, [online] Available at: http://online.wsj.com/ article/SB124062314911155519.html (accessed 23 July 2011).
  14. Costello, V. & Moore, B. (2007) 'Cultural outlaws: an examination of audience activity and online television fandom', Television and New Media, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 124Á 143.
  15. Cover, R. (2004) 'New media theory: electronic games, democracy and reconfiguring the author-audience relationship', Social Semiotics, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 173Á 191.
  16. Deuze, M. (2005) 'Toward professional participatory storytelling in journalism and advertising', First Monday, vol. 10, no. 7, 4 July, [online] Available at: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/ viewArticle/1257/ (accessed 10 January 2010).
  17. Gillmor, D. (2006) We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, Sebastopol, CA, O'Reilly Media.
  18. Gray, J., Sandvoss, C. & Harrington, L. eds. (2007) Fandom, New York, New York University Press.
  19. Gross, L. (2009) 'My media studies: cultivation to participation', Television and New Media, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 66Á 68.
  20. Harrison, J. (2009) 'User-generated content and gatekeeping at the BBC Hub'', Journalism Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 243Á 256.
  21. Internetworldstats.com. (2009) Internet Usage and Telecommunications Reports, Nigeria, [online] Available at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/af/ng. htm (accessed 20 May 2010).
  22. Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, New York, Routledge.
  23. Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide, New York and London, New York University Press.
  24. Jenkins, H. (2007) ''Afterword: the future of fandom', in Fandom, eds J. Gray, C. Sandvoss & C. L. Harrington, New York, New York University Press, pp. 357Á 364.
  25. Jones, K. C. (2008) 'Nine Inch Nails' free download experiment nets over S1.6 million', Informationweek, 14 March, [online] Available at: http://www. informationweek.com/news/internet/webdev/showArticle.jhtml? articleID 0206903817 (accessed 4 December 2009).
  26. Knight, J. & Weedon, A. (2009) 'Shifting notions of convergence', Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 15, pp. 131Á 133.
  27. Kotler, P. (1986) 'The prosumer movement: a new challenge for marketers', Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 13, pp. 510Á 513.
  28. Lessig, L. (2004) Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, New York, Penguin.
  29. Livingstone, S. (2003) 'The changing nature of audiences: from the mass audience to the interactive media user', in A Companion to Media Studies, ed. A. N. Valdivia, Malden, MA, Blackwell, pp. 337Á 359.
  30. Mankekar, P. (1999) Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India, Durham, Duke University Press.
  31. McBride, L. B. & Bird, S. E. (2007) 'From smart fan to backyard wrestler: ritual, performance, and pain', in Fandom, eds J. Gray, C. Sandvoss & L. Harrington, New York, New York University Press, pp. 165Á 168.
  32. McCall, J. C. (2002) 'Madness, money, and movies: watching a Nigerian popular video with the guidance of a native doctor', Africa Today, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 79Á94. Melchionne, K. (1999) 'Of bookworms and busybees: cultural theory in the age of do-it-yourselfing', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 247Á 255.
  33. Murdoch, G. (2000) 'Peculiar commodities: audience at large in the world of goods', in Consuming Audiences? Production and Reception in Media Research, eds I. Hagen & J. Wasko, Cresskill, NJ, Hampton, pp. 47Á 70.
  34. Nightingale, V. & Dwyer, T. eds, (2007) New Media Worlds: Challenges for Convergence, Melbourne, Australia, Oxford University Press.
  35. Nikunen, K. (2007) 'The intermedial practises of fandom', Nordicom Review, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 111Á128.
  36. Reinhard, C. D. (2009) Discourse Swings in Understanding Audiences: Case Studies on Hollywood's Cooptation of Audience Activity(s) as Emergent Discourse, Roskilde University Digital Archive (RUDAR), [online] Available at: http://hdl. handle.net/1800/4103 (accessed 23 July 2011).
  37. Repici, M. D. (2008) 'Active audience and cultural dopes as media consumers and producers: a study of audience participation in Internet forums', Unpub- lished manuscript, University of South Florida.
  38. Rosen, J. (2006) The People Formerly Known as the Audience, [online] Available at: http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2006/06/27/ ppl_frmr.htm (accessed 8 September 2009).
  39. Ruddock, A. (2008) 'Media studies 2.0? Binge drinking and why audiences still matter', Sociology Compass, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1Á 15.
  40. Shefrin, E. (2004) 'Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and participatory fandom: mapping congruences between the Internet and media entertainment culture', Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 261Á 281.
  41. Simmons, C. (2009) 'Dear radio broadcaster: fan mail as a form of perceived interactivity', Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 444Á 459.
  42. Smith, D. J. (2006) A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
  43. Smith, E. & Lattman, P. (2007) 'Download this: YouTube phenom has a big secret', Wall Street Journal, 6 September, [online] Available at: http:// online.wsj.com/article/SB118903788315518780.html (accessed 23 July 2011).
  44. Stengrim, L. A. (2005) 'Negotiating postmodern democracy, political activism, and knowledge production: indymedia's grassroots and e-savvy answer to media oligopoly', Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 281Á 304.
  45. Sundet, V. S. & Ytreberg, E. (2009) 'Working notions of active audiences: further research on the active participant in convergent media industries', Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 15, pp. 383Á 390.
  46. Tapscott, D. & Williams, A. (2006) Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, New York, Penguin.
  47. Thompson, A. (2008) 'Trinkets and treasures: consuming Jane Austen', Persuasions Online, vol. 28, no. 2, [online] Available at: http://www.jasna.org/ persuasions/on-line/vol28no2/thompson.htm (accessed 23 July 2011).
  48. Toffler, A. (1980) The Third Wave, New York, Bantam.
  49. Ugor, P. (2009) 'Small Media, Popular Culture, and New Youth Spaces in Nigeria', Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 387Á 408.
  50. van Dijck, J. (2009) 'Users like you? Theorizing agency in user-generated content', Media Culture Society, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 41Á 58.