Clay Shirky- Audience theory

PRODUCER-

CONSUMER- the act of using a resource, goods or services

PROSUMER- To be a “prosumer” is to be the one who produces new things and consumes media = technological proliferation and conv=verge has enabled consumers to be producers

Consumption: the act of using a resource, goods or services

CONTEXT

  • American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of internet technologies and journalism

  • Argues that the history of the modern world could be described as the history of ways of arguing

  • Changes in media change what sort of arguments are possible - with deep social and political implications

  • When we use a network, the most important asset we get is access to one another. We want to be connected to one another, a desire that television deflects but one that our use of social media actually engages

  • Describes the history of the modern world could be described as the history of ways of arguing

  • Clay Shirky talks about the idea of prosumers i.e. that in the modern, technological age, with the cheapness of media technologies, anyone can consume and produce media products

In the past:

  • Passive audiences accepted what was given to them

  • Tec was expensive so creating products for ourselves were impossible

  • Traditional media industries have always worked by having someone or one company at the top controlling everything

  • Because of Web 2.0 we have a more collaborative system. YT, Twitter and Facebook would be non-existent if people didn’t contribute to it

KEY IDEA CHANGE OF CONSUMPTION

Clay Shirky's theory suggests that audience behaviour has evolved from passive media consumption to active engagement through digital technologies and social media.

The distinction between producers and consumers is blurring as people now create and share content, interact with products, and connect with each other easily.

This shift marks the end of the traditional concept of an audience.

Audiences are now active

What is it?

Audience behaviour has changed due to the internet and the ability for audiences to create their own content at home thanks to the lower cost of technology. This new audience doesn’t just consume media, but also produces it – creating the term ‘prosumer’.

Amateur content made this way has different values to professional media producers, in that it promotes a connection between other amateur producers – they both deeply care about the products they make and can help them work together.

When they work together in this way, audiences can make more content than producers – Wikipedia is a good example of this.

What is the advanced version?

In the ‘old’ media, centralised producers addressed atomised consumers; in the ‘new’ media, every consumer is now a producer. Traditional media producers would ‘filter then publish’; as many ‘new’ media producers are not employees, they ‘publish then filter’.

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These amateur producers have different motivations to those of professionals – they value autonomy, competence, membership and generosity. User-generated content creates emotional connection between people who care about something. This can generate a cognitive surplus – for example, Wikipedia can aggregate people’s free time and talent to produce value that no traditional medium could match.

‘The Audience’ as a mass of people with predictable behaviour is gone. Now, behaviour is variable across different sites, with some of the audience creating content, some synthesising content and some consuming content. The ‘old’ media created a mass audience. The ‘new’ media provide a platform for people to provide value for each other.

'for the first time in the history of television, some cohorts of young people are watching TV less than their elders[...] young populations with access to fast, interactive media are shifting their behaviour away from media that presupposes pure consumption'

-Clay Shirky

Flips uses and gratifications

consumers to producers instead

‘You can play this game too’ -Clay Shirky

‘feel connected ,engaged or just less lonely?’

Clay Shirky argues that the history of the modern world could be described as the history

of ways of arguing, where changes in media change what sort of arguments are possible

with deep social and political implications, When we use a network, the most important

asset we get is access to one another, We want to be connected to one another, a desire that

television deflects, but one that our use of social media actually engages' - Clay Shirky

"What if, all this time, providing professional content isn't the only job we've been hiring

media to do? What if we've also been hiring it to make us feel connected, engaged, or

just less lonely? What if we've always wanted to produce as well as consume, but

no one offered us that opportunity? The pleasure in You can play this game too isn't

just in the making, it's also in the sharing. Clay Shirky