‘Do it yourself’ with Produsage!
In past blogs, I have discussed the implementation of collective production techniques employed in the new media as a new form of consumption, aka Produsage, and showed examples of how it has effected the media sphere of today. But what of it? The Produser might have replaced the modern consumer and Produsage as a construct is already evident in our social construct. New media networks and products that utilise techniques to exploit this new trend have made production synonymous with consumption, a daily part of the life of every modern, western citizen. But besides obvious marketing revenue opportunities, what commercial (or dare I say “productive”) application does it actually hold?
When one looks at Youtube’s top ten most viewed videos of all time, it is easy for to see that Produsage networks are very supportive of entertainment based products. Music comapnies definately seem to have made it big in using viral video as a marketing mechanism, specifically by utilising the increased consumer participation with media. The interactivity that Produsage artifacts require accelerates the flow of content across various channels, expanding market opportunities (Flew 2008, 111). Sure, Produsage works great with media distribution but it could also be said that this sort of collective thinking could make Produsage a real tool for the development of tangible products in non-media spheres.
Bruns regards Produsage as the next step forwards in implementing open source culture in business models.
“It is certainly possible for conventional industry players to participate in and drive produce process…if the undestand, accept and embrace the principles itself” (2009, 388).
He notes that ultimately produsage is the open participation in the development of, communal evaluation in the design of, the fluid heterarchial structures of the group who constantly are in the progress of turning artifacts into products (Bruns 2009, 394). When listed this way, it is clear that in circumstances whereby group or collective production is required, it is as if Produsage was extending normal team work practices into a more open and democratic way, almost getting rid of leadership roles and regarding each contribution as equal and valid.
Continuing political discussion, Produsage as a mechanism is almost communist or socialist in thought and definitely the collective intelligence aspect of the process would be very appealing to the ‘red’ at heart.
"Wikipedia, Flickr, and Twitter aren't just revolutions in online social media. They're the vanguard of a cultural movement" (Kelly 2009).
But possession is something that the modern citizen holds very close to their heart; materialism and consumerism is something so evident in western culture at present, and whilst these habits have pushed our economy to the brink (and brough it back), these habits would not be so easy to curb. The distinguishing factors between those who are producers and those who are consumers, has lead to this phenomenon of consumerism and whilst Produsage blurs the divide betwen both factors, it does not wholly replace the need for the existing, linear consumption process.
So whilst Produsage might not hold its own against standard material consumerism, definately the future hold promise for models which harness the best elements of both models (Bruns 2008, 395). In regards to the Socialist element of Produsage, it more than likely to be restricted in the online spehere;
“While old-school socialism was an arm of the state, digital socialism is socialism without the state. This new brand of socialism currently operates in the realm of culture and economics, rather than government—for now” (Kelly 2009).
As Produsage evolves though, one thing is for sure: the media is in the process of transformation and though many citizens may have already completed this metamorphosis, by changing their purely consumption based roles into something more productive, the process is ongoing and the aim of the modern media professional is to convince more people to join the revolution.
References:
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond. 1st ed. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Kelly, K. 2009. The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism (Accessed 21 May 2009).
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Tags: Axel Bruns, Consumerism, Digital Socialism, DIY, Kevin Kelly, Production, Produsage, Youtube
Professionals v Amateurs
In such a varied and accepting environment like the internet, where people all shapes, sizes, backgrounds and ethnicities come together to collaboratively get educated, conduct business, entertain themselves or simply to waste time, its hard to know where the information you consume is coming from; online identity fraud is something you get told to worry about when you are young, naïve and putting your home address on Myspace but even in a passive, non-sexual predator sense, its still a major issue particularly when one assumes to take information available on internet websites as verbatim, as is the case with your average internet user (including yours truly).
As was discussed in my previous blog, Wikipedia is a great example of how information posted online by anonymous or semi anonymous sources can be taken as the truth, though most of the information contributed to Wikipedia documents can actually be largely unverifiable. Also in such a wild system, notifiers of merit and reputation within online knowledge communities are in a state of constant flux as the communal task of writing is done by both those who could be considered experts but also those more amateur regarding a particular subject; the whole article may be made up of snippets inserted by those who only know portions of the entire information, which is a great totem for collective intelligence but it really does put each source of information out of the scope of academic scrutiny (Bruns 2008, 210). For example, when your average, everyday Joe decides to start a Wikipedia article, he need only know something about the subject and whilst he mightn’t be considered to be a professional in that subject’s particular field, Wikipedia’s reputation as a knowledge base has essentially given Joe the ability to write the truth, something that the next reader would read and consider the article as something inherrently professional, particularly so when the next reader knows little or nothing about the subject. Indeed, ‘Joe’ might become a professional in this field in the future, but because Wikipedia did not demand him to be an expert at the time of publication or even extensively reference his work, his work is still that of a proletariat presented as academia. This is very problematic indeed.
Enter: Citizendium. As recognising Wikipedia’s inconsistency with current academic methodology and standards regarding the authentication of reserach, a Citizendium as a simillarly Wiki style, open source, encyclopedia, aims to only include articles written by those whom could be either considered educated or full experts in a particular field. Citizendium admits that whilst from a popular standpoint, the Wikipedia model is not actually broken, “We can do better” (Citizendium 2009). In setting out a manifesto of sorts, Citizendium has listed Wikipedia’s faults that it wishes to fix, right from the outset:
“Many of the articles [on Wikipedia] are written amateurishly.
Too often they are mere disconnected grab-bags of factoids, not made coherent by any sort of narrative.
In some fields and some topics, there are groups who “squat” on articles and insist on making them reflect their own specific biases.
There is no credible mechanism to approve versions of articles.
Vandalism, once a minor annoyance, has become a major headache—made possible because the community allows anonymous contribution.
Many experts have been driven away because know-nothings insist on ruining their articles” (2009).
Citizendium requires full disclosure of educational/career status and also the inclusion of a Full Name username, something that is quite rare in wiki systems and also in general internet usage;
“…it is merely good sense to make a special role for experts within the system. A project devoted to knowledge ought to give special inducements to people who make it their life’s work to know things” (Citizendium 2009).
Citizendium, as contrary to Wikipedia, does have different goals, even if the outcome, an open source wiki knowledge database (Encyclopedia, Compendium, whatever you want to call it) is still something that is comparable to your average consumer. Citizendium distinguishes, classifies and ranks its contributors, something that Wikipedia does not doas systematically as Citizendium. Some would think this not in the spirit of Open Source; one of the great features of the Wiki model is it’s democracy and equal respect for individuals knowledge.
Whether or not the future is to be rooted in distinguishing the professionals from the amateurs, or just blurring the Pro-Am divide further, it seems knowledge itself is something that all agree should be free and open to all. And I guess its only upwards from there, right?
References:
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond. 1st ed. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Citizendium. 2009. Why Citizendium? http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Why_Citizendium%3F (Accessed 14 May 2009).
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Tags: Axel Bruns, Citizendium, Pro-Am, Produsage
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is another phenomenom of produsage and definately one that has been something of a nonpareil knowledge base for the masses, particularly recently; just as Google became a verb in itself, even so far as to be incorporated into contemporary English language dictionaries, so to the trend is with Wikipedia. Absolutely, as a student, it has proved as an invaluable tool for study, knowledge collation and also for just a bit of an interesting read. It is however considered to be academically unverifiable and should therefore not be used in forming the basis of any research or analysis, which could be considered inverse to it’s primary purpose.
Wikipedia has done several things which have essentially democratised the information that it, as an entirely user created and sustained encyclopedia, contains. The knowledge has been mobilised, allowing world wide and real time access
In discussing Wikipedia’s purpose, Bruns (2008, 103) proposes that the core object of the produsage model of wiki editing is that articles are more representations of knowledge, separate from the models of traditional encyclopedias which aim to totally encapsulate the current state of accepted knowledge regarding a particular subject. So though the aim of users, especially in consideration of the betterment and building objectives of produsers discussed in my previous blog, might be to actually fully encapsulate the subject matter in a single or linked articles, it is important to recognise, as a reader or perhaps fellow produser of Wikipedia, that the articles themselves can only be considered as representations.
But why?
Wikipedia’s decentralised and open source nature also makes it a ‘Wild West’ of knowledge; the fact that everyone can edit articles doesn’t mean that everyone who does is either an expert, unbiased or simply has good intentions. Instances whereby produsers had actually used Wikipedia articles as tools for personal, politcal or corporate defamation and damage are not few and far between.
There is also an argument that because of the large amount of visitors, both active (‘produsers’) and passive, who access the millions of articles on Wikipedia that those who read the incorrect or inappropriate information would be called to action by either labeling or correcting the inconsistencies for the rest of the community. An ad hoc approach to governance is employed, utilising the existing of fluid heterarchy of users, spanning through moderating and experienced contributors right down to an occassional yet communally recognised contributor, to moderate collaboration and ensure that a neutral point of view is prevelant in articles (Bruns 2008, 113). Wikipedia employs systems to ensure that these users that are posting biased, incorrect or defamatory information are restricted and/or banned access from the editing process (Bruns 2008, 114).
In essence, Wikipedia demands verifiability, not truth; it does not judge the validity of the perspectives of contributors but is more concerned with presenting multiple points of view and not just one (Bruns 2008, 114). Objectivity is the ultimate goal but it is a goal which is never totally attainable in produsage due to the nonlinear production process. Definitely, the masses recognise and flock to Wikipedia’s pages because of both the democratic aura of the process and raw knowledge it contains.
References:
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond. 1st ed. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
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Tags: google, wiki, Wikipedia
Citizen journalism
The practice and phenomenon of citizen journalism is one example of where we have seen the concept of produsage in action; people working collectively, creating and building upon news content in order for a more balanced, accurate and valid news source to be available for the consumer.
Bruns (2008, 71) describes the process as being fundamentally disruptive of the traditional news media where first would come the input, the news gathering process of news staff and journalists, then the output produced through a closed editorial hierarchy, then finally the response from publishing of editor selected letters form the public etc. In citizen journalism the process is not so linear; the response and output functions of the process could happen simultaneously to the input function and vice versa. This has many benefits to the content itself as it is effectual of produsage: the news is constantly being built upon and bettered by the collective intelligence of all consumers, eliminating inaccuracies and bias.
Flew (2008,145) has identified three separate aspects of new media growth that have acted as enabling and growth factors for citizen journalism:
1. The creation of new ways of consuming media.
The technology boom of the 20th century and even moving forth into the 21st century, we are discovering new ways in which to consume information particularly in an ‘on-the-go’ format. One interesting thing is to consider the effect of supposed ‘technological determinism’ where…
“…particular technical developments, communications technologies or media, or, most broadly, technology in general are the sole or prime antecedent causes of changes in society, and technology is seen as the fundamental condition underlying the pattern of social organization” (Chandler 2000).
Whether or not you consider the ‘chicken’ primary to the ‘egg’ as such, the formation of these new consumption methods have certainly created a niche that has been exploited by citizens, rogue or corporate, a like.
2. The presence of new infrastructures for production.
Previously, content was printed or streamed from a commercial or government source whose purpose was to solely perform this act but now it seems that every man and his dog has a website: a face that one presents to the world at large with an individuals’ views, content and experiences expressed in a variety of formats, especially those which present ‘news worthy’ content. Consumers’ interactivity with media is definitely something quite unique to the new media.
3. The distribution allowed by these infrastructures.
It cannot be denied that citizen journalism is a phenomenon that has arisen with the recent rise in networked communications infrastructure and its potential for mass distribution. The networked nature of the Internet and our mobile communications infrastructure has allowed for instantaneous one-to-many methods of unorthodox (or non-traditional) media broadcast. Again, we are looking at the ‘one to many’ kind of approach to communication; and when regarding this figure of speech, the potentiality is there for quite literally one person to communicate to millions, not solely an organisation or conglomeration.
Citizen Journalism is not something that has had large effect on the average Australian’s news consumption habits, which is something, I believe, due to our relatively bland and conservative political and cultural climates that we have in our country at present. In contentious circumstances, however, citizen journalism really plays a part in educating and allowing for the greater, uncensored news communication that is imperative for democracy. In situations like in Fiji during the constant change of political power between the Indian immigrant majority and the minority indigenous Fijian population, rogue and citizen journalists succeeded in penetrating strict censorship and communications bans in order to spread the word about real time happenings during the various powershifts of recent years.
So whilst the nightly news still plays an important role in the distribution of media content and definitely the education of consumers, watcher beware. Look on Google before you make up your mind.
References:
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond. 1st ed. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Chandler, D. 2000. Technological or Media Determinism: Introduction. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/tecdet/tdet01.html (Accessed 4 May 2008).
Flew, T. 2008. New Media: An Introduction. 3rd ed. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
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Tags: Axel Bruns, Citizen Journalism, Fiji, Media Consumption, New Media, Produsage, Terry Flew
Produsage
‘Produsage’ is a word that, though rather recent in origin, makes regular appearances in media and communications literature. Though its really interesting for me to find that its actually not so well used as to appear to in OS X’s dictionary, this word, describing in a quite literal sense the blend of a ‘Producer’ and a ‘User,’ is central to the new media and creative economy.
The foremost expert on the concept of produsage is arguably the creator of it’s defined name; Axel Bruns, an academic at Queensland University of Technology, originally coined the phrase and discusses it in his book, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond (Bruns 2008). On his website solely designated to Produsage, he describes the process as taking place,
“… in a networked, participatory environment which breaks down the boundaries between producers and consumers and instead enables all participants to be users as well as producers of information and knowledge.” (Bruns 2007)
He argues that with the development of enabling communication technologies, traditional communications models, where consumers and producers have defined separate rolls, do not always apply in the new media; your average consumer of modern media and communications artifacts are also able to produce, create and share content in a movement towards a more active and creative consumerism. Produsers either create from scratch or build upon existing content using designated hardware and/or software tools in order better the content for all.
This kind of collective creativity is something that is visible in a lot of our day to day activity, particularly in online environments; Information flows multi-directionally, enabling greater forms of democratic and participatory communication. Examples of these ‘produsage environments’ include Facebook, a social networking mechanism whereby the contributions of select people and groups are tagged, organised and delivered in a single stream of social information that is consumed (whilst simultaneously being created) by produsers; Wikipedia, an open source based of knowledge repository is making knowledge something that is not only accessible but also editable by it’s produsers and with almost 3 Million English language articles is one of the largest produser based productivity tool accessible on the internet.
Though Produsage has the capacity to produce artifacts that can be largely intrinsic, as detailed perhaps in the examples above, the effects of such collective intelligence has the potential to create opportunities for the creation of or largely effect existing commercial and/or extrinsic products. In a new media centred creative economy, the Produser needs to be actively catered for regarding the consumption of media products; why read a newspaper when you can read, comment and rewrite the news according to your own views online?
One more thing to note, Produsers do not actually associate themselves to being actively part of this group,
“Most participants in content creation communities will therefore see themselves exactly as that: as participants, not as producers.” (Bruns 2007)
which is why it is important to be actively aware of this consumer shift; acknowledgement is the key to attonement and ultimately social, political or economic exploitation in both commercial and noncommercial applications.
But more on the specifics later. Trackback for more commentary on the elements of Produsage visible in the new media.
Also, Produsage does not have it’s own wikipedia entry (kind of ironic, don’t you think?).
References:
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond. 1st ed. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Bruns, A. 2007. Produsage: A Working Definition. http://produsage.org/node/9 (Accessed 27 April 09).
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Tags: Axel Bruns, Facebook, New Media, Produsage, Wikipedia
Welcome
My name is Andrew and welcome to my blog!
This blog will solely be for reflections on the unit content of KCB201: New Media 1 Communication and Knowledge for Semester 1 2009.
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