“This is the age of the prosumer – where the consumer becomes the producer” Discuss

In recent times, media and technology has developed into the online age. In this essay I will be discussing the ways in which the Internet has had an increased effect on everyday life. Nowadays, the development of the internet has now allowed the once consumers to become today’s producers as it is now easier for people to produce, distribute and communicate with others by sharing their hobbies and opinions. However, some people argue that web 2.0 has done the world a injustice as it just allows more people to make money and become just a producer rather than prosumer. Theorists such as Henry Jenkins and Christian Fuchs argue both sides.

A prosumer is defined as a person who consumes and produces media. The word prosumer comes from Alvin Toffler, a futurist who predicted the digital revolution from analogue to digital media. Since analogue media has moved from the ‘boardroom to the bedroom’ meaning media can be made by all different people not just businesses. Theorists, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams discusses this in their book Wilkonomics where they coined the term presumption to refer to the creation of products and services by the same people who will ultimately use them. Before web 2.0 the media world was top down with a simple broadcasting pattern, high entry fees with a few firms competing. Charles Leadbeater takes a revolutionary view of the internet and web 2.0. He goes further into the idea of the prosumer to argue that the way we think and make sense of knowledge is changing in the online age. Leadbeater’s idea leads us to become more creative and innovative, as we are freed from the usual institutional constraints on how things are invented and changed by scientists and academics.

There are a number of different types of prosumers in today’s world. You have successful Youtuber’s such as Roman Atwood and Viner Ben Phillips. Both of these prosumers connect with their audience but it different ways. Roman Atwood has a vlog channel which allows him to communicate with his audience on a daily basis. He also does Q&A’s and reads a variety of comments, which allows his viewers to give something back. Ben Phillips on the other hand has a Facebook page where people can post messages to him and he replies. Without web 2.0 none of this would have been possible. Roman Atwood started making videos shortly after the creation of YouTube. The development of web 1.0 to web 2.0 means Atwood was able to reach out to people from his own home and reach a worldwide audience at the click of a button.

This idea links to Henry Jenkins’ ‘convergence and participatory culture’ theory. Jenkins states that the internet has increased the flow of content and culture across multiple media platforms and that industries are overlapping. Due to this, he and others believe the world is becoming more of a global village than ever as it is so easy for culture to spread. In terms of overlapping, Jenkins believes the word viral is no longer clear because it is now mentioned in marketing, brand recognition and social networking. An example of spreadability is Caine’s Arcade. This was the story of a boy who created a cardboard arcade in his dad’s workshop. One filmmaker saw it and made a film about the arcade, which went viral. This backs up one of Jenkins’ favourite mottos, ‘If it doesn’t spread its dead’, as if this video doesn’t go viral, then still very few know about this arcade. As a result of the video going viral however, there is a now a annual cardboard challenge. This is also an example of what David Gauntlet calls knowledge communities as people around the world participated. This convergence means that consumers are more directly involved in the production of media than ever before. We have now come to the age that the producing and creative element is not created in the boardroom but in fact in the bedroom, the same people who create also purchase and consume other material they like. This has also led to ‘knowledge communities’. In the ‘analogue’ age, none of this would’ve been possible as people were unable to share there views, opinions and experiments but now that media is ‘top-down’ people can share their media from the most unexpected to places.

Charles Leadbeater created the ‘We Think’ theory. Leadbeater’s theory is significant in that it develops the idea that social media can be used as a tool for education and enhances young people’s capacity for learning. An example of a prosumer who is producing content for the purpose of education is Johnny Benjamin. Benjamin, after being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, creates videos and uploads them to YouTube, filming his daily progression to recovery. He would walk to the camera as if the audience were sitting right in front of him just explaining how he felt. Benjamin, would persuade people to leave comments below his videos explaining how they felt so they could somewhat console each other. At one point Johnny was close to committing suicide, infact so close so that if ‘Mike’ hadn’t persuaded him to climb back over the railings of Waterloo Bridge then he may have jumped. A campaign was started call #FindMike, which was the nickname Benjamin, gave to the man as he didn’t know his true identity. Years later, when the two were reunited Benjamin was able to put his mind at rest and thank Neil Laybourn for saving his life. This goes to show the power of the Internet and what it has become. Thanks to web 2.0 and the advancement of social media, Laybourn was found in 6 weeks.

There are also a number of theorists who argue against the theory of prosumerism. Christian Fuchs says that only 45% of the world’s population are connected to the Internet whilst, Clay Shirky says ‘anyone with a mobile phone can be a journalist’. These two theorists contradict each other as people have mobile phones in places in the world where there is no Internet. Going back to Fuchs point, he makes a fair point of inequality. In poorer, less developed places they won’t have internet however, they will have views and opinions and things they want to share but they can’t.

In conclusion, I believe that this is ‘the age of the prosumer’ but only to a certain degree. I agree with Charles Leadbeater’s idea that prosumers are using ‘new’ media to educate but despite this, as Christian Fuchs says, only 45% of the world’s population have access to media and so therefore the other 55% aren’t able to share their opinions.