From Producer to Consumer to Prosumer...

So this weeks topic is Media convergence...the idea of various technological platforms merging together and forming a transformer of sorts. Devices capable of numerous and varied functions that have changed the way we use technology not only personally, but also on an industry level. What I found particularly interesting is the whole idea of the prosumer, the merging of the producer and consumer. Where as in the past information has been produced by media industry corporations and then fed to us as consumers, the convergence of technology has allowed the consumer to produce it's own information of sorts. This is something that I noticed whilst having a discussion in another subject at uni.

The discussion focused on media audiences and the reasons why we use certain media. It was interesting that the topic of Amy Winehouse popped up and a large majority of the class mentioned that they only found out about her death through Facebook, myself included. Now if you looked back 10+ years the only way you would have found out this information was through the typical news outlets such as the newspaper, radio and television. If you didn't find out through these means you probably would have found out a day or two later at school or at work. However, this information was readily available almost instantly after the event occurred and most people found out through social network sites.

So I guess the question is where do we go from where? What will happen to things like newspapers, magazines, television etc? Has the notion of us as prosumers contributed to the demise of these media platforms? Are all these media forms soon going to die out or will the mutate as was discussed in yesterdays lecture? (Ted Miteow 2011). There is no real question that these forms are starting to lose their strength and people are getting information more freely and easily then ever before. If I ever want to check out the news I head to an online newspaper...rather than walk to the newsagent and buy the print version. This is simply because it is much easier, cheaper and contains much more information, hypertext and hyperlinks etc.

I however think that there still is some value in these media platforms though and we all know that it takes a while for a media platform to die. We all saw how many of us said we had bought CD's recently, even though we have access to the newest media music platform in the form of Mp3's, digital copies etc. I have no doubt that pretty soon most things will be digital and there will be no need to buy cd's, newspapers, magazines etc. Though for the most part I think we will still see these media forms around, simply because some people still want to consume rather than prosume products. Although as prosumers we like to be involved and actively pursue content and information, we also like being hand fed information.