Produsage and Television

In my previous blogs I have discussed the ideas and trends of produsage on the internet and the subsequent changes in uses of the internet. However, it is not only the internet that has been affected by the new phenomena that is currently sweeping the web. As I have been focussing on the effects and changes that have been occurring over the internet, I have come to neglect one of my favourite forms of media, television! I have decided that this week I will further my discussion of the topic of produsage, however instead of continuing on focussing on the internet, as I have for the past four or so weeks, that I will now focus for a moment on the changes that have occurred within the television industry due to the changes occurring to internet usage.

I have in fact studied this topic previously and find it fascinating that I have never at any point related the produsage phenomena of the internet to the produsage phenomena that is now occurring, and has been for a few years, on television. I have no doubt that it is in fact the television industry that is following the footsteps of the internet. With the huge increase in the number social networking websites on the internet and the immensely popular website YouTube, which is based all upon the idea of produsage, it is no wonder that the television producers of today are looking at ways in which they can include this phenomena in to their own media. Obviously the recent shift in the relationship between the audience and the producers is due to the fact that producers want to maintain or increase their profits. Consequently, media producers have had to ensure that they are aware of the audience’s desires regarding entertainment and television. When media producers look at the trends of the internet, there is no doubt that their audiences are enjoying having the ability to have control over their own media and are producing their own also- just look at YouTube. So in an effort to increase their audience and subsequently their profits, television producers have taken to including interactive television shows through which the audience as a whole can choose their own outcome and their own winner, which is essentially produsage in action.

And it is no surprise to the producers that subsequent television shows such as Big Brother, American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, have become hugely successful all over the world. By voting by phone and online, the audience are choosing what the television producers end up producing. However, while television producers have given the audience control over the direction of the television program, they can still maintain and preserve the strict guidelines to which they are legally bound by governmental regulations.

So to link this topic back to the internet, it is easy to see the effect that the fluidity of the internet and it’s evolving uses have not only effected global physical cultures as discussed in the couchsurfing blog, but that the internet is also having a big effect on the production of television shows. In addition, it’s also interesting to think that television producers now create websites for television shows they air and that through these websites, interest groups are evolving and creating more virtual cultures and social networks.