“There is an absence of producers, distributors, or consumers, and the presence of a seemingly endless string of users acting incrementally as content producers by gradually extending and improving the information present in the information commons, the value chain begins and ends (but only temporarily, ready for further development) with content.” Bruns (2008)
If you’ve ever made a video and posted it on YouTube, or edited something on Wikipedia, then you are a produser. A produser is a user who re-creates an already existing product. Now no longer are users just viewing the product but they can actually contribute to the editing or manipulation of the product.
Wikipedia is form of produsage where the text and images can be edited. This makes it hard for users to actually trust what is on the page about the issue. Anyone who has access to the internet and have used or come across Wikipedia can add or delete items on the page about any topic. If the topic does not exist on the website, again, users can add to the topic. This can be a problem, like when former Prime-minister, John Howard, had his biography edited with false information. It can ruin reputations and put jobs in jeopardy (and even academic assignments).
Produsage is popular among videos for music and re-creating certain scenes from TV shows or movies. On YouTube alone, there are thousands of known music videos which have been “ripped off”, or movie scenes that have been manipulated, particularly with the script (some of them really funny actually!) go search your favourite music clip, or TV/movie scene in YouTube and see what you find.
It has opened up a new way for amateurs to be found. Particularly among the music industry. No longer do people need to sign up with agencies and find a manager, they can do it all on their own. And if they don’t have the confidence or initiative to do so, maybe there mum will, like Justin Beiber, who rose into fame almost overnight. Singer and producer of the music industry, Usher Raymond and Justin Timberlake, found the young talent on YouTube and actually bidded against each other to have him sign up with their agency! So, it seems agencies and producer are doing the leg work of looking for new talent rather than the talent looking for the agency or producer. So it has in way, cut out the "middle-man" out of producing as Bruns was saying.
So if you’re a struggling singer, don’t disregard being a produser. Give it a go and who knows, you may be the next Justin Beieber...
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