The People Formerly Known as the Audience: A Response

In the workshop today, we discussed the article ‘The People Formerly Known as the Audience’ . Many of my peers felt the peice was agressive in tone. I assume it is because they consider themselves to be ‘media people’. I did not feel the peice was agressive. I think the purpose of the article was simply to point out the fact that institutions have had an idea of what the audience is and what role they play and how these beleifs do not hold up anymore.

“We graduate from wanting media when we want it, to wanting it without the filler, to wanting media to be way better than it is, to publishing and broadcasting ourselves when it meets a need orsounds like fun. Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC, has a term for us: The Active Audience (“who doesn’t want to just sit there but to take part, debate, create, communicate, share.”)”(Rosen). 

We are all active audiance members now. We are apart of the conversation. And alot of us now make media ourselves.

“Another of your big shots, Rupert Murdoch, told American newspaper editors about us: “They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it.” ” (Rosen)

I thought this quote was finny as Murdoch is certainly someone who loves to control people through media. But it’s true. And people like Murdoch are propbably apart of the blame. When people are displeased with the media they are receiving they will look for other sources (I’m looking at you FOX News).

“The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable. You should welcome that, media people. But whether you do or not we want you to know we’re here.” (Rosen). 

REFERENCES

Jay Rosen (2006),’The People Formerly Known as the Audience’, PressThink blog, June 27.