This reading was very interesting as i’ve never thought about an audience as interactive audience who can create their own media. An audience once was an isolated group whom only received information or view a piece of media, however now in a new era the audience and media providers are being integrated. Platforms like podcasting, blogs, and youtube all allow audiences to be their own mediators. We can now create our own media and collaborate with others. Audiences have the capacity to edit and change the media that is available to them. Comment bars and discussion forums allow the public to answer back and ask questions about the media that is presented to them. This is a new element to what audiences role is,  their is more of a blurred line between the audience and providers or creators of that media. It gives more of an open and broader discussion of topics and medias available. I think its amazing that now we (as audiences) can create our own media, even though most don’t have the experiences of the expertise we are able to create our own publicised articles, videos, music and podcasts and have them seen and discussed by a greater population. Public opinion and a broader discussions are prevalent because a new platform of people can create the medias the medias available to us. The article references Jeff Jarvis, stating that if we “Give people control of media, they will use it. The corollary: Don’t give the people control of media, and you will lose. Whenever citizens can exercise control, they will.”

Reading Reference:

http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html

As we delved into the exploration of audiences in media i was struck by the slide saying “Who care about audiences?”. What is the real importance of knowing about audiences and why? Why should i care? But it became apparent that I really should care. Advertisers, commercial broadcasters, production companies, governments policies makers and cultural theorists all take an interest into whom audience of particular areas are. And why? How do we know who we are making media for if we don’t understand or know our audiences. We need to make reference to and draw in our audiences to create effective and innovate media. In the forms of media devices and receiving medial information, a practitioner must know who audiences use these. We are asked today how many hours of media usage to we engage with each week? How many hours are we watching tv, on our iPhones, browsing the internet on Facebook or typing up assignment  on our computer? To be honest, i probably interact with media more than i want or intend to but that fact is, its difficult to avoid. On average audiences spend 24 hours a week watching tv and I’m not really surprised. However it audiences like these that we in the media need to understand and reflect on in order to broadcast effectively.