Having a greater understand of how we use and consume content in the online media space, is essential to successfully authoring, publishing and distributing your own content online. As someone who consumes far more than he authors content, it is easy to overlook the importance of authorship as well as how being a consumer can help in understanding how to successfully author. When evaluating research on my own online media use, several different patterns arose as to how media can be consumed online, how they work together and what leads to frequent engagement. This research, can help show how authors take advantage of the online space, and therefore how we can use what they are doing as authors ourselves and improve. The online media landscape is becoming more important and is growing every single day in our society. Therefore when looking into the current job market, having online media know-how is very important for a future career.

 

After a week of daily blogs, documenting my online media use, several things became quite clear, and that is I am primarily a consumer rather than author of media content.

One of the trends that surfaced with my online media use was I am using some media forms in a habit. For example, each day that was documented, the first thing that I did each day, was check the notifications on my phone. That meant checking messages, social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, instagram etc.) as well as YouTube subscriptions (Latest released videos). Even when becoming aware of the trend/habit as I was documenting, I still did not change what I was doing, it was a habit that I could consciously acknowledge. Seeing the habit and urgency to check up on the social media landscape goes to the ongoing nature of it. Meaning, that even when you sleep, the online world does not stop, it keeps adding content every second. You cannot keep up, yet you want to know more, see more and be a part of more (stay connected). Stepping back and asking the questions, ‘why am I using these social media platforms?’ & ‘what am I doing on them?’ is important to distinguishing the online media I consume and how they all connect. Because each of the social media platforms I use/consume are not indistinguishable, but work together to deliver content I spend the most time involved with. Thinking about the various platforms working together brought me back to one of the course readings from Kaplan & Haenlein, who broke down the functions of various media platforms online, and how they are useful to author, saying  “It is crucial to ensure that your social media activities are all aligned with each other.” (Kaplan & Haenlein, pp.65, 2010). Outside of being connected with friends (sending an instant message or email), I consume content through connected social media and entertainment videos on YouTube or crowdfunded business like Patreon. The most major thing I can take from the patterns I saw in my own media use, and the content I consume was frequency. The places and people I get content from continuously and frequently deliver the content to be consumed, they are reliable, and therefore it is easier to fall into a habit of consuming such content.

 

Authoring content in the online media landscape is an important part of moving with the times of the current mainstream job market, and looking at how one consumes content can help guide good authorship. Authoring content in the online media space, and being a part of the online media movement is almost unavoidable in using the space, however there is a degree of subtlety as to what authoring is as well. From commenting on a YouTube video, entering into a conversation with someone in a comment thread on Facebook or Twitter. These are ways you start engaging in authoring ideas online, even though in some ways it does not feel like you are making a massive impact with the oversaturation of ideas. So of course the first stage of moving into the online space is to have an idea of what type of media and content you want to author and engage with. You need to know your audience, ‘where are they?’, ‘how do we communicate?’ & ‘how do I join them?’. Looking at content that I have consumed and how authors, for example, use a platform like YouTube to distribute their digital content, patreon to help crowdfund that content, and networks such as facebook & Twitter promote, collaborate & advertise their content directly to their engaged audience, to make them feel connected with all the stages of the content they consume. From its conception, all the way until it is publicly distributed. This is only one basic observation, in a whole labyrinth of ideas and uses for authorship and distribution, that is fundamental to working within the current media landscape. Howard Rheingold discussed the importance of having a grasp of the digital world in the course readings, saying, “those who understand the fundamentals of digital participation, online collaboration, informational credibility testing, and network awareness will be able to exert more control over their own fates than those who lack this lore.” (Howard Rheingold, pp.2, 2012). Since looking at how others author the content I consume and would like to make, I am able to breakdown some of the effective ways in which to author and publish content myself within the digital media space, while understanding its importance in today’s landscape and online focussed world. Even looking at the blogging and documenting of my online media use, it was almost easy to forget that, that itself was authoring content online. The blogs were not just a tool to document my own media use, but also a learning tool to engage in the authoring of content, to see what goes into it and how to manage and maintain content frequently.

 

It is obviously important to be a part of the online media landscape and to understand the authoring of content online. Looking at how media is consumed, through my documentation, helps grasp how to in turn become a successful author in the online space. Which in the 21st century, is essential to keeping up with continuously developing and ever changing online media landscape within the job market and social/virtual spectrum.