A suggested by the title, this reading was all about audience. But more specifically it was about a shift in the audience. This article claims that people now long want to sit passively and watch TV, or drive along with the radio in the background. People now want to be active. “They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it.”

This however raises an interesting argument that, “if all would speak who shall be left to listen? Originally, the media industry ran in one way. A small collection of companies would put forth their media and thus compete for popularity, and the rest of the population would listen. Now things have changed. The following is a section of the article which further explains this idea.

“Once they were your printing presses; not that humble device, the blog, has given the press to us.

Once it was your radio station, broadcasting on your frequency. Now that brilliant invention, podcasting, gives the radio to us.”

The article provides additional examples to further illustrate this point, however these were the ones which struck me most. Previously, to be an author was extremely difficult. It was very hard for people to get their work published and to the public. Now it is just a matter of a few clicks and you are done. This blog that I an writing now will be published in a matter of minutes, open for anyone around the world to read. This kind of technology has changed the way our media industry operates. This is exactly the shift in power that the article talks about. It is no longer difficult for people to publish their work, and this is by no means restricted to authors but filmmakers and artists as well.

One thing I did notice in this article that I found very interesting was the number of times the words ‘control,’ ‘power’ and ‘own’ were used. This again illustrates that shift. Power is with the audience more so now than ever before. Audiences feel like they own the media or perhaps just a part of it. Consequently, this is where the phrase “the people formally known as audience” comes from, because now we have to consider is this term appropriate any more. Can we still use the term audience? When the term originated it was used to describe a group of people who consumed media in some way. But now audiences not only consume media, they engage with it and produce their own media as well. This is where Mark Thompson’s phrase “The Active Audience” may be more appropriate for todays audiences.