The tug-of-war between commercial production and community produsage is hinged on identifying the underlying conflicting motivations behind each of these concepts. When addressing this question one must first define the terms involved.
Commercial Production in this argument will be discussed with its foremost intention being to create production possibilities with the potential to incite future economic growth. The basic premise of 'making money' is what fuels commercial behaviour when making choices related to production and consumption methods, and deconstructing commercial motivations will provide a framework in which it can be compared to community produsage.
Community Produsage is the alternate juxtaposition, where, as conceptualised by Axel Bruns, "participants are engaged in a collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement" (The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage). It should be noted that the motivations behind community produsage are far more altruistic than those of commercial production, with the sharing of knowledge, ideas and concepts a common occurrence between communal network peers.
Some key ideas to be analysed when discussing the relationship between these two frameworks are:
Issues surrounding intellectual property
The commercial vs. the produser 'value chain'
Value creation and commercialisation and
The effects of open source software development
CurrentTV and V-CAM (Viewer Created Ad Messages)
An example which harnesses the intersection of commercial production and community produsage is demonstrated through the user-generated Emmy award winning content-based station Current TV, (http://www.current.tv/) premised on ‘citizen journalists’ uploading their own news stories via the web to be shared. In a two sided attack on commercial media producers, a notable feature of Current TV is where it pays users to create advertisements – called V-CAM (Viewer Created Ad Message). CurrentTV have also in the past allowed companies to be used as subjects for advertising competitions where the winning execution is consequently screened on the network. A press release from CurrentTV details the story of 19 year old creator and winner for a V-CAM developed advertisement for Sony Bravia titled “Transformation”, and on a commercial note it should be mentioned that each ad screened on CurrentTV earns the creator $1 000. The potential to earn money increases up to $50 000 however if the company involved decide to use the advertisement through other media channels.
By taking advantage of community produsage, advertisers are finding ways to capitalise on the benefits of having "viable alternative(s) to commercial products" (Bruns, 2008, p. 62), only truly revealed through the flexibility of digital media.
The negative aspects of these power shifts is felt directly in the media and advertising industries, as their service becomes under threat by emerging, empowered, and proactive produsers. This New York Times article titled An Agency’s Worst Nightmare: Ads created by users details the uncertain feelings within the industry as provoked by this particular CurrentTV advertisement, and the big brands following Sony’s lead – such as Toyota, American Express and L’Oreal.
The differences between commercial production and community produsage will be discussed further in the coming weeks; however this introduction has outlined how commercial motivations are focused on economic gain, exposing many opportunities to be threatened by the growing power of wide-spread community produsage models.
References
Bosman, J. 2006. An agency’s worst nightmare: Ads created by users. New York Times. May 11. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/business/media/11adco.html?ex=1305000000&en=0488b91d695a5873&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss (accessed May 15, 2008).
Bruns, A. n.d. The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage. http://produsage.org/files/The%20Future%20Is%20User-Led%20%28PerthDAC%202007%29.pdf (accessed April 23, 2008).
3 comments:
Citizen.tv is an interesting site.
If you know of innovations (preferably Aussie-based, even better if it's Brissie-based) that can allow users to upload videos from their mobile to a website using wi-fi (so that if there is a projected screen of the site and people can check out those vids in real time), let me know. I think being able to do that would be awesome.
I think that there is going to be a tilt favouring community produsage - ie new economic and business models/trends that implement how community produsage ('non-market' behaviours?) can work in the favour of that business/organisation's growth.
Nat, you have provided highly useful definitions of both commercial production and community produsage, highlighting the key differences of the two. Your argument discussed factors contributing to their relationship which I had not thought of or discovered in my research so I found it extremely interesting and beneficial to my studies. Your use of academic research, particularly the work of Axel Bruns, supported the key points of your post, and helped provide a more in-depth definition of the two concepts.
I was particularly interested to read about Current TV, although I had heard about it in lectures I had not yet had the chance to find out what it was really about. Through your providing a link to the Current TV site, I was able to see a real-world example of the intersection of commercial production and community produsage, which was great.
Do you think that when commercial production and community produsage are intersected, those organising the projects are more interested in the commercial side, or the ‘artistic’ community side? Ultimately, is user-generated commercial production still for money-making purposes, or is this new hybrid of produsers more concerned with the quality of the content?
Furthermore, in projects such as A Swarm of Angels (see my blog), do you think that by allowing thousands of people to download, share and remix the content of the film this will ultimately benefit the production or just create confusion and mess?
I look forward to reading future posts in regard to this subject!
Hi Cheese
Thanks for your comments. You bring forward an interesting point when asking if those organising projects are "more interested in the commercial side, or the ‘artistic’ community side?"
I believe that it depends on the community these produsers subscribe to. For example, those who often visit the Zune community (see www.zune.com) would have artistic value ranked highly, as this is a meeting point for those interested in music and art - as facilitated by Microsoft.
In comparison, community aspects are more present when the data exchanged is in plainer formats such as text, through discussion boards etc. These become portals for an individual to express their thoughts on an issue, and a demonstration of this can be seen on Online Opinion (www.onlineopinion.com.au). This site is an "e-journal for social and political debate", and individuals interested in similar issues meet here to address their concerns in a community sphere.
I believe that both of these sites have opportunities for commercial infiltration through advertising and sponsorship, but in terms of content creation, produsers do not usually expect any commercial gain.
Post a Comment