Lecture 6 - Summary (Production and Consumption)

This week's lecture was essentially a look into how communication has changed production and consumption.

I can't think of a lot to say, so I'll be general. Originally, media and communication was purely a consumption driven industry - people would go to the cinemas to see a film or they'd sit at home and watch their televisions.

Yes, back in the glorious old days, people would take everything and give nothing back. What really changed everything was 'the internet.' The Internet allowed people the opportunity to create and share their own content using computer applications and uploading it to the web. Nowadays with mobile phones, digital cameras and the like, people can not only access the internet 'on the fly' but can also produce and distribute their own content no matter where they are thus contributing to production.

I want to take a look at what I consider 'recycling.' In which a consumer takes content and then produces something using the content itself or the ideas embedded, thus 'recycling.'

We took a look at several sites that illustrate what I'm talking about. The first was thetrailermash where a series of recuts can be found. Essentially, these videos take footage from the movie and then re-edit them, mixing and matching scenes, adding their own special effects and ultimately produce a brand new trailer where the genre has been reversed for comic effect.

I have linked to a video as an example. For those of you who have never seen Mrs. Doubtfire, it's a family comedy, this new trailer is... well, take a look.



The next site was fanfilms.net where people take the ideas of the films they love and recreate them in their own image. Most videos found on the site are spoofs rather than tributes, take a look at what I consider 'Twilight In A Nutshell.'



Basically, in short, the internet has made way for consumers to also become producers as they can openly distribute their own content. What's more, the above videos illustrate how one can consume and then produce or rather "recycle" content.

Now, our next task is to upload a fake news report to www.ireport.com. So consider me out to get my reporting gear.