Quentin Smith - Melding of a Media World

Melding of a Media World

 

I am, like all the other people in the world who have ever watched television, read books, or even look at a physical work of art, a media user. In the United States, it is virtually impossible to grow up without accessing a form of media. As a member of the Internet generation, I have grown up in a very different media environment from that of generations before. The phrase “media user” is now inaccurate; we live in a participatory culture where media consumers and media creators are one and the same. The Internet gave amateurs the opportunity to publish their work and have a global audience.

I started using our media culture like most Americans; I grew up on educational television and books. PBS played Canadian educational shows in the middle of the night; I would tape them and watch them during the day. In this way, I learned about the world around me from media. My book reading consisted of reading the complete Hardy Boys series.

My existence as a “pure” media user ended when I was given a computer and purchased Internet access. I was seven at the time. The Internet was the ultimate level playing field – I joined a company called NoWonder, providing computer help to users for free. The Internet’s peer-to-peer design means that anyone can publish their own content. I took full advantage, putting up a website on a server in my home.

The platform of the Internet let me publish my creative output, as well. In homage to Weird Al, I wrote some parodies of songs I liked, including a parody called “Hacker Boi” of Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8r Boi”. Since putting it up, 281 people have downloaded it. Before the Internet, I would have been just another media user, but now I am also a media publisher.

Another form of media I have become a participant in is photography. Sites like Flickr have wrested control of photography from professional photographers and placed it in the hands of amateurs. At least count, I host 10,400 photos on a photo gallery on my website. I know that the quality of my output is less than that of a professional photographer, but the vast number of amateur publishers online results in a quantity of quality amateur photographs that dwarves the quantity of quality professional photographs.

I enjoy being a participant in the new global media culture provided by the Internet. Old-media companies like News Corp. and Time Warner are trying to join the modern participatory environment, but they are shackled by their insistence on retaining ownership of all content. Old-media companies are slowly being eclipsed by media users-turned-media producers.