Theorists Summary

David Gauntlett - arguing that we need to recognise the changing media landscape in which the categories of 'audiences' and 'producers' blur together. He argues that there is a shift from a 'sit-back-and-be-told culture' to a 'making-and-doing culture’. We live in a world of the PROSUMER?

Henry Jenkins – Convergence culture which in turn creates a participatory culture. Fandom and the ways in which fans ‘re-write’ media texts for their own purposes.

Chris Anderson – The long tail. This concept might also be seen to apply in social networks (e.g., crowdsourcing, peer-to-peer), and viral marketing . Overall, it is dependent on the online age and could not have easily existed in earlier society.

Charles Leadbeater - opens up the debate suggesting how user generated material can be beneficial and also detrimental. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiP79vYsfbo

Tapscott & Williams - ‘How Mass Collaboration changes everything. These arguments are about the media (distribution in particular), but also about consumption and exchange (buying and selling – the food and drink of a capitalist economics ) and about human behaviour.

Dan Gilmor – Citizen Journalism. How we are writing history. Think about how the proliferation of hardware and software and convergence means people can share the news quickly.

Marshall McLuhan – Global Village

This is the grandaddy of Media theory. He was writing long before the internet but the examiner will be very happy if you mention him. The phasing out of print newspapers is what McLuhan would have said is ‘just the beginning’ of a new media form. News is now global and instant. Portable media devices and the internet have created McLuhan’s ‘Global Village’.

Marc Prensky - Digital Natives He defined digital natives as the audience that have grown up with the internet and want their media free, fast, portable, interactive and content-rich. The Guardian’s online output is aimed at the audience Prensky calls ‘Digital Natives’ who want their media free, portable and converged.

Marshall McLuhan -  His most famous line, ‘the medium is the message’ is a tricky idea but could be a concluding thought. The internet as a medium has changed all media industries and has changed society. This, as McLuhan would say, is the message.