Week 2 Lecture- Interactivity

As the interactivity increases in the media, the idea of how the audience react to non-linear websites is created. In my opinion, reading a magazine online, and discussing the article in a forum is no different than doing it in meat space. The ‘produser’ is still reading a similar article, with the same message and then having an opinion on it. The idea of non-linear order, and choosing what part of an article to read, is no different to skimming over pages in magazine to which you have no interest on. The ‘produser’ should have the ability to choose what they read, instead of having to read the same as other people, just because they are part of the ‘mass media’. I believe that whether information is in a linear or non linear set out, if the audience are interested in the subject than they will read it.

The Frankfurt School believe that interactivity is making the mass audience easily manipulated because of the identical message that is sent to the receiver through different media forms. This ‘one way, one to many’ communication style, is sending a message to the receiver, but this does not necessarily mean that the audience are accepting the messages. The audience can take on active roles and ‘blur the boundaries of production and consumption’, by replying on discussion boards and commenting on newspaper articles etc. The media affects debate is apparent in this argument just because the audiences are supposed to take a message in a certain way from interactive media, doesn’t mean that they will.