Week 4 Task 1 Part C Producers of Culture

This idea incorporates the idea of the internet being an ‘open architecture’ from last week’s posts. People have much more control over this internet, than what they have on any other medium. They can produce their own websites, and in turn give their own opinions on subjects, which will be read by other people. As Lister said ‘there is no attempt here to prescribe how or where such data flows’ (68). He means that there is no hierarchy of power like there is with the television, the audience do not have to accept the messages which are being sent to them, they have the ability to reject the ideas and reply. To some extent the audience are able to do this with the television, but with the increasing amounts of forums and discussion boards, if people want to discuss issues they can do. Even though online allows people to be able to control what they read, post their own views and have their own sites means that people are controlling their own culture and what is seen, the online culture still seems to be an off-shoot of the culture already supplied for society. Senft argues that the majority of ‘audience work in relation to websites, functions under the sign of celebrity’ and that our input into websites is to ‘bring us closer to them’. (185) therefore, the online culture, still reflects the interests that are given to us in the offline culture. For example, people’s interests in the celebrities are not only shown on IRL, but this is developed into online discussions and websites. So the audience are not producing a new culture, but they are just reproducing cultures which have already been supplied to them offline. Do you agree?