The power of the Audience
After reading Jay Rosen blog post on “The People Formerly Known as the Audience” I think about what shirky says in “Cognitive Surplus” about people who buy a computer or cell phone the number of consumers and producers increases. This is what Rosen is also talking about when he refers to the audience shift in power. The computer and cell phone allow us to act like the media. We can blog, take pictures, make videos and report what we see and hear. Before all of this we relied on the media and we never responded. But as Rosen says “The writing Readers” now the readers are writing they are responding they are blogging and sharing with the world.
I have seen the changes an example of this is the news, they all have twitter and facebook accounts. People can write and report on anything they see and the news can check on it so they can report on it. I have been watching channel 11 since I was 12 years old and it was always the same. First the important headlines would come on, then the weather then sports. Now it has changed people can tweet and facebook the reporters they can ask questions. Channel 11 has a segment in which they help people when they are having a problem or trying to help the community. It still reports the important headlines but now the audience is getting involved. Another example that I seen is also on channel 11 one of their reporters his name is Greg Mocker he usually reports on the MTA. Now he gets his stories from people around NYC who have issues with the bus stations and train stations in thier neighborhoods. The way he communicates with the people is through Twitter. He almost uses the people to work for him and find him stories specifically on the MTA to report on. People are happy to send him suggestions on this. Reporters depending on the people might have sounded crazy back then, but what Mocker does is brilliant. He can’t go around checking every bus stop ot train station so he uses the audience.
One more example on how people are contributing is when the NBA had their annual Slam Dunk Contest. Usually they pick 3 judges to vote on the best slam dunk this year they did it different. They had the audience vote on the winners using cell phones, and computers. It shows how they are now using the people to participate in the decisions it the same as american Idol. The audience is beginning to speak they are writting, reporting, and making videos they are making a difference to the world.