Audience may have differing expectation about different media genres. New communication such as the Internet technology provides an opportunity to rethink, rather than abandon definitions of audience. The Internet is constantly growing in both its space and audience. Internet Service Providers assist in connecting the users with a click of a button, either business to business, consumer to business or citizen to government. The absence of gatekeepers, demolish the barriers to production and transmission this introduces complexities in terms of credibility and authenticity. Sternberg states that “lack of gatekeepers produce competing visions of cyberspace� (Sternberg, 2004). The internet contains all genres of information; it’s similar to an encyclopaedia. According to Leadbeater “the internet is doubling every year� (Leadbeater, 2000: 39). With characteristics that defy established definitions of mass communication are faced with a challenge to understand how audience perceived the information available on the Internet.
New media audience develops a new culture of Do-It-Yourself or customisation. Whereby the audience either decides what information they desire or how a “discourse that shapes how consumers have deployed those technologies� (Jenkins, 2002: 280). Downes states that “as Internet media institutions are established, the cynical view of the audience as a source of consumer behaviour and preferences will inevitably give way, to some extent, to a view of the audience as participant in communication� (Downes, 2000). The audience of the Internet are both consumers and produces. Pavick & Dennis defines the new media audience, “as no longer even refer to audiences as they speak of users or consumers� (quoted by Downes, 2000). Internet platform allows people to “create their own content and distribute it widely� (Barr, 2002: 244) examples of this areblogging and forums.
In addition, audience will filter and select the contents of their own special interests and as a result, cultural and political life become increasingly polarised. Walter Bender cites “technology empowers consumers to have a voice and the voice of consumers is growing exponentially.� (Quoted in Rao, 2003:79) The development of this new culture is seen towards online news. As online news is heading towards a more interactive approach where audience of the online news are different; they pull what are of interest to them as the internet "incorporates radio, film and television and distributes them through 'push' technology" (Mc Quail, 2000:119). As a consequence according to Madanmohan Rao surveys “found that online audiences go to the internet news sites to get more information about subjects that specifically interest them rather than to seek out general enlightenment.� (Rao, 2003: 80) Leadbetter adds that “our capacity for change is as alarming as it is inspiring; innovation and knowledge creation have allowed people more choices over lives that are richer and longer than those of our grandparents.� (Leadbetter, 2000: 235) Likewise the internet did not destroy other broadcasting media but only reduce people response to it. Rao states “the audiences have clearly demonstrated that when it comes to accessing information online, there is no such thing as a singular news source – they browse multiple sources for specific information for reasons of choices and cost. The larger the number of sources consumers has, the more knowledgeable they are, thus reducing human dependence and loyalty towards a singular news source. (Rao, 2003: 80)
Related Topics
Online News
Applications of Personal Blogging
Ebusiness - B2B Applications
Reference
Downes, Daniel. (2000), “The medium vanished? The resurrection of the Mass Audience in the New Media Economy�, retrieved on 12 October, 2004 from http://www.media-culture.org.au/0003/mass.html. Jenkins, H. (2002), “Interactive Audiences? The 'Collective Intelligence' of Media� Fans, retrieved August 10, 2004, from http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/collective%20intelligence.html. Leadbetter, Charles (2000), Living on thin air: the new economy: with blueprint for the 21st century, London: Penguin.ISBN 0141886218 Madanmohan Rao (2003), News media and New media: The asia-pacific internet handbook episode V, Singapore: Eastern University Press. ISBN 9812102604 Mc Quail, Denis. (2000), “Mc Quail’s Mass Communication Theory�, SAGE Publication Ltd. ISBN 0761965467. Sternberg, Jason. (2004, October 20), “The Internet and new media�, Brisbane: QUT. [Public lecture: CIRAC seminar series] Barr, Trevor. "The Internet and online communication", in Stuart Cunningham & Graeme Turner (ed.) (2002), “The media & communications in Australia�, Allen & Unwin, pp. 244-257. ISBN 1865086746
Kelvin Khoo 21:00, 22 Oct 2004 (EST)
