Case Study Essay: Audience 'Consumers VS Producers'

"Audiences are no longer just consumers of texts, but producers too"
To what extent is this true of the media products in your case study?

You will need to carry out further detailed research on your case study texts so that you can provide a number of specific examples across all 3 platforms

The statement above ‘audiences are no longer just consumers of texts, but producers too’ is somewhat true which will be discussed using my three primary texts which are all in the genre of music. The artists include JLS, Pixie Lott and Jay Sean and how they all operate on the three platforms: E-Media, Print and Broadcast. These texts all appeal to a variety of audiences and use the three platforms to interact and promote each other. In my opinion, this statement is true mostly in the music business as the audiences control the future and success of a music artist and how the consumers produce the artist as a whole.

Firstly, JLS who are a new boy band in the music industry originated from the broadcast reality TV show X Factor which is possibly the biggest and most watched show in the UK. The consumers of this text played a big part in how successful they could become by voting every week to try and keep them in the competition. This eventually led them to finishing 2^nd place and securing a record deal with Epic Records. Through this example, the consumers were the clear producers to ‘producing’ the future success of this band. Through the success of this band, a recent special show on ITV2 was broadcasted on the interaction with their fans and exclusive performances. In this sense, the band were independent and in control of how their show was produced compared to the consumers, therefore the statement can be disagreed with in this example.

Moving onto E-media which is more and more accessible through the younger generation, more music artists use this platform to interact with their fans. On JLS’ website, audiences are able to create an account and post their opinions and videos on their website in response to any activity JLS upload on the website. This website wouldn’t be successful without the consumers posting comments because these comments make the website more interactive, so in some respect you could say that they are partially a secondary producer of the website.

To disagree with the statement above, JLS has produced two books, a recent one named ‘Our Story so Far’ where all the information was independently written and produced by themselves. Of course within the book, the mention of fans would be present to achieve their success but ultimately, JLS as the band were the main producers of this book, and to my knowledge it was quite successful.

The next music artist, Pixie Lott, is a new female singer songwriter in the music business. She started at the age of 18 and has been very successful in competing with top artists in the British music industry. You could disagree with this statement above because through the platform of E-Media she produces her own line of fashion in which sells online, mostly on her website. As she is the main ‘producer’ of the new innovative fashion ranger, she is ultimately the main producer, where then her fans, the consumers then buy those items. This completely disagrees with the statement above.

Secondly, recently her song ‘Broken Arrow’ is now part of a new film trailer called ‘Beastly’. This shows that her music has entered other platforms which are known as synergy. This is relevant for her target audiences which could be females ages 16 to 25 alongside male mostly teenagers as they can experience a new way of keeping in touch with the artist. As the song was so successful due to the downloading by her target audience, it allowed the song to be synergised. In this respect, the interaction between the song and fans enabled the song to be produced in another platform hence concluding that the consumers were the main producers for the continuing success of the song. 

The third artist has been around in the music business for several years and went against all dominant ideologies. Jay Sean an Indian artist who came from an ethnic minority produced himself with the support of his fans, but mostly his hard work to achieve the status he has today. He is recognised in many European countries and the USA where he currently has a record deal with ‘Cash Money Records’. In my opinion, due to this hard work, dedication and successful music produced he has been a key producer of his music with the help and support of his fans, the consumers therefore the statement above can be disagreed with.

Secondly, Jay Sean operates on many social networking sites such as Face book and Twitter where he has a lot of audience interaction. His target audience is possibly females ages 16- 25 which is where most of them use such sites as a means of connecting with people and following various music artists. From my knowledge there is a lot of popularity on his profile pages, this allows the content to be user generated as the appearance as a whole is merely created by the consumers. From this you can suggest that Jay Sean relies on the interest of his consumers to create his popular profile pages, hence making the consumers the main producers.

In conclusion, I believe that ultimately, music artists cannot become successful without the input and interest through their websites and social networking which therefore makes them the producers of the media. However, you could also conclude, that the primary initial idea comes from the music artists themselves where then the consumers ‘consume’ the material, post opinions and videos as a means of feedback for the artist. From this perspective the consumers consume the media to enhance the production of the music artist. Both consumers and producers aret he main audience all tied into one.