How do online, social and participatory media change the relationship between producers and audiences?
Online, social and participatory media as a media form: user-generated content and the prosumer, convergence and the blurring of producer and audience, representation and identity online, and the challenges of regulating online media.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Media Studies form of online, social and participatory media, covering user-generated content and the prosumer, convergence and the blurring of producer and audience, representation and identity online, and the challenges of regulating online media.
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What this dot point is asking
AQA wants you to analyse online, social and participatory media using the framework, focusing on user-generated content, the blurring of producer and audience, online representation and identity, and the difficulty of regulating online media. This form is where the audiences and industries frameworks meet most sharply.
User-generated content and the prosumer
Online and social media depend on user-generated content: audiences create posts, videos, comments and edits, and platforms are largely populated by what users make rather than by professional producers. This produces the prosumer, who both consumes and produces, dissolving the old one-way model of media. The economic model of many platforms is built on this, since users supply the content for free, which is itself a point for the industries framework: the audience is not just a market but a workforce that produces the product.
Convergence and blurring the line
Through convergence, online platforms combine many media forms (text, image, video, audio, messaging) and let audiences create, share and circulate content within a single space. This blurs the line between producer and audience, and it links online media directly to participatory culture (Jenkins's textual poachers and fan communities) and Shirky's claim that digital technology has ended audience passivity by replacing one-to-many broadcasting with many-to-many networks. The result is that production, distribution and circulation can all happen on the same platform, controlled partly by audiences.
Representation and identity online
Online media let users construct and perform identity: profiles, posts and images are curated self-presentations, so the self displayed online is a deliberate construction. This raises questions about how identity is represented online, who controls representation, how authentic online identities are, and the pressures of self-presentation. It connects to Gauntlett's idea of fluid, constructed identity, since users pick and mix from available resources to build and revise an online self, and to representation theory more broadly, since the same processes of selection and mediation apply to the self people present.
Regulating online media
Online media are hard to regulate. Content crosses national borders, anyone can publish, and platforms often sit outside traditional broadcasting rules, so bodies such as Ofcom have limited reach over global services. This raises debates about harmful content, misinformation, age verification and accountability, and whether existing regulators or new legislation can keep pace with a global, participatory environment. The difficulty of regulating online media is one of the strongest contemporary points for the industries framework and a common focus of higher-tariff questions.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 20209 marksExplain how online and social media have changed the relationship between producers and audiences. Refer to a Close Study Product you have studied.Show worked answer →
A Paper 2 style question weighting AO1 and AO2. Markers reward applying participatory-culture concepts to an online CSP.
Explain user-generated content and the prosumer, and use convergence to show how the producer and audience line blurs. Connect to Jenkins (participatory culture) and Shirky (the end of passivity).
Apply to the CSP: give examples of users producing, sharing and circulating content, and reach a judgement about how transformative the change has been and what it means for traditional production models.
AQA 20214 marksExplain what is meant by the prosumer. Use an example to support your answer.Show worked answer →
A short AO1 plus AO2 response. Define a prosumer as a media user who both produces and consumes content, so the line between producer and audience blurs.
Give an example of users creating and sharing content as well as consuming it. For four marks, link the prosumer to user-generated content and to participatory culture, noting that producers now design platforms to encourage this.
AQA 20185 marksExplain why online media are difficult to regulate.Show worked answer →
An AO1 plus AO2 question. Explain that online media are hard to regulate because content crosses national borders, anyone can publish, and platforms often sit outside traditional broadcasting rules.
State the consequences: difficulties addressing harmful content, misinformation and age verification, and the question of whether regulators can keep pace. For five marks, give an example and link the issue to the industries framework and the limits of bodies such as Ofcom.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level Media Studies (7572) specification — AQA (2017)