Time to try again

I’ve realized that the concepts of participation and content production as it is understood by some researchers on the field of so called web 2.0 phenomena (user generated content and social software and so on), may make analysis of consumption more difficult. If you treat anything as production, people will come through as extremely reflected and artistic under any circumstances. Reading blogs is interesting, but when hearing that 28% (of American youth) create their own journal or blog (PEW 2007), one has to wonder about the quality level of these “productions” (and in a norwegian context: where are they?) And even more important: One has to ask if the survey separates “have tried to write a blog” from “are writing a blog.” As far as I can tell they are not.

Given the common way of grouping “have tried’s” as “regulars” I myself would be a dedicated blogger. It is in my opinion not wise to lower the threshold this far down (“again with the virtual masochism”). You are then missing out on the fact that consuming media content is still the most important activity (the process of consumption might be more complex and interactive, but never the less…). Then you might also become blind to power structures that are having different, but profound impacts on the next generation of young people. Most of us are consumers most of the time. It might change, but I do not think it has yet. So it’s a long way to walk before media freedom prevails.