The Intersection of Content Creation and Consumerism in the Digital Age
When you are in public, and you are truly present in the surrounding area, what do you see? You will most likely observe an array of people from different walks of life, cultures, religions, sexualities, who all have one thing in common- their use of media and technology.
It is a rare occurrence to see a person walking without a phone in their hand, headphones in their ears, or some sort of technology nearby. What we fail to see is the type of content that people consume on a daily basis. Is the content we read or hear reliable, unbiased, and ethical? It is crucial to understand how to contribute to the media realm as a good content consumer and creator.
Content consumers are media users who interact or view content made by content creators. Content consumers are crucial in today’s society due to their ability to initiate change, spread awareness, and alter what content is at the forefront of media outlets, therefore, alter perspectives.
According to Howard Rheingold, attention, participation, collaboration, network awareness, and critical consumption are all aspects of how one can be considered a good content consumer.
Attention is what determines one’s perspective and how they think, participation is how one takes their perspective and knowledge and implements that into the media that they are fed. Utilizing attention and participation, people are able to effectively collaborate and network with others who have similar opinions or beliefs, or even constructive criticism and opinions that you can build on and learn from.
Lastly, one must go further than just looking at the content. Good content consumers delve into the content and research the information presented. Is it biased? Is the information false or reliable?
This is incredibly important because a lot of misinformation and bias is distributed through social media at mass production, spreading at the speed of light. For example, when Covid-19 first came out, the idea that China purposely released the virus. This ended up leading to a major increase in Asian hate.
How one approaches misinformation and bias is what makes a consumer good or bad. Dan Gillmor, writer and columnist, encourages people to research what they are consuming, be independent from biases, be open and honest about any biases they may hold, and to approach any disagreeing ideas or arguments with fairness in order to be a good content consumer.
In regards to bias, several major companies have found loopholes into spreading their ideologies by purchasing or investing in newspapers and different media platforms. For example, Sheldon Adelson, successful businessman, purchased the Las Vegas Review Journal. Since this happened, articles about Adelson have had a special review process and certain content is added and removed from articles, which is a major conflict of interest.
What about creating the content? What tools and skills are required for one to be a good content creator? It takes smart, deliberate choices in what you are creating and who you involve in your content. When working on my podcast, which focused on the pros and cons of Cancel Culture, I needed to really think about who would serve best as a guest on my podcast. I needed someone who would contribute the best insight and information, who is a natural speaker, and who is engaging with the audience.
Additionally, planning and time management is crucial in order to be a successful content creator. For my mini-documentary, I lacked multiple back-up plans and ended up turning the assignment in late. My actors bailed on me last minute, so I tried to animate for three days straight which ended up coming out very poorly. Finally, I had to act in it myself. I failed to prepare any plans in case my very first one didn’t work out.
Lastly, credibility is very important. People determine someone is a good content creator if they can count on that person to distribute credible, reliable information. Content creators must be ethical with their content. No plagiarizing, no spreading of false information, and quality content that reflects a story, thought, and insight is what is ethical.
Throughout Digital Storytelling, I have improved on camera angles, videography, editing (adobe premiere, photoshop), and conveying messages. A video or article isn’t good unless the creator implements some sort of message or story within the content. I feel as though my skills as a storyteller have definitely improved and I have somewhat of an idea of what my voice is.
I learned that I flourish in scriptwriting, producing, and in an environment where I have creative freedom. I love to use descriptive words and imagery in my writing. I love to have a variety of camera angles and implement some sort of different/creative concepts in my videography.
In the future, storytelling and camera skills are crucial for my career in photojournalism. I need to be able to effectively communicate with strangers in order to hear their stories and their concerns in order to be able to write stories and articles and successfully do so.
I need to be able to connect with the audience through my pictures and writing skills using pathos, ethos, logos, imagery, descriptive writing, etc. One good picture can hook the audience in, but the story behind it will capture their attention and give them something to talk about.