An Introduction

Is Instagram becoming a platform for prosumers, allowing us to actively participate in the viewing, sharing and marketing of media texts? Is instagram becoming more than just a social platform for sharing photographs and receiving likes and comments? How much power do the users of instagram actually hold?

In the past audiences have been described as passive, simply accepting the media they consume giving producers the ultimate power to manipulate and choose what their audiences consume and see, describing audiences as a mass population rather than individuals with opinions and ideas. In recent years it is fair to say that Audiences are not passive, but actively engage with media aiding it to survive in today’s media age.  “Audiences are no longer understood as mere consumers who passively accept anything the media offers, but as active individuals and members of social groupings who consume media products in the context of their personal and social goals.” (Ball-Rokeach & Cantor, 1986) Could it be said that audiences are becoming more active in consuming their media due to some kind of social agenda? Are social networks becoming a platform in which consumers can create and share existing content with their own opinions and ideas attached, and how do producers control this kind of sharing, They can either embrace it or try and go against it. Audiences can no longer be described as a “mass” as Williams says “there are no masses only way of seeing masses.” (1958, Williams) It could be said that producers are now realizing that the power of audience is strengthening and the use of “Participatory culture.” Should not be ignored but used to their advantage, Henry Jenkins describes Participatory Culture as “the development of tools/technologies enabling the creation of content.” Focusing in on the Social Media platform Instagram, an app used to edit and upload photos to then share with friends and the internet, Could that be the only use for this app, or could it be used in many different ways to evolve the way in which audiences are taking power in the way they consume, Focusing in on Goffman, Jenkins and other theorists the discussion of how Instagram is now being used as a platform for participation is left wide open.  Social media is becoming more than just a platform for sharing and communicating, by using social Media we are actively passing information around which can be seen and reshared by anyone, this in itself is a powerful concept and not one that can be easily controlled, Looking at it more closely the social aspect of these platforms also mean that as users there are unspoken expectations that have been created by the want to be accepted or liked, so could it be said that even though as users we have the complete control over what we post these social set of rules prevent us at some stage, and could this be used by producers to gain some of the control back? Could “trends” on social media be used at the producers advantage to make us want to share and see certain things.