#prosumer

If you google Bella Hadid the supermodel, the 2nd suggested search term that google presents is ‘Bella Hadid before’ and it links you to the image page showing comparison shots of her before and after cosmetic surgery.  This is pretty telling and indicates the amount of interest in young people both getting cosmetic surgery and being influenced by the cosmetic surgery of influencers. 

Over recent years there has been a shift in attitudes towards cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery once being traditionally viewed as a tool for older women to maintain their youth in a culture that continues its fascination with youth. However now the more recent changes in attitudes towards plastic surgery include not just de aging but enhancing and people are getting enhancement surgery younger and younger.

Is visual social media the driving force behind this?

There is a saying I often remind myself when browsing social media, and that is, don't compare someones ‘Best of album’ to your everyday song. Basically the curated images we see online, especially on instagram are not real. The app itself has filters built into it to edit and enhance images. Friends and influencers alike are taking dozens of shots to get the one they like the most to post, nothing is spontaneous and everything is curated. Which by itself doesn’t seem so harmful but there are unintended consequences. Especially when you begin to compare a regular instagram user to one that has successfully parlayed their profile on the app into paid work. They have essentially become a prosumer, both product to sell and continued consumer.

Instagram and various other forms of visual social media have been successful at spreading messaging of public health and awareness campaigns  ( think Movember or the ice bucket challenge) but the unintended consequences of realms of public influence can be harmful. The current omni presence of social media influences can have harmful effects on young people.

While there are both successful male and female influencers, it will come as no shock that the expectations of female influencers are vastly different. The hyper sexualisation of women and girls is nowhere else displayed so prominently then on instagram. Along with the myriad of body expectations instagram has given birth to what journalist Jia Tolentino refers to in the the New Yorker as ‘The Instagram Face’ basically it is the vaguely ethnic but predominantly caucasian face that (achieved through plastic surgery) consists of high cheekbones, small nose, full lips and catlike eyes. Each element taken from the genetic makeup of different ethnic mixes. 

It's a vicious cycle, the more people who wish to look like this the more they will engage in plastic surgery. As this is an aspirational type of beauty those who achieve it will be praised for it and in turn become more visible, influencing others that this form of body modification is a worthy pursuit. 

Ritzer, G., & Jurgenson, N. 2010, Production, consumption, prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital ‘prosumer’. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10, pp.13– 36.

One of the most interesting topics I've studied in my 4 years of media studies would be Escapism. Google defines it as:

Escapism is defined by The Other Wiki as a “mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term todefine the actions people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness

This is a pretty solid definition overall but I want to talk about how it crosses over to fandoms or as my media teacher would put it "a group of prosumers". Prosumers being fans who create fanart, fanfiction, edits, MVs, analysis, theories or even just complication videos. So fandoms basically.

Her understanding of fandoms is limited and I don't want to sit for a lesson in front of my class explaining what they are and looking like an obsessive weirdo but that's a different story.

Anyway, I'm here to talk about escapism and how it has grown and developed into the fandom culture of today.

A lot of fans are escapists or consumers because they, as the definition says want to escape reality and it's boring day to day routine. People watch Game Of Thrones to forget about the long day they had or the paper work that's waiting for them tomorrow to escape into a fantasy world where things like that don't matter. Same for Supernatural, school, work, bills don't matter in that world.

Of course there's a difference between watching a film and going back to your day to day life having enjoyed it and not being able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Let's not go all Blanche Dubois on this.

Don't we all, darling.

For that 40-90 minutes they don't have to think about anything other than is Tyrion going to die or are Dean and Cas going to finally make out. (Jokes)

Fandoms are an extension of this. People group together to escape even further into these worlds because when you're ranting about Johnlock you're not thinking about that piece of coursework you should be doing.

It's quite a fascinating part of how humans cope with life. It's been around for centuries, people would go see hangings to forget about the Black Death hundreds of years ago.

Video games, films, TV, music, books, comics, anime, manga. All of this is used to escape the real world, even when you don't notice.

Akhir-akhir ini, netizen sangat antusias dengan video audisi pencarian bakat salah satu merk biskuit “biskuat” yang menjadi viral karena kesuksesannya menghibur siapa pun yang menontonnya. Aksi innocent dari anak-anak yang berumur 7 sampai 13 tahun ini memang sangat menggelitik. Meskipun program yang berjudul “Program Biskuat Kreasi Semangat” ini sudah diselenggarakan pada pertengahan tahun 2013 yang lalu, namun sontak video-video audisi casting-nya justru baru terkenal tahun 2017 ini. Tingginya minat netizen untuk mengeksplor lebih jauh kelucuan dari audisi ini menyebabkan semakin banyaknya video-video program tersebut yang diunggah ke internet melalui berbagai media sosial seperti facebook, instagram, twitter, youtube, dan lain sebagainya.

Berikut salah satu contoh videonya:

Menyikapi hal ini, netizen berusaha untuk mengekspresikan berbagai macam emosinya terhadap video ini dengan memberikan feedback yang luar biasa kreatif. Mulai dari yang sederhana seperti meme, mereka yang tadinyahanya berstatus sebagai consumer berusaha untuk terus memperbarui konten aslinya dengan membuat konten-konten baru dari berbagai platform media. Dapat kita lihat, dari yang tadinya merupakan moving image atau video, dapat berubah menjadi still image atau gambar biasa, namun dengan nilai yang sama. 

Hal ini tentu bertujuan agar konten tidak berhenti disitu saja. Seperti prinsip dalam konvergensi media yang selalu fluktuatif dan terus menerus membuat konten media dengan cara yang baru. Tidak hanya itu, banyak sekali feedback dari netizen terhadap video ini dengan berbagai bentuk seperti reaction video -- video berupa reaksi setelah menonton video tertentu, video kompilasi atau kumpulan dari video-video yang berjenis sama, dan yang terbaru berupa remix dari video audisi biskuat yang dibuat oleh composer YouTube bernama Eka Gustiwana. Contoh-contoh dari perkembangan itu semua adalah contoh-contoh yang baik dan harusnya lebih banyak dari pengguna internet yang menyalurkan nya ke hal-hal diatas.

 Fenomena prosumer tersebut semakin menyadarkan kita bahwa batas antara produser dan konsumer pada era konvergensi seperti saat ini semakin blur atau tidak jelas lagi. Konsumer media pada saat ini tidak pasif lagi dalam menerima informasi, namun justru aktif dan hal ini menimbulkan pemikiran kreatif untuk memperbarui suatu konten dengan platform media lain. 

Ini juga menjadi contoh positif dimana orang-orang selain menggunakan juga dapat memproduksi sesuatu, mereka menuangkan nya dengan contoh-contoh seperti diatas. 

Seperti contoh lain, karena viral di media sosial, awalnya media massa yang tidak pernah memberitakan fenomena ini justru sekarang beramai-ramai memberitakan dengan bentuk yang halus (soft news). Ini juga adalah contoh bukti nyata bahwa semua hal dapat menjadi viral dan menjadi bahan untuk memproduksi sesuatu di media sosial.

Menurut Henry Jenkins, media lama memang memiliki audiens yang pasif, tidak seperti media baru seperti sekarang ini yang lebih interaktif. Konsumen yang memiliki kontrol atas konsumsi, produksi, dan distribusi media membuat konsep prosumer lahir ditengah era konvergensi. 

Memang sebaiknya audiens tidaklah pasif melainkan aktif seperti sekarang ini karena memang diperlukan konsumen dan audiens yang aktif agar menimbulkan kesan positif tidak hanya melihat dan mengkonsumsi.

Sumber:

Henry Jenkins, Worship at the Alter of Convergence: A New Paradigm for Understanding Media Change.

Jasoncktham. Media convergence. St. Cloud State University.

Tribunnews - http://style.tribunnews.com/2017/05/18/8-anak-berikut-jadi-viral-di-internet-karena-audisi-biskuat-kocak-banget-videonya?page=all

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/notes/biskuat/syarat-dan-ketentuan-audisi-biskuat-kreasisemangat/495361200512382/

Ditulis oleh:

Edo Juvano (1506756412)