Producer & Consumer

The ability of the ordinary person to generate their own content alters the producer-consumer relationship. The producer-consumer relationship can be described as the linear flow of information as mentioned in the previous paragraph. However the alteration in this relationship is made obvious when the consumer can now assume the role of the producer. In terms of food blogs, the writers of such food blogs are ‘ordinary’ people who write about their experiences with food-related issues and yet when other people begin reading and consuming the words and ideas of these bloggers, these writers have now assumed the role of the producer. Looking at 101cookbooks.com, the author, Heidi Swanson clearly assumes the role of the producer when she offers her advice on how to go about preparing certain dishes. She provides detailed instructions and shares her opinions of recipes or food dishes. Drawing an example this entry, entitled “A Frozen Yoghurt Recipe to Rival Pinkberry’s Recipe”, she begins by offering her opinion that the recipe she has tried out was better than one that the LA Times had previously reported on. This is an example of her producing information after she had consumed the recipe from a cookbook and the review in the LA Times. As Schultz (2005) says, in terms of blogging, the producer is a power user, whereby she "serves as a redirector, a filter, amplifier, repeater, reporter and commentor of actualities", which is a reflection of what Swanson and the other bloggers are doing. The flow of information is no longer linear anymore because she now has the platform to voice her opinions about the information that she has consumed which then generates another stream of information.

Blogging...

The idea of blogging can be suggested to have been derived from the concept of open publishing which Graham Meikle (2005) characterises as process where no gatekeeping is exercised and “the content if generate by anyone who decides to take part”. It is due to the fact that anyone can contribute to this public domain of information that people now see a shift in power relations (Cohen 2006:163). The traditional paradigm of power was straightforward in that the dominant party was that of the producer and information and messages flowed in a linear pattern to the audience (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler 2005:6). Audiences, as O’Shaughnessy and Stadler say, undoubtedly shape such information that is being placed into the public sphere, however the shift the blogosphere is creating is that audiences no longer need to rely on media conglomerates to produce the content they want, they are now able to generate such content themselves (Rosen 2005:27).

Another point to note about the blogosphere is that because of the way it has been crafted, the idea of intellectual property is difficult to impose restrictions on. All the content that is published on blogs can be considered as intellectual property because as Cubitt (2005) says, as long as an idea is expressed in a tangible, material form, it can be regarded as intellectual property that can be distributed throughout the internet and other media platforms. In the case of food blogs, even though a recipe may be counted as the author’s own creation, the recipe is not subject to copyright laws under the U.S copyright laws (U.S Copyright Office 2006) however all accompanying text may be deemed possible to copyright. The blogger ‘Terms of Service’ document states that blogger does not exercise control over the content being posted which means that these bloggers will probably face other forms of limitations with regards to their blog posts. While it seems as though blogging will then allow everyone to be heard because there is no gatekeeper, other social issues may place restrictions on these bloggers.

Introduction: Where the essay is going...

Blogs are the more than the traditional homepage, they are, as Adrian Miles (2004) describes “an internet based personal publishing system” that works as a Content Management System (CMS) which permits the administration of information across the entire site. According to technorati.com, there are more than 80.6 million blogs on the internet out of which, 18 are updated every second. However, the impact of blogging in the public sphere now raises questions of power and how these blogs now challenge classical perceptions of power. Due to the fact that blogs can be perceived as the epitome of participatory culture and as Baker and Green (2005) of Businessweek say, blogs are sites of power, does this mean that society and larger corporations have to exercise new mechanisms of control in order to retain the societal ‘balance’ of power? This essay will use food blogs to discuss the issues blogging has raised and suggest that despite the being a new phenomenon, the blogosphere still exercises and responds to old paradigms of power and can be controlled by old systems of regulation.

In lieu of the constant referral to food blogs, a definition for the term would be convenient. A food blog shall refer to a blog that is devoted to the discussion of issues that are food related. As an article from Epicure, a section from The Age, says, food blogging takes the typical journal writing a step further but solely focussing on all things food related. With this in mind, this essay will explore the power dynamics the blogosphere dabbles with by specifically exploring three food blogs, glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com, 101cookbooks.com and vanillagarlic.blogspot.com.

Final Essay Question

Qn 3: In terms of blogs, discuss how participatory culture has impacted on the public sphere both in respect to the way in which it disrupts old paradigms of power, and entrenches new mechanisms of control.