Produser or Produsage?

Anyone familiar with the terms produser or produsage? I know I wasn’t until recently. I’ll take that as a no. Well then let me ask you this, how many of you have viewed content that has been reproduced on YouTube or Facebook? Have you ever posted any reproduced content or even reproduced or edited any content yourself on Facebook, YouTube or sites similar to these? Well I have viewed and shared such content but I haven’t reproduced any....yet that is.

What about participation in sites such as Wikipedia and similar sites, are you part of social media site that allows everyone to contribute by editing information and content? In sites like Wikipedia the contributions can be sometimes made-up, misleading or actually quite good depending on the person who has contributed. I personally do not trust sites similar to Wikipedia as I used to have a friend that would add false information to the website. This led me to believe that because anyone can access and contribute to these sites, there is a big chance their contributions will be misleading but also hilarious at the same time.

Now days it is very easy to edit a video and post it online, anyone with the internet can do it. Which brings me back to my first question, do you think you are a produser or a produsage, or do you see yourself as neither?

When you think about it we are all a producer or produsage in one way or another. For example how many of you have a facebook account? Those of you who do how many of you have edited your photos so they look better? I know I have, this is just one of the many examples of being a produser or produsage in our lives.

Then how about something a bit more different. How about something like recreating someone else’s video. Do you consider this as being original or just clever? Or do you think they are making it better? What about those who just get a few slides from movies and lyrics from songs put it all together and there you have a video. There are thousands of videos like these up on YouTube. You don’t need to be famous for your content to be a hit nor do you need to have actual people in your video.

The next time you are watching, posting, making or editing content have a think about which category you fall in. Are you a produser or produsage? I’m sure you will be able to answer this question now without a second thought.