Why they want to particpate

According to Bright, "new technology innovations and the changing media environment offer endless opportunities to consumers: seemingly infinite amounts of information via the internet, a plethora of broadcast stations and channels, and higher functionality and control through such technologies as online content aggregators and digital video recorders. These technological changes have redefined the media lanscape and thus the role of advertising in new media consumption."  (2011, pg. 32) The launch of Web 2.0 websites have encouraged media consumers to be part of the creation of media content. These websites support the creation, distribution and consumption of CGC (consumer generated content). The example of these websites are YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, Flickr, Blogger and etc. The changing media environment has made consmer to be more in control of their media consumption and "has also enabled consumer with a greater capability to contribute their thoughts, opinions and personal media through websites that support user-generated content and social networking" (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright, 2007, cited in Bright 2011, p. 35).

Yes, it is clear that consumers are offered a lot of opportunities to participate but why do consumers are willing to participate in this changing media environment?

"A person ‘s willingness to interact with customized online media environments using Web 2.0 technologes will be determined by his or her attitude toward such media exposure and level of perceived control" (Bright 2011, p. 44).  Consumers may decide to create and interact with customized media environments for different reasons. Katz (1960) states that there are four different personality functions that explain why do consumers are willing to participate in the media environments (Bright 2011), which are:

- a utilitarian function
People are motivated to gain rewards. "This function represents attitudes based on self interest" (Bright 2011, p. 45). Consumers who are motivated by this function would create such environments for personal incentives such as earning fame or money. *This can be refered in the case study- YouTube.

- a knowledge function
"The knowledge function recognizes that people are driven by the need to gain information in order to organise and understand one’s environment" (Bright 2011, p. 45). People are motivated in order to understand and make sense out of their experiences. Consumers who are motivated by this function believe it helps them to understand their environment and/or ultimately themselves because they feel a sense of nature wisdom (Bright 2011).

- an ego-defensive function
"The ego-defensive function represents motivations that are designed to protect people from internal insecurities or external threats" (Bright 2011, p. 45). Consumers who are motivated by this function would participate in order to feel a sense of belonging and reduce feeling of no contributing (Bright 2011). This also serve the internal function of defending one's self-image (Bright 2011, p. 45)

- a value-expressive function
"The value-expressive function is served by attitudes that allow individuals to express or relate with their self-concepts and values" (Bright 2011, p. 45).  Consumers who are motivated by this function would feel good for creating content and being a member of an online community that shares the common thoughts and/or interests they have because this help them to feel confident and believe to be who they are and what they believe (Bright 2011)

These 4 functions remains the core constructs for understanding why consumers are motivated to create content and contribute to media content (Bright 2011) and why do prosumerism exists. To understand further how the prosumer culture works and how it is changing our media enviornment, please read through our case studies.