Performers equals audiences: The postmodern approach to representation of individual's identity in the media and media-drenched society

Mass media saturated postmodern society demands from individuals to project their identities all the time. Why is self-representation in the media a necessity? Why creating a online portfolio is inevitable step on the way to digitalised creative media industry?

Abercrombie and Longhurst (1998) in their influential study of audiences introduced the concept of 'diffused audiences'. As opposed to simple audience, (in theatre, concerts, political meetings and religious services) and mediated mass audience (TV viewers, radio and CD listeners), diffused audiences no longer celebrate the performance. "In contemporary society everyone becomes an audience all the time," Abercrombie and Longhurst argued. "Being a member of an audience is no longer an exceptional event, nor even an everyday event. Rather it is constitutive of everyday life" (pp. 68-69)

Consciously or not, we consume media all the time: listening to an iPod on the bus, reading the newspaper on the train, watching TV while ironing or listening to music during a restaurant meal... But in contemporary media-drenched society the boundaries between the performer and the audience increasingly blur. A morning TV show where the viewers are encouraged to call in and ask a question to a guest on the programme is the most archaic example. Bloggers and the users of social networking sites illustrate it better.

According to Abercrombie and Longhurst, "life is a constant performance; we are audience and performer at the same time; everybody is an audience at the same time" (p.73). We are all performers acting accordingly to social rules and conventions and projecting ourselves and our identities to the others. "Human society itself is theatre," they claimed (p. 73). Postmodern society is highly performative and the media of mass communications provide an important resource for everyday performance. Our identities are represented in the media (for example, MySpace and Facebook) and through our use of the media (movies, TV programmes and music we like).

The notion of diffused audiences arises from the interaction of two processes: the construction of the world as spectacle and the construction of individuals as narcissistic. Abercombie and Longhurst noticed: "Spectacle and narcissism feed off each other in a virtuous circle, a circle fuelled largely by the media and mediated by the critical role of performance" (p. 75).

Therefore, being a member of the performative society and an aspiring performer of mass media I seek to manifest myself, my identity, skills and interests through my online creative portfolio.

References:

Abercrombie, N. & Longhurst, B. (1998) 'Forms of the Audience: mass audiences and diffused audiences' in Audiences. London: Sage, pp. 57-76.