Produsage, the term coined by theorist Bruns, takes place in www.dailymail.com. Under each story there is a 'comments' section which allows produsers to voice their opinions on the articles or to comment on others views.
Along with this is a section called 'Blogs' where a variety of writers for the Daily Mail write their own blogs on their chosen subject and users are invited to comment.
The produsage is important in involving the site in becoming a place of community. Theorist Rheingold came up with the idea of a virtual community and saw online conversations as reinforcing community projects. Taking Rheingold's theory into account, the produsers on dailymail.com are forming a community via their shared interest in the site, and in particular in news stories.
However, unlike some forums, the website is monitored and holds a strict privacy policy. There is a restriction on what is written on the site by users in the form of comments, and anything untoward is removed. It could be argued therefore that this particular site does not allow the freedom and openness to create a strong community, something that many produsers try to gain.
However, the site is primarily an informative website which offers the chance for produsage.
Although users are free to comment they are not able to change articles or news stories unlike some open-news or Wiki websites, making the Daily Mail website appear more legitimate. Meikle suggests that we, as Internet users, learn to trust certain websites, ones which we know can not be changed, freeing bias or untrue content. Perhaps this level of trust we can have for this website brings us back to it, in order to gain desired information which we KNOW is reliable.
I use dailymail.com regularly to make sure I am aware of news issues and am kept up-to-date with the worlds events. The reason I choose this website over other news websites is because I fall into it's target audience. I come from a middle-class family who reads the Daily Mail in 'real life'. I also trust it's legitimacy and like the structure, layout and hyperlinking opportunities, allowing myself to get to stories which are of particular interest to me. I also like to read the opinions of other readers and decide if I agree, although I have yet to post my own opinion, making me a user of the site, but not a produser.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
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