Produsage on YouTube

“There is an absence of producers, distributors, or consumers, and the presence of a seemingly endless string of users acting incrementally as content producers by gradually extending and improving the information present in the information commons, the value chain begins and ends (but only temporarily, ready for further development) with content.” (Bruns, 2008)
A “produser” is a person who not only produces but they also use a particular media source, so they are at both ends the consumer and the producer, thus making them a produser. Many videos on YouTube are examples of produsage. A perfect example and my personal favourite YouTube video, shows the use of an existing video but also the production of changing the audio is the ‘literal video’ of ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ originally by Bonnie Tyler. This video keeps the original visual of the video clip from 1983 but has new lyrics that explains what is going on in the video, to the tune of the song.
One of my favourite parts is “Leaning on myself because there’s 2 of me here, but now there’s only one in this shot, I pull my feathered hair whenever I see floating cloth” The original lyrics are “once upon a time there was light in my life but now there’s only love in the dark, nothing I can say a total eclipse of the heart”
In the video Bonnie Tyler is leaning on a mirror and then you see her dramatically pull her hair as a piece of cloth floats accross the screen.
With the advances in technology and new programs that allow you to make these recreations there are less and less original videos being posted on YouTube. I think the idea of produsage on YouTube has its good and bad aspects. On one hand it gives people a chance to be creative with videos, songs or people they like or dislike. On the other hand it takes credit away from the original producer as they work hard to create a piece and then anyone can just take it and mash it up to create something different with the original text often being changed to create a whole new meaning or message.

Total Eclipse of the Heart literal video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA