Content Producers: summary

This week’s topic asked us to consider content producers, and the issues surrounding open access to materials online. Thank you to those who commented and answered my questions!
Many focused on education and academic articles/journals, an area of particular interest to all of us being University students.

Throughout this topic, and the many interesting conversations it has created, I have struggled with accepting the notion of ‘free access’, since many materials are anything but to the majority of people who do not have any affiliation with educational institutions. This being said, the concept of creating materials that are openly accessible to the public is unfeasible (as many blogs pointed out) – issues of quality control, publishing fees, the prestige of work being hindered or financial resources being better allocated are just a few disadvantages of making this content openly available.The overarching conclusion being made by most is the need for a balance, however, even this would not satisfy all parties in every way.

Although education was the primary focus of many blogs, ‘content’ covers a broad range of material, which made it interesting to read Kaya’s perspective highlighting that open access also includes social media, blogs and photos online. Giving examples of openly available online blogs, yet emphasising the ‘strategic’ nature of all these materials (blogs can create businesses for many experienced bloggers, generating a substantial income) made me question many peoples’ motives.

As with educational resources, published blogs can reap great financial rewards … the only difference between the two is that academic articles are very rarely accessible without access codes and need vast amounts of resources to produce…The income generated from blogs is arguably incidental for many.