Creativity

           In the essay titled, "Creators, Audiences, and New Media: Creativity in an Interactive Environment," the author Isaac Bell writes about the role of content creators and audiences in today's technologies of New Media. The overarching theme that Isaac Bell talks about is how these roles are not static anymore and are constantly changing thanks to these New Media technologies. One of the first things that Isaac Bell talks about is the roles that are involved in theses technologies. Bell writes, " I believe the first thing that we must do as a discipline, is to acknowledge that these labels-of audience, creator, publics, readers, watchdogs, gatekeepers, and anything else that we may use in our discussions- are not descriptions of static roles, but of purposeful actions taken by one or more people at a given time."
            What Bell is trying to tell us is that these traditional roles of content creators and audience and readers are constantly changing. No longer are people getting their content from traditional institutions and media outlets, an individual if they choose to can become a content creator and use different tools to help grow a brand/business. For example today on Youtube, I can upload a video of me critiquing a movie and after that I can watch a review of another user. This is an example  of what Bell refers to the changing roles that an individual has, "The boundaries become permeable again, because they are now referring to action that by their nature evoke transition from state or another."
              Bell goes on to describe the different roles and actions that are involved in these new media technologies and how they interact, not only with the medium, but also with one another. One of them is how an audience can take on the role of a "fandom". For example Bell writes about how these people who share a deep passion for a certain subject matter or theme come together and create these virtual communities, that at times may have real life connections. Bell writes, "Fans often perform socially-visible actions that reflect the works they identify with and sometimes will use these actions to guide their approach to other social matters, such as fans of the television show Star Trek advocating for better science education or embracing diversity."
               We can see that New Media technologies allow creativity to thrive by allowing anybody to become a content creator no matter their age, gender, race, background, socioeconomic status. That is something incredibly poetic than would be a foreign and strange idea to our ancestors.

Sources
Bell, Isaac Creators, Audiences and New Media: Creativity in an interactive environment  PDF