What do you mean? "Produser"?

 Before reading Bruns, I had been thinking about the words we usually use to describe people on social media: “creator” and “consumer.” These words make sense, but they also felt a little incomplete to me. In reality, many of us are both. We scroll, watch, and read, but we also like, comment, share, repost, save, curate, and sometimes create our own content. I wondered why we often talk as if there are only two separate roles. Bruns’s concept of the “produser” helped resolve that tension for me because it combines these roles into one term.

A produser is both a user and a producer. In Web 2.0 spaces, people do not only receive information; they also respond to it, modify it, remix it, comment on it, share it, and sometimes improve it. Even small actions, such as leaving a comment or sharing a resource, can become part of a larger process of knowledge-building.

This idea is useful for thinking about learning. In traditional educational settings, students are often positioned as receivers of information. They read, listen, take notes, and submit assignments. But in Web 2.0 learning environments, students can also become contributors. They can ask questions publicly, connect ideas across platforms, respond to classmates, curate resources, and build shared understanding over time.

At the same time, becoming a produser does not mean posting constantly or being visible everywhere. For me, this distinction matters. I am interested in participating more intentionally, not necessarily more loudly. I want to think about how my comments, blog posts, and interactions can contribute to a learning community, even in small ways.

So, for this course, I want to understand produsage not just as a concept about the internet, but as a way of thinking about my role as a learner. Instead of asking only, “What information did I get from this course?” I want to ask, “What did I contribute, connect, or help build?”