The role of the audience has changed from being passive by receiving and accepting the content given to us by the media to an active role where the audience participates in the content creation. Things such as video creation on YouTube and blogs such as this as a place for people to share their opinions and thoughts have become wildly popular. However the most important creation from this change in role of the audience is Twitter.
Twitter has become an instant news source for society. In comparison to legacy media where news can take hours and even days to be reported, twitter reports it within seconds. This has led to a rise in citizen journalism. The audience has become the creator as anyone with a smart phone and a twitter can report on an event instantly. This has led to many legacy media outlets using twitter as their sources rather than sending journalists out to the event. It means that almost anywhere at any time there is someone to report on an event. We have moved from passively accepting whatever the media industry reported to becoming the reporters and being actively involved in the content creation.
Hayden Skates 
I really enjoyed reading your article! You defined how the role of the audience has changed very clearly and used great examples! I completely agree with what you said about people moving from simply accepting what the media tells us to actually being involved in the content creation. Social media (in particular, Twitter, like you said) has definitely allowed anyone to publish posts within seconds, giving anyone the opportunity to be a reporter! I also love the meme!
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The fact that news now relies on twitter as a viable source is really interesting. Will reporters soon become redundant and will prosumers in the public take their role? Is journalism even a professional role at this stage? Love the meme and how it explained this!
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