contentless medium?

"The electric light escapes attention as a communication medium just because it has no 'content.' And it makes it invaluable instance of how people fail to study media at all."  This quote comes from Marshall McLuhan's book - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Although his focus was on 'old' media, his idea can be easily translated to new media too.

Is there any medium without the content? Focusing on this question for quite some time I started to think that such thing is impossible in new media. However, at one point I realized that I was thinking only about the Internet and things that are accessible thanks to it (blogs, online games, social networks, etc.). But we need a device to be able to use the Internet... And then the idea of computer having no content of its own came to my mind.
Nowadays, when our PC isn't connected to the Internet it seems to be useless. There are not many activities one can do without the precious cyperspace. Checking e-mail? Not possible. Reading news? No. Maybe at least talking to friends online? Not a chance. There are also games, right? Computer doesn't really provide them. They aren't present on your hard drive on the spot, you need to put them there. And often the case is that despite the fact one has their game on a CD, the Internet connection is necessary for playing. And if not necessary, there are some extras available online or after registering the game. Even working with the use of the computer involves installing a software. Of course there are some text editors provided but their quality is poor in comparision to the professional ones.

This example may be not as obvious and as clear as McLuhan's but there is definitely something to it. Let everybody ask themselves a question : "Don't I feel powerless without the Internet on my computer?" I'm sure that in most cases the answer is positive.

participatory culture

Over the past few years the notion of culture within media has been gradually changing. When the mass media were introduced, the focus was mainly on 'consuming' them. At the beginning there was no way of interaction between senders and receivers. Often, the definitions themselves say that mass media are to deliver information to huge amount of people with no immediate feedback given. The situation started to change with the arrival of new media.

In 21st century participatory culture was born. The Internet is being built everyday and everybody can become an active builder. Forums, blogs, chats, social networks - they all exist because of the users' content. It is possible for an average person to start recording videos, put them on Youtube and make money out of it. It is possible for a man to read opinions on tyres and for a woman to share her thoughts about a new lipstick. Participation is free and easy, all one has to have is the willingness to be a part of culture.
But the Internet is not the only platform for displaying one's contribution. Users are creators of commercial culture too. Seeing that "The Hunger Games" was such a success, the producers decided to create as many parts as possible. Basing on the popularity of the first movie, it became obvious that the others to come would have even more viewers. Thanks to the network sites, people are able to evaluate the films and express their opinions. Those who are responsible for creating movies can follow the trends and come up with an idea of a sure blockbuster. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages of such proceedings but it is the subject for a longer discussion.

The shift that took place is from consumer to participatory culture. The thing to highlight here is the idea of interactivity. New media are all about being accessible to everyone. Deciding on and shaping the content is one of the primary goals of today's media culture. Even the 'old' media try to catch up with the progress and invent ways for people to be an active part in the creating process.