ABSTRACT
Creating content allows users to understand the decisions made in producing the material they in turn consume online. This chapter is about the exciting possibilities and the everyday ethics of creating students' own media messages. It demonstrates what navigation as authorship is, describes how positionality affects message creation, and explains the factors that influence message context. The chapter helps students to understand what appropriation is, apply fair use to remixing a song or repurposing a poem, identify various approaches to building an online audience, and memorize the author’s media creation guideposts. Digital media in particular abounds with possibilities for creative communication. The most adept self-promotion happens on social media platforms when students have developed a social media presence separate from their promotion. Creation of media has many, many purposes, and one of them is audience development.
