Produsage as experience and interpretation

This article examines the changes in audience discourses that emerge at the intersection between the classical idea of the audience being active in interpretation of media texts, and new forms of audience engagement in text production and distribution. Focusing on produsage, a term that is frequently used to describe audiences’ participation in online ecology, we argue for produsage to be conceptualized with regard to two aspects that are important for audience research: firstly, produsage as a form of relating to texts, and secondly, produsage as an experience in co-creation of texts. This overview of theoretical positions and empirical research is used to identify (in)stabilities in the conceptualization of audiences, thus arguing for greater recognition of produsage as a form of users’ experience and an interpretative act, rather than an alternative model of production, which will allow audience research to better account for nuanced and varied degrees of produsage

Collective Intelligence - Consenting to Conscient Consultation

Google, Facebook, Amazon, Wikipedia, Spotify, Netflix, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Disney, Uber, Tinder, etc.: ours is the generation that has got a World Wide Web to their fingertips; in addition, we often feel like the net has analogously become a kind of add-on to our minds, i.e., an extension to our intellectual capacity. Browsing on the internet, emailing, skyping, googling, chatting, posting texts, photos or videos on social media, whilst interacting with contents that can be as informative as the news broadcast and as entertaining as playing videogames or streaming music, films, and series via applications (apps) downloaded on smart devices have thus been gradually becoming some of our generation’s daily activities of choice. Along these lines, whilst meaning to conceptualise a method for studying an alternative to our present-day prescriptive educational practices, I elaborate a constructivist approach towards the transformative paradigm of a transmedia-interactive produsage. That is, in this MA Thesis I propose the produsage of a cyclic program in which educators could cooperatively consent on a conscient consultation of their prodused contents in a knowledge democratisation exercise. These experts could thereby participate on the mediation, moderation, and mediatisation of a (n)ethnographic e-volution on the road to a sociocultural empowerment and a civic emancipation movement, striving for critical reforms that would pursue the autonomous automatisation of self-regulatory socio-cultures. Comparatively, from this study’s standpoint, the arguably participative factor of the existing Participatory Web resembles the speculative political empowerment triggered by the act of voting for a political candidate: because, in both cases, the options presented to the public regularly are pre-established by the few de facto empowered decision-makers, like e.g., the heads of political parties and coalitions on one hand, or content writers and producers on another. Alternatively, in this thesis I will look into concealed alternatives for (or, preferably, against) what has gradually developed into the modus operandi of media and technology businesses: the monetisation of information by the commodification of produsers. More specifically, I hope to analyse if, inasmuch as ICTs have been democratising knowledge, they also have been contributing to the prospective quest for more maximalist, and collective, forms of participation during our (Western societies’) history. Notwithstanding, this thesis is a theoretical study, and therefore, here I will not present an empirical example of such educative interaction: which I deliberately call eduraction. Appropriately, because the academia continuously gains new insights with the intersection and compilation of our human cognition, – viz., with our collective intelligence (CI) – I understand that constructivist edutainment and pedagogical participation practices can be interchangeably employed towards a civic engagement – as presented in this thesis’ results. Accordingly, the discussion that I intend to incite with this research theoretically refers to the possible implementation of artefacts for mediatising our civic participation, towards the radical sense of democracy via a critical constructivist education. In short, here, I aim to explain how interactive media create collective intelligence, by analysing what decentralisation of power is engendered by produsage and why edutaining praxis ought to spur a civic participation. As a result, in this study I will hypothesise the emergence of a 21st century conscientisation praxis. All in all, educators are enthusiasts, connoisseurs, collecting, curating, collaborating, criticising, converging, and creating contents that synthesise and might materialise meaningful methods and manners for systematically reasoning, negotiating, or promoting a collective, constructivist, and perchance transformative and participative (democratic) utopia. Ultimately, instructors are a medium of knowledge; and be that as it may, nobody knows all, but the sum of all known by each of us is all the knowledge of our multi-millenary humanity. Thence, we ought to find ways of collaboratively connecting the dots with our bits and pieces of information. Until very recently, many considered the efforts for conceptualising networks, in which meaningful thematics could be broadly discussed (by people from different ethnicities all over the world), just as naïve as utopic. Indeed, it is still debatable whether interactive media, in the current state of Web 2.0, do provide such effectual possibilities to its users. On the other hand, it is with the purpose of adding to this debate that I endeavour to investigate quiescent means for collaboratively working on a critical upgrade to the denotation of democracy. As a matter of fact, technology, etymologically, is the study of crafts; and this MA Thesis endeavours to deal with the sociocultural factors and artefacts that we create to assist our kind’s evolving signification of civilisation. With this in mind, for concluding this thesis with a theorisation on yet untapped possibilities within produsage, I look into some of the latest media developments which could possibly contribute to meaningful improvements on our practices of participative citizenship. Then, in such hyperlinked hypothesis, educative matters of various thematic universes could be cooperatively taught by doyens, through networked lectures, with new hypertexts being added to the storylines of their lessons inasmuch as they were being produced and curated, as a critique to divergent interpretations on those phenomena previously presented via a unique interactive-video production. In that event, interactive media could create a Collective Intelligence, by means of an edutaining praxis which could spur a civic participation for democratising knowledge via produsage – in turn, (re-)creating and cyclically transforming our collective intelligence. Like this, such media type would theoretically serve as a wikinomical platform

Exploring geolocation governance perspectives through the study of appropriation and collective action

Ce mémoire de maîtrise a été rédigé dans l’objectif d’explorer une inégalité. Une inégalité dans les pratiques liées à la saisie et l’exploitation des données utilisateur dans la sphère des technologies et services Web, plus particulièrement dans la sphère des GIS (Geographic Information Systems). En 2014, de nombreuses entreprises exploitent les données de leurs utilisateurs afin d’améliorer leurs services ou générer du revenu publicitaire. Du côté de la sphère publique et gouvernementale, ce changement n’a pas été effectué. Ainsi, les gouvernements fédéraux et municipaux sont démunis de données qui permettraient d’améliorer les infrastructures et services publics. Des villes à travers le monde essayent d’améliorer leurs services et de devenir « intelligentes » mais sont dépourvues de ressources et de savoir faire pour assurer une transition respectueuse de la vie privée et des souhaits des citadins. Comment une ville peut-elle créer des jeux de données géo-référencés sans enfreindre les droits des citadins ? Dans l’objectif de répondre à ces interrogations, nous avons réalisé une étude comparative entre l’utilisation d’OpenStreetMap (OSM) et de Google Maps (GM). Grâce à une série d’entretiens avec des utilisateurs de GM et d’OSM, nous avons pu comprendre les significations et les valeurs d’usages de ces deux plateformes. Une analyse mobilisant les concepts de l’appropriation, de l’action collective et des perspectives critiques variées nous a permis d’analyser nos données d’entretiens pour comprendre les enjeux et problèmes derrière l’utilisation de technologies de géolocalisation, ainsi que ceux liés à la contribution des utilisateurs à ces GIS. Suite à cette analyse, la compréhension de la contribution et de l’utilisation de ces services a été recontextualisée pour explorer les moyens potentiels que les villes ont d’utiliser les technologies de géolocalisation afin d’améliorer leurs infrastructures publiques en respectant leurs citoyens.This master’s thesis was started to explore an inequality. An inequality in the way users of mobile web services hand over data, and an inequality in the way this data are exploited. As it becomes commonplace for web companies to exploit their users’ data to improve their services or generate advertising revenue, the public domain is left in the dark, with little data to work with to improve public services. Notably, as cities are increasingly striving to become ‘smart’, a lack of data and ethical ways in which to exploit what little data exists is becoming increasingly problematic. How can a city create georeferenced data to improve its infrastructures? How can this data be exploited whilst respecting citizens’ privacy and security? Through a comparative study of the use of OpenStreetMap (OSM), an open-source mapping platform, and Google Maps, we have aimed to understand possible future uses of GPS technologies by government bodies. Through a series of interviews with OSM and Google Maps users, we have apprehended why users choose to use and contribute to a platform, and not to another. Using the concepts of appropriation and collective action, as well as critical perspectives from the study of immaterial capitalism, this data was then analyzed. This enabled us to understand the underlying issues behind use and contribution practices in the GIS sector. This understanding was then recontextualized in order to understand what government bodies could do to create ethical smart cities that take into consideration the preferences and concerns of the citizens these cities are increasingly designed to serve

La participation sur les espaces de contenus générés par les utilisateurs, une exploitation collaborative

En partant des notions de prosumer et de crowdsourcing, nous montrons en quoi la théorie critique permet de saisir les mutations des formes de participation en ligne. Nous argumentons que le prosuming s’inscrit dans une logique de récupération capitalistique de la participation dans une logique de délocalisation du travail en dehors des murs des entreprises. Ce texte construit sur un débat sur les catégories de l’analyse marxiste traditionnelle que sont le temps de travail et le travail salarié (Fuchs, 2010, 2012 ; Arvidsson et Colleoni, 2012). Nous cherchons à montrer que l’insertion des formes de prosuming dans les stratégies commerciales des entreprises procède d’un processus de liquéfaction des formes du travail dans le capitalisme avancé et doit donc être analysé comme une forme de travail.Building on the notions of prosumer and crowdsourcing, this article shows how critical theory allows to grasp the mutations of participatives forms online. We argue that prosuming proceeds from a capitalistic recuperation of participation in a logic of delocalization of work outside the web enterprise's wall. This article builts on a debate on the traditional marxist categories of labor-time and wage-labor (Fuchs, 2010, 2012 ; Arvidsson et Colleoni, 2012). We aim to show that the insertion of the different forms of prosuming in commercial strategies proceeds for a mouvement of liquefaction of labor forms in the context of advanced capitalism, and hence, should be analazed as labor.Usando los conceptos de prosumer y crowdsourcing, argumentamos cómo la teoría crítica captura mutaciones en formas de participación en línea. Sostenemos que el prosuming es parte de una lógica de recuperación del capital de la participación en una lógica de deslocalización de trabajo a fuera de los muros de las empresas. Este texto se basa sobre un debate de las categorías de análisis marxista tradicional que son el tiempo de trabajo y el trabajo asalariado (Fuchs, 2010, 2012 ; Arvidsson y Colleoni, 2012). Buscamos demostrar que la inclusión de las formas de prosuming en las estrategias de negocio se debe a un proceso de licuefacción de las formas de trabajo en el capitalismo avanzado y debe ser analizada como una forma de trabajo

Understanding the Role of Goals in Competitive Crowdsourcing Project Selection

Tournament based crowdsourcing, in which multiple individuals or teams compete on given tasks and compensation is based on winning submissions, requires crowd members to carefully consider their choice of task and allocation of resources. In this paper we explore two factors that potentially impact crowdsourcing task selection, namely perceived ability and perceived competition. We further explore a moderating effect of goal orientation on task participation intention. Our results show a positive link between perceived ability and participation intention, and a negative link between perceived competition and participation intention. Both effects were found to be stronger for those with performance orientation than for those with mastery orientation. Our results provide an important insight for crowdsourcing platforms in terms of balancing demand and submissions for competition to ensure all tasks are fulfilled

Une infrastructure élusive. Aménagements cyclables et troubles de la description dans OpenStreetMap

National audienceThis article investigates the practice of participative mapping by examining the creation of a geographic database on infrastructure for bicycles. Based on the exploration of OpenStreetMap discussions, the authors draw up an inventory of problems that amateur cartographers encounter with regard to description. Prior to the stabilization of categories, the contributors' doubts reveal an elusive urban infrastructure that contrasts with the system which is ordered and structured by policies. These doubts crystallize around three levels of resistance to the creation of a database: first, in discussions, infrastructure for bicycles seems to be heterogeneous and changing; second, it is already organized in versions that are difficult to link up to one another; and, third, it is actualized in users' practices that are difficult to break away from. By limiting the analysis to problems of description, this article highlights a particular aspect of the contributors' experience: collective inquiry at its most open. In parallel with a perspective that favours agreement, the role of procedures in debates, or the contributors' motivation, this approach serves to document the phase of doubt and trial characterizing exploration as such, before order is established.Cet article examine la pratique de la cartographie participative en étudiant la fabrique d'une base de données géographiques qui recense les aménagements cyclables. À travers l'exploration de liste de discussions d'OpenStreetMap, il propose un inventaire des troubles de la description que rencontrent les cartographes amateurs. En amont de la stabilisation des catégories, les doutes des contributeurs donnent à voir une infrastructure urbaine élusive, en contraste avec son caractère ordonné et structuré par des politiques publiques. Ces doutes se cristallisent autour de trois niveaux de résistance à la mise en base de données. Dans les discussions, les aménagements cyclables apparaissent hétérogènes et changeants ; déjà ordonnés dans des versions difficiles à articuler ; actualisés dans des pratiques d'usagers dont il est difficile de se détacher. En arrêtant le mouvement de l'analyse aux troubles de la description, cet article met en lumière un aspect particulier de l'expérience des contributeurs : l'enquête collective dans ses moments les plus ouverts. En paralèlle d'une perspective qui privilégierait la dynamique de l'accord, le rôle des procédures dans les débats, ou encore la motivation des contributeurs, cette posture permet de documenter le temps du doute et l'épreuve que constitue, avant la mise en ordre, l'exploration en tant que telle

Kujutletavate auditooriumite tajumine sotsiaalmeediapädevuste osana

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneDoktoritöö eesmärk on uurida, kuidas inimesed tajuvad ja konstrueerivad sotsiaalmeediasuhtluses oma kujutletavaid auditooriume ning millised kesksed sotsiaalmeediapädevused auditooriumi tajumisega seonduvad. Lisaks käsitletakse töös loovuurimismeetodi metodoloogilisi võimalusi ning uurija rolli tundlike teemade uurimisel. Sotsiaalmeedias toimub pidev ja massiline tehnoloogia poolt vahendatud ühisjälgimine, kus kõik kasutajad jälgivad kõiki. Väär ettekujutus enda sotsiaalvõrgustikus tehtud postituste auditooriumist on põhjustanud mitmeid kurikuulsaks saanud nn. avaliku häbistamise juhtumeid, mis on toonud postitajale kaasa eraelulisi või tööalaseid probleeme. Sotsiaalvõrgustikes infot jagades keskendutakse reeglina kujutletava auditooriumi „ideaalsete lugejate“ ootustele ja eeldatavatele reaktsioonidele, st vastuvõtjatele, kes jagavad sõnumi saatja poolt tajutud norme ja väärtusi. Sageli omavad infole ligipääsu ka „košmaarsed lugejad“, kes ei pruugi maailma mõtestada sarnasel viisil ja seega tõlgendavad saadetud sõnumeid ka oodatust erineval viisil. Kvalitatiivseid meetodeid kasutades uurisin teemat noorte ning nende košmaarsete lugejate, õpetajate kaudu. Noorte jaoks on tehnoloogia poolt vahendatud sotsiaalsus normaalsus, mille juurde kuulub ka enda kohta kõikvõimaliku info jagamine ning vigade tegemine. Ootuspäraselt ei mõista õpetajad nooremate eagruppide poolt omaks võetud uusi norme täiel määral ning sildistavad noori üheltpoolt „võimekateks diginoorteks“, kelle oskustega võistelda ei suudeta, kuid samaaegselt ka „hukkaläinud nooruseks“, kelle online-käitumine tekitab hämmingut. Kui õpetajad eelistavad eelkõige privaatsust kaitsvaid strateegiaid, mis põhinevad enesetsensuuril ja info leviku kontrollimise püüdel, siis noorte praktikad on mitmekesisemad ning kohati eelistatakse info peitmise asemel peita hoopis sõnumi tähendust või andmeid hägustada. Doktoritöös on välja toodud alapädevusteks jagunevad laiemad sotsiaalmeediapädevused, mis hõlmavad endas nii teadlikkust auditooriumite erinäolisusest, infole ligipääsu võimaldavaid ja piiravaid strateegiaid kui ka iseenda rolli mõtestamist erinevate massilise ühisjälgimise osalisena, oskust teatud hetkedel astuda auditooriumi liikme rollist teadlikult väljaThe aim of this thesis is to explore how people perceive and construct their imagined audiences on social media and which social media literacies are central to the process. In addition, the methodological approach of creative research methods and researcher’s role in studying sensitive topic is analysed. Due to living in technologically mediated continuous mutual surveillance we have witnessed the rise of problematic cases that have sprouted from situations where one has misjudged the size and expectations of their online audience, ending in massive online public shaming and negative consequences in private or professional sphere. When sharing information on social networking sites, people tend to focus on the expectations and anticipated reactions of the „ideal readers“ of their imagined audiences, those perceived to be similar to ourselves. However, „nightmare readers“ who usually decode the messages significantly differently, will also have access to this information. Two groups’ perceptions – the young and their nightmare readers, the teachers – are at the heart of this thesis. For the young, technologically saturated sociality is the new norm, including the disclosure of various types of information about themselves and inevitability of making mistakes online. Interviewed teachers have difficulties in understanding these new norms and label the youth as a „digital generation“ with superior digital skills. At the same time they express juvenoia, the classic „youth is doomed“, based on young people’s online behavior. When teachers have mostly made use of privacy protecting strategies that are based on self-censorship, moderate use and trying to control the spread of the information, the repertoire of strategies for the youth is noticeably wider, often aiming to hide the meaning of the information (e.g. social steganography, shift of responsibility, data obfuscation) rather than information itself. The social media literacies necessary for successful navigation of imagined audiences include being aware of different audiences and their shifting norms, the knowledge and use of audience management strategies and the reaction and restriction of self as audience

Commodifying the followers or challenging the mainstream? The two-sided potential of curvy fashion bloggers

Digital influencers and fashion blogging are the subject of a growing interest as a pattern of both production and consumption of digital culture. This essay examines the process of co-evolution of digital influencers and audiences by taking into consideration the work of female curvy fashion bloggers. It is argued that, although plus-size social media influencers may play a counter-hegemonic role by conveying alternative narratives regarding body and beauty, many curvy blogs are not significantly different to "standard" female outfit blogs, in which an audience is commodified as a source of material income and symbolic capital. Digital influencers, therefore, work as examples of co-opted audiences able to enhance further processes of co-option. The article also studies the social media influencers' relationships with their audiences, focusing attention on the manner through which the blogger produces, develops and maintains this relationship. Cultural studies and political economy perspectives on public are discussed to contextualize the analysis of curvy blogs, as fashion studies have so far shown a limited interest in audience as an issue. The qualitative empirical material of the essay, made of 15 semi-structured interviews with female curvy bloggers and the content analysis of 40 curvy blogs, is analysed according to a grounded theory framework. Three main theoretical dimensions are discussed: the blogger's career, success and professionalization, their faceted role in the process of audience shaping and the (reframed) narratives of beauty and body they spread. Drawing on a typology of curvy bloggers, the antinomy between "commodifying the audience" and "challenging the mainstream" is presented as a misleading way of interpreting the phenomenon, as the commercialisation of attention and the engagement of followers work as powerful and connected poles of a continuum

Participatory Practices and Journalism: The Impact of User-Generated Content in Making News

Given the new possibilities for internet users creation of media content, this dissertation investigates the repercussions of these non-professional media production activities in journalism. More specifically, this dissertation is an ethnographic analysis of the effects of different participatory practices in newswork. Drawing from theories on the sociology of news production and Brun’s conceptualization of produsage, it examines how journalists of three Spanish news organizations deal, in their daily routines, with user-generated content (UGC) created within and outside of the domain of these news outlets. Using the industrial construction of audiences as a theoretical framework, this research also deals with the implications of journalists’ integration of UGC in the process of making news for their views about their audiences’ roles. In addition, this dissertation explores how the participatory practices held by audience members have impacted journalists’ understandings of their function as gatekeepers. In analysing these matters, I have employed a triangulation of methods: newsroom observations, in-depth interviews with 33 journalists, and textual analysis of news media homepages. This dissertation concludes that UGC are relevant materials whose use raises significant issues for journalists. Moreover, this study argues that different approaches and ways of dealing with UGC mark news organizations’ understandings of the practice of journalism as well as their definitions of professional ideologies. In regard to the audiences, this research has found that audiences currently play a relevant role once a news story has already been published, since they hold the power of acting as proof-readers, fact-checkers, and quality controllers, questioning journalists’ decisions at different levels. Lastly, this dissertation indicates that despite these changes, most journalists still believe that they are the final gatekeepers of information. However, even if journalists feel they are still in charge of deciding what news is, they may fear audiences more than they used to. These results add new layers of complexity to previous studies, proposing that since the life cycle of news seems to occur through a two-step process (before and after a news story has been published), future researchers should consider extending their analysis beyond the newsroom