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

Kromosomer - an experience in shared creative work and expression

This article is a reflection on the Kromosomer project, a storytelling performance held in both physical and virtual worlds, which was implemented and disseminated through digital, virtual and social media. The aim of the whole project was to search for an expression that could combine physical experience with virtual world. The project was also looking at how to deal with social inclusion. The motto for this enterprise was the traditional Norwegian legend characters who represent “the other,” the “not-normal,” as a pretext to address the question of alterity. These legends’ characters were re-created as avatars in the metaverse, where they were also freely distributed in virtual installations as unfinished artifacts, open to mutation. In the Second Life virtual world, participants could pick up avatars and create their own stories through snapshots, machinima, etc. The physical performance later used these participants/produsers’ interpretations and narratives of the avatars in stage design and in the storytelling performance itself. We describe and analyse the main work method used for this project — a shared creative process of collective and distributed creativity. The project encompasses different forms of expression therefore we will also focus on how metaphors constitute themselves as paramount to our way of workin

The Reception of Professional and Non Professional Subtitles. Agency, Awareness and Change

The article offers insights into media content consumption, especially through subtitling, from the point of view of the users\u2019 awareness and agency as key factors for change. Starting from a redefinition of audience in relation to today\u2019s media and their viewers\u2019 proactive attitude (prosumption), the article reports on an experiment aiming to test the comprehension and appreciation of professional and non-professional subtitles for two popular series by Netflix, namely Black Mirror and Narcos. In its conclusions, the article reflects on changes in viewing habits as inspired, among other factors, by the viewers' active participation in the making of subtitles

Opportunities for content co-creation in digital native newspapers

La participación de los usuarios en la creación de productos informativos aumenta el valor de los medios de comunicación e incrementa la satisfacción de los cocreadores. La involucración de los lectores afecta en especial a los procesos productivos, aunque sin desmerecer la implicación en el desarrollo y en el marketing, e implica democratización de la información, experiencias personalizadas y puntos de vista diversos que favorecen el pluralismo informativo. En esta investigación se analiza una muestra internacional compuesta por cinco diarios nativos digitales para comprobar en qué medida permiten a sus públicos cocrear contenidos. Se utiliza una metodología exploratoria para comprobar la existencia de espacios concebidos para la cocreación. Se confeccionan unas escalas de evaluación del grado de utilidad de la idoneidad de esos sitios y se examina su accesibilidad desde la perspectiva del empoderamiento ciudadano, la apertura de contenidos y la arquitectura web. Los resultados demuestran que los grados de implantación alcanzados por los diarios son más bajos de lo que pudiera esperarse de medios puramente digitales y alertan sobre la necesidad de idear nuevas fórmulas de cocreación e implicar más a las audiencias en la generación de contenidos, al tiempo que se hace necesario revisar con profundidad cuál es su papel como fuentes. Las limitaciones al empoderamiento ciudadano derivadas de la ausencia de publicidad en los modelos de negocio restringen los accesos en abierto y las jerarquías web obstaculizan las colaboraciones. Se diagnostica, asimismo, la necesidad de que los ciudadanos puedan identificar con claridad qué productos han sido elaborados por periodistas y cuáles por cocreadoresThe participation of readers in the creation of information products increases the value of the media and the satisfaction of co-creators. Such involvement of the public especially affects productive processes, although without ignoring their participation in development and marketing, and implies a democratization of information, personalized experiences, and diverse points of view that favor informative pluralism. In this research we analyze an international sample of five digital native newspapers to verify the extent to which they allow their audiences to co-create content. We use an exploratory methodology to verify the existence of spaces designed for co-creation and prepare evaluation scales for the level of utility of these sites and examine their accessibility from the perspective of citizen empowerment, openness of content, and web architecture. The results show that the degree of implementation achieved by newspapers is lower than may be expected for purely digital media and provide a warning about the need to devise new formulas for co-creation and involve audiences more in generating content, while also indicating the need to review in depth the role of readers as sources. The limitations on citizen empowerment that derive from the absence of advertising in business models restrict open access, while web hierarchies hamper collaboration. The need for citizens to clearly identify which products have been produced by journalists versus co-creators is also diagnosedEste artículo está elaborado en el marco del proyecto “Cibermedios nativos digitales en España: formatos narrativos y estrategia móvil (RTI2018-093346-B-C33)”, del Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, cofinanciado por el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Feder)S

Small acts of audience engagement interrupting content flows

Chapter in Report; This report has been produced by the CEDAR network which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to run between 2015-2018

Características editoriais dos conteúdos noticiosos da secção de lifestyle do Público com maior popularidade no website e nas páginas de facebook do jornal

As forças tecnológicas das últimas décadas mudaram o mundo do jornalismo. Com a chegada da Internet, as instituições têm necessidade de “fazer mais com menos” e de descobrir novas formas de financiamento como assinaturas ou estratégias de vendas baseadas em medias sociais. Estes, sobretudo as redes sociais como o Facebook, ofereceram novas plataformas onde se podem publicar notícias e onde o público pode interagir com o conteúdo oferecido em tempo real e de forma direta. Não se deve esquecer que, na era digital, o consequente aparecimento dos media sociais e de todas as plataformas que os acompanham intensificaram uma cultura orientada para o entretenimento e consumo, afetando o jornalismo de lifestyle. Neste sentido, o presente relatório de estágio pretende analisar a eficácia do Facebook como guia de tráfego para o website do jornal Público. Com este objetivo irá tirar-se partido do estágio realizado na mesma organização e serão analisadas as características editoriais dos textos mais populares da secção Culto (secção de lifestyle) no website, na página de Facebook do Público e na página de Facebook do Culto. Para responder às perguntas de investigação utilizou-se uma metodologia mista que integra uma análise do conteúdo de lifestyle do Público durante seis semanas estruturadas e entrevistas a seis profissionais do mesmo jornal. Foram entrevistados o responsável pelas redes sociais, a editora da secção de lifestyle, um dos editores online, um dos gestores de homepage e a data analyst/scientist. Os guiões correspondentes foram desenvolvidos a partir de conhecimentos adquiridos na revisão de literatura que retrata o ii panorama atual do jornalismo e a utilização dos media sociais no jornalismo (em geral) e no jornalismo de lifestyle. Por fim, acrescenta-se que a relevância prática da presente investigação prende-se no facto desta conseguir ajudar os jornalistas na sua rotina dentro da redação. Já a nível académico conseguiu perceber-se que, de facto, o Facebook tem um papel preponderante enquanto intermediário dos leitores até ao website do PúblicoThe technological forces which dominated the last few decades changed completely the world of journalism. With the massive dissemination of use of the Internet, the media institutions felt the need to do “less with more” and to find new forms of financing such as annual signatures and sales strategies based on social media. The latter, especially the social network Facebook, provided new platforms where the users have both the possibility of publishing news and interacting in real time and in a direct way with the news content that is being offered. Also, one cannot forget that, in the digital regime, the emergence of social media and of all that digital platforms that come along with them had the effect of directing culture towards entertainment and consumerism, therefore enhancing the social importance lifestyle journalism. In that sense, the present research objective is to analyse the efficiency of Facebook as a channel directing the users to Público’s website. My professional internship at Público constitutes the axs of this research, in which the main editorial features of the most popular articles published in the sub-section “Culto” (a part of the main section “Lifestyle”), in Público’s website, its Facebook page and “Culto”’s Facebook page. In order to respond to the questions posed by this research, we used a mix methodology including both an analysis of Público’s “lifestyle” contents within a frame of time of six non-consecutive weeks was well as interviews to six professional collaborators of the same newspaper. The interviewees were: the main responsible of the department of social networks, the editor of the section “Lifestyle”, one of the online editors, one of the homepage’s editors and of the data analysts. The interview’s scripts were elaborated using the knowledge acquired during the period of research, oriented to the literature on the condition of journalism in the twentieth-century and the adaptation of journalism to the world of social media and lifestyle journalism. Lastly, it is important to note that the aim of the present research is to provide pertinent information which journalists can recur to in their professional practice. In a more academic level and in generic terms, the most important conclusion extracted was that Facebook works in fact as an effective channel directing digital readers to the journal’s websit