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CONTEXTUALISING AUTHOR-AUDIENCE CONVERGENCES

2011; Routledge; Volume: 25; Issue: 4-5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09502386.2011.600537

1466-4348

Nico Carpentier,

Social Media and Politics

Abstract New media discourses are often engulfed by a variety of claims that emphasize their specificity. We can find the formulation of strong claims of novelty and uniqueness, in combination with processes of forgetfulness in relation to the societal roles of old media technologies. This article starts with a discussion on (new) audience theory, mapping and structuring the diversity of audience articulations with a focus on two of its main dimensions: the active/passive and the interaction/participation dimension. This mapping will then be used to problematize and critique the strong claims of novelty and uniqueness that 'new' participatory technologies have generated. Moreover, this theoretical mapping will also show that audience theory turns out to be quite stable in its capacity to facilitate the understanding of the diversity of relations between humans and media technology. Three claims are scrutinized: the shift from one-to-many to many-to-many communication; the re-articulation of the audience into the 'produser'; and the convergence of top-down business with bottom-up production and consumption practices. Each of these claims is critically evaluated, in combination with a case study discussion that shows the complexities and contradictions of these claims. These three case studies are the BBC's Video Nation project in the UK, a reception study of nine films on the Belgian online video-sharing platform 16plus, and formal participatory (alternative and community media) organizations. Keywords: audience theoryparticipationinteractionnoveltyconvergence cultureproduser Notes 1. For a discussion of the micro/macro dimension, see Carpentier (2004 Carpentier , N. 2004 The identity of the television audience: towards the articulation of the television audience as a discursive field , in Het on(be)grijpbare publiek [The ungraspable audience:] een communicatiewetenschappelijke exploratie van publieksonderzoek [a Communication studies exploration of audience research] , N. Carpentier , C. Pauwels & O. Van Oost , Brussels : VUBPress pp. 95 – 122 . [Google Scholar]). 2. It should be added that Jenkins does distinguish between interactivity and participation (Jenkins 2006 Jenkins, H. 2006. Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide, New York: New York University Press. [Google Scholar], p. 305) and that he (in some rare cases) uses the concepts of participation and interaction next to each other, leaving some room for the idea that they are indeed different concepts (Jenkins 2006 Jenkins, H. 2006. Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide, New York: New York University Press. [Google Scholar], p. 110, 137). 3. The social importance of the fourth component, the participation in society through the interaction with media content, should not be underestimated, but it remains a more minimalist form of participation. For this reason, a grey arrow is used to indicate this component in the Figure 2 model. 4. To the regret of some, see Keen (2007 Keen, A. 2007. The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture, New York: Currency. [Google Scholar]). 5. Of course, care needs to be taken not to over-stretch this signifier either. 6. Video Nation material was in this phase in some cases still being broadcast on television (see BBC 2010 BBC 2010 'Video Nation Today' , [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/history/today.shtml (accessed 15 July 2010). [Google Scholar]). 7. In the case of new media participation, this has partially been compensated by the attention for the 'lurker' in online communities, but the pejorative sound of this concept might be more of an indication of the problem than a solution. 8. For a discussion of this project's methodology, see Carpentier (2009 Carpentier, N. 2009. Participation is not enough. The conditions of possibility of mediated participatory practices. European Journal of Communication, 24(4): 407–420. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).