Participatory Culture

Bufflaxed superdiversity: Representing the Other on YouTube

by Sirpa Leppänen

Co-authored with Ari Häkkinen. Pre-print version.

In this article we investigate how the oriental Other – increasingly a superdiverse being – is represented in the... more In this article we investigate how the oriental Other – increasingly a superdiverse being – is represented in the context of translocal YouTube culture. More specifically, we look at videos which through subtitling and editorial commentary entextualise and resemiotise the figure of the Other to western audiences. We will have a close look at three typical ‘buffalaxed’ videos and investigate how each of them constructs images of the Other that are ambivalent and multilayered.
On the basis of our analysis we will argue that, while the videos repeat and remodify aspects of the stereotypical and discriminatory Western heteronormative metanarratives of the Orient, they also depict the Other in ways in which his/her otherness is no longer the simple anti-thesis of ‘Us’ – the western subject – but, occasionally, very much like ‘Us’.

Elsewhere Collaborative: Museum Collections

by Stacey Marie Garcia

The Tension between Professional Control and Open Participation: Journalism and its Boundaries

by Seth Lewis

Lewis, S. C. (in press). The Tension between Professional Control and Open Participation: Journalism and its Boundaries. Information, Communication & Society. (Expected publication date: 2012)

Amid growing difficulties for professionals generally, media workers in particular are negotiating the increasingly... more Amid growing difficulties for professionals generally, media workers in particular are negotiating the increasingly contested boundary space between producer and user in the digital environment. This article, based on a review of the academic literature, explores that larger tension transforming the creative industries by extrapolating from the case of journalism—namely, the ongoing tension between professional control and open participation in the news process. Firstly, the sociology of professions, with its emphasis on boundary maintenance, is used to examine journalism as boundary work, profession, and ideology—each contributing to the formation of journalism’s professional logic of control over content. Secondly, by considering the affordances and cultures of digital technologies, the article articulates open participation and its ideology. Thirdly, and against this backdrop of ideological incompatibility, a review of empirical literature finds that journalists have struggled to reconcile this key tension, caught in the professional impulse toward one-way publishing control even as media become a multi-way network. Yet, emerging research also suggests the possibility of a hybrid logic of adaptability and openness—an ethic of participation—emerging to resolve this tension going forward. The article concludes by pointing to innovations in analytical frameworks and research methods that may shed new light on the producer–user tension in journalism.

Cine en abierto: formas y estrategias de producción basadas en la participación.

by Antoni Roig Telo

Publicado en el número 13 de la revista L'Atalante (http://www.cineforumatalante.com/publicaciones_index.html)

En este artículo, intentaré esbozar algunas posibles respuestas a las dificultades existentes para acotar cómo se... more En este artículo, intentaré esbozar algunas posibles respuestas a las dificultades existentes para acotar cómo se articulan mecanismos basados en la participación en la creación cinematográfica y, en última instancia, qué valor aportan a un conjunto de procesos creativos de tan compleja naturaleza. fruto del análisis de distintas formas de producción participativas que han configurado uno de mis principales intereses de investigación en los últimos años, siendo consciente que quedarán muchas cuestiones en el aire y que, inevitablemente, surgirán nuevas preguntas.

Para ello, empezaré con algunas cuestiones generales para pasar a identificar una serie de dinámicas culturales que a mi entender sirven para trazar los distintos elementos que alimentan a los proyectos de raíz o apariencia participativa, lo que denomino las distintas formas de apertura cultural. A continuación me detendré en algunos conceptos clave que en ocasiones llevan a confusión para finalmente apuntar a distintos casos-ejemplo que, a mi juicio, resultan altamente representativos de las posibilidades y limitaciones de las formas de producción basadas en la participación, y en su forma más elaborada, del cine colaborativo.

¡Esta película la hacemos entre todos! Crowdsourcing y crowdfunding como prácticas colaborativas en la producción audiovisual contemporánea.

by Antoni Roig Telo

Co-authored with Jordi Sánchez Navarro and Talia Leibovitz. Publicado en REVISTA ICONO 14, 2012, Año 10 Vol. 1, pp. 25-40. ISSN 1697-8293. Madrid

This paper focuses on the analysis of a series of emerging creative practices of particular relevance in the field... more This paper focuses on the analysis of a series of emerging creative practices of particular relevance in the field of
audiovisual media production, particularly those that tend to cluster around two terms of increasing popularity: crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. These terms are considered key concepts to explain the dynamics of contemporary cultural creation, mainly from two points of view: first, because they imply the involvement of large numbers of participants; second, because they become exponents of what is considered a radical reinven- tion of the relationship between producers and audiences in the various processes that enable the materialization of a creative project. This second factor establishes a clear link with a broader cultural trend: the greater engagement of publics in their own cultural consumption. This fact requires to reconsider the definition and the boundaries that traditionally surround the agents involved in circuits of cultural production.


While this tendency can easily lead us to think about the democratization of audiovisual production and the empowerment of the publics, a thorough approach is required to take into account the different resistances, contradictions and ambiguities that lie behind this complexity. This paper attempts to contribute to this debate from the discussion, based on case examples, of the diversity of practices around the discourse on crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, highlighting both their potential and their limits.

Vernetzte Öffentlichkeiten Die doppelte Artikulation von Code und Politik in Facebook

by Ganaele Langlois

Meaning, Semiotechnologies and Participatory Media

by Ganaele Langlois

Participatory Culture and the New Governance of Communication: The Paradox of Participatory Media

by Ganaele Langlois

Published in Television and New Media, 2012

This article develops a critical alternative to the common equation between participatory culture and democratic... more This article develops a critical alternative to the common equation between participatory culture and democratic communication and argues that power on online participatory platforms should be understood as the governance of semiotic open-endedness. This article argues that the concept of cultural expression cannot be understood solely by looking at users’ cultural practices, but should be revisited to pay attention to the networked conditions that enable it. This involves tracing the governance of disparate processes such as protocols, software, linguistic processes, and cultural practices that make the production and circulation of meaning possible. Thus, communication on participatory platforms should be understood as the management of flows of meaning, that is, as the processes of codification of the informational, technical, cultural, and semiotic dynamics through which meanings are expressed. This makes it possible to understand the logics through which software platforms transform information into cultural signs and shape users’ perceptions and agencies.

Building a third place for online dialogue in music education. Canadian Music Educator, 52(4).

by Deanna Peluso

Co-Authored with O’Neill, S. & DeLong, I. (2011)

“Fandom Meets Activism: Rethinking Civic and Political Participation”

by Melissa Brough

Co-authored with Sangita Shrestova, Journal of Transformative Works & Cultures. In press.

"Fair Vanity": The Visual Culture of Humanitarianism in the Age of Commodity Activism

by Melissa Brough

In COMMODITY ACTIVISM: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times, Roopali Mukherjee & Sarah Banet-Weiser, eds. NYU Press.

Beyond the virtual realm: Fallout fans, producers, and the troublesome issue of ownership in videogame fandom

by R.M. Milner

(2012). In D. G. Embrick, T. J. Wright & A. Lukacs (Eds.), Social exclusion, power, and video game play: New research in digital media and technology (pp. 219-244). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

The participatory turn in the publishing industry: Rethorics and practices (2011)

by Francesca Pasquali

Special CM Journal Issue ‘Interrogating audiences: Theoretical horizons of participation’, edited by Nico Carpentier & Peter Dahlgren,
BROJ/NUMBER 21 GODINA/YEAR VI ZIMA/WINTER 2011.

The special journal issue ‘Interrogating audiences: Theoretical horizons of participation’, edited by Nico Carpentier & Peter Dahlgren has just been published in the academic journal CM (Communication Management Quarterly). This peer-reviewed special issue aims to contribute to the development of participatory theory within the framework of communication and media studies. As always, this requires careful manoeuvring to reconcile conceptual contingency with the necessary fixity that protects the concept of participation from signifying anything and everything. In order to deepen the theorisations of participation, two strategies have been used in this special issue: In a first cluster of articles, the concept of participation will be confronted with another theoretical concept or tradition that will enrich the theoretical development of participation. In the second cluster of articles, the workings of the notion of participation will be analysed within a specific topical field, which will allow deepening participatory theory by confronting participation with the contextualised logics of that topical field.

Summary: One of the cultural and media areas in which the issue of participa- tion – with all its ambiguity – has... more Summary: One of the cultural and media areas in which the issue of participa- tion – with all its ambiguity – has recently emerged to full significance is the area of literature and publishing. Following the music, film and television industries, the pub- lishing industry is in fact facing a vast renewal due to digitalization processes (assuming digitalization as a complex negotiation between social and technological forces). New textual formats and devices (such as e-books), new forms of distribution (e.g. online retailing), new marketing strategies (e.g. in the social media), new models of business (e.g. the print on demand) are becoming increasingly popular. At the same time digi- talization has enabled the creation of a whole new participatory, grassroots publishing market, while grassroots storytelling and social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook), used as a collaborative writing environment, bring out participatory forms of online writing that continue the tradition started almost fifteen years ago by the so-called “hypertextual fiction” and the avant-gardes before that. In this context, by addressing the theoretical debate and recent social discourses on the e-book, this article suggests a recognition of the diversity of the forms of participation that are ascribed to the new publishing scenario. Secondly – moving from the Foucauldian notion of author-function – the article solic- its the relationship between author and reader in the contemporary digital publishing scenario and addresses the question whether and under what conditions the supposed participatory turn in writing and publishing we are facing promotes the construction of a polyphonic, co-authored, recognizable, collaborative dialogue, or rather points to a cultural landscape where “all discourses [...] would develop in the anonymity of a murmur” (Foucault, 1969).

Framing the Game: Four Game-related Approaches to Goffman's Frames

by René Glas

Co-authored with Luca Rossi, Torill Elvira Mortensen & Rene Glas. Published in Crawford, G., Gosling, V.K., & Light, B. (eds)(2011): Online Gaming in Context. The social and cultural significance of online games. London: Routledge.

The Impact of Crowdfunding on Journalism

by Tanja Aitamurto

Aitamurto, Tanja. 2011. Published in In Journalism Practice 5 (4), 2011.

This article analyzes the impact of crowdfunding on journalism. Crowdfunding is defined as a way to harness collective... more This article analyzes the impact of crowdfunding on journalism. Crowdfunding is defined as a way to harness collective intelligence for journalism, as readers’ donations accumulate into judgments about the issues that need to be covered. The article is based on a case study about Spot.Us, a platform pioneering community-funded reporting. The study concludes that a crowdfunded journalistic process requires journalists to renegotiate their role and professional identity to succeed in the changing realm of creative work. The study concludes that reader donations build a strong connection from the reporters to the donors, which creates a new sense of responsibility to the journalists. The journalists perceive donors as investors, that cannot be let down. From the donor’s perspective, donating does not create a strong relationship from donor to the journalist, or to the story to which they contributed. The primary motivation for donating is to contribute to the common good and social change. Consequently, donors’ motives are essentially more altruistic than instrumental. Thus, when the public donates for a cause, the marketing of a certain type of journalism should be aligned with the features of cause marketing. The traditional role of journalism as a storyteller around the campfire has remained, but the shared story is changing: people no longer share merely the actual story, but also the story of participating in a story process.

'Heritage Film Audiences 2.0: period film audiences and online fan cultures'

by Claire Monk

Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 2011, November, 8:2, 47pp. http://www.participations.org/

In an update to my monograph Heritage Film Audiences: Period Films and Contemporary Audiences in the UK (EUP, 2011),... more In an update to my monograph Heritage Film Audiences: Period Films and Contemporary Audiences in the UK (EUP, 2011), this paper explores currently evolving forms of online audience behaviour and participatory fan activity around contemporary period films. Its detailed focus is on the online reception, (re‐)appropriation and remixing of key films originally released in the 1980s to 1990s which academic criticism has routinely constructed and denigrated as ‘heritage films’, but most centrally the gay love story Maurice (1987), a film which Web 2.0 activity now reveals to be the object of passionate fan investment, unexpected forms of fan productivity and crossover appropriation, and a growing following among unexpectedly young (female and male, sexually diverse) audiences. The paper outlines the key findings of the original Heritage Film Audiences study about the attitudes and pleasures of two contrasting sections of ‘the’ ‘traditional’ UK‐based heritage‐film audience in the pre‐Web 2.0 era. It then maps the very different forms of online (participatory and productive) audience and fan activity around (some) ‘heritage films’ now becoming visible via YouTube, the IMDb, LiveJournal, Tumblr, and beyond, via a central case‐study of the distinctive online fan culture visible around Maurice.

Community Music: History and Current Practice, its Constructions of ‘Community’, Digital Turns and Future Soundings

by George McKay

Co-authored with Ben Higham. Produced as the lead output of an AHRC Connected Communities programme research review in 2011 (award: £26,733) Published by the AHRC.. Draws on the scoping exercise of a 90-entry annotated bibliography also avaiable on academia.edu.

The UK has been a pivotal national player within the development of community music practice. In the UK community... more The UK has been a pivotal national player within the development of community music practice. In the UK community music developed broadly from the 1960s and had a significant burgeoning period in the 1980s. Community music nationally and internationally has gone on to build a set of practices, a repertoire, an infrastructure of organisations, qualifications and career paths. There are elements of cultural and debatably pedagogic innovations in community music. These have to date only partly been articulated and historicised within academic research. 

This document brings together and reviews research under the headings of history and definitions; practice; repertoire; community; pedagogy; digital technology; health and therapy; policy and funding, and impact and evaluation. A 90-entry, 22,000 word annotated bibliography was also produced (McKay and Higham 2011). An informed group of 15 practitioners and academics reviewed the authors’ initial findings at a knowledge exchange colloquium and advised on further investigation. Some of the gaps in research identified are: an authoritative history, an examination of repertoire, the relationship with other music (practice), the freelance practitioner career, evidence of impact and value, the potential for a pedagogy.

Murder in the Museum (Essay)

by etienne boumans

Essay. Reflections on Peter van Mensch's Essay on “Against all norms and values”. Dilemmas of collecting controversial contemporary objects, published in COMCOL Newsletter No 11, October 2010.

Remediating participation and citizenship practices on social network sites

by giovanna mascheroni

published in the Medien Journal, 3 (2010)

Being mainstream places where a variety of online practices converge and are integrated, social network sites have... more Being mainstream places where a variety of online practices converge and are integrated, social network sites have also witnessed the emergence of grassroots and top-down political uses: from candidates’ and parties’ profiles, to single-issues campaigns’ discussion groups, to petitions and forms of ‘political fandom’, political content is now a constant presence in social media. Since social network sites are pervasive in young people’s everyday lives, questions of the effectives of the internet in engaging disaffected youth and expanding the opportunities for participation are under debate. This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study aimed at investigating political uses of social network sites and emerging practices of online participation among Italian youth. Participatory uses of social network sites are unevenly distributed among young people: political content tends often to be incorporated as identity marker, while other young people actively engage in citizenship practices online. Therefore, it is argued, civic and political uses of social media have to be contextualised in young people’s everyday lives, especially in their ‘civic cultures’ and in the particular ‘convergent media ecology’ in which they are immersed. Depending on the civic cultures young people form and shape, and the digital literacy they develop, political uses are either a further outcome of networked individualism or the signal of new modes of participation which is mainly grassroots, non conventional and concerning identity and lifestyle choices.

Performing Structure: Fine Art as a Prototype for Participation.

by Karin Hansson

Hansson, K., Ekenberg, L., Fürst, J. G., & Liljenberg, T. (2011). Performing Structure: Fine Art as a Prototype for Participation. ISEA2011 Istanbul (p. 8). Istanbul.

The art project Performing Structure (more The art project Performing Structure (www.performingstructure.se) deals with the performance of organizational systems like democracy in a place structured by globalization. An art exhibition in the public space is employed as a way to better understand the conditions for democratic participation. In this work-in-progress, artists work in relation to research regarding e-democracy using the concept of art as a method to explore the context.