[ecrea] Call for papers - OBS* Special issue on The co-option of audience creativity on digital platforms

Call for papers - OBS* Special issue on The co-option of audience 
creativity on digital platforms
Guest Editors: Ana Jorge (CECC-UCP), Inês Amaral (CECS/ISMT), David 
Mathieu (Roskilde University/ECREA Audiences and Reception Studies 
Section Chair)
Submission deadline: 30th March 2018

Through its 3-year of activity, the Consortium on Emerging Directions in 
Audience Research (CEDAR), a network funded by the AHRC in the UK, has 
observed that the co-option of audiences by large, global players is 
becoming more intricate than previously. While a number of factors 
account for this development, the co-option of audiences is increasingly 
made possible by the appropriation of technology in the development of 
digital media platforms. These media are able to turn audience’s work 
and engagement into commodities for attracting attention, metrics to be 
sold to advertisers and business models (Andrejevic, 2009; van Dijck, 
2013; Hearn & Schoenhoff, 2016).
While user-generated content such as blogging or vlogging is a clear 
sign of audience agency, there is an increased tendency for that work to 
be co-opted by private and public media, hence leading to new forms of 
power imbalance between media and audiences. The co-option of audiences 
refers generally to the appropriation of audience labour, their ideas or 
the content of their productions, for one’s own purposes, be it by media 
and other organisations. But it also involves the process of gaining the 
audience’s agreement and consent in contributing to the objectives of 
the organisation and the establishing of new forms of relationship 
between audiences and platforms. On the other hand, audiences sometimes 
appreciate the recognition of their production by more established media 
or producers, such as fan communities. Hence, there is an important 
dialectic dimension in which co-option is negotiated, in which conflicts 
and tensions arise, and in which norms, rules and roles are redefined 
(Stehling et al., forthcoming).
This topic has been discussed by political economy of communication and 
in particular of the web 2.0, focusing on the exploitation of audiences’ 
work as free labour (Andrejevic, 2009; Wasko, Murdock & Sousa, 2014; 
Fuchs & Sevignani, 2013), and by cultural studies through the notion of 
participation (Jenkins, 2006; Jenkins & Carpentier, 2013). However, 
Vesnić-Alujević and Murru (2016) claim the urgency of finding bridges 
between those perspectives.
This special issue wishes to investigate the dialectic nature of 
co-option of audience creativity in blogging and vlogging platforms such 
as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc. Can the commodification of audience 
creativity and the emancipation it creates live side by side within the 
same model? When a YouTuber advertises a product, is the content 
different and does it entail different forms of communication to and 
from the audiences? How do popular and professional or semi-professional 
Youtubers, Instagrammers, etc negotiate the boundaries of their work and 
retain their integrity and authenticity?
We invite contributions to answer these and other related questions by 
paying attention, amongst others, to:
- the processes of produsage and co-creation of media content by the 
audiences within new practices of co-option by different kinds of power;
- the commercialisation of “micro-celebrities”/“social media 
influencers” (in digital platforms as YouTube, blogs, Instagram and 
Facebook);
- the use of algorithms and its impact on audience creativity;
- the strategies deployed to encourage and orient (or block and prevent) 
the production of content that (dis)serves the interests of non-audience 
actors (owners, administrators, advertisers, etc.);
- the processes and mechanisms of translation, such as datafication, 
metrification, by which audience creativity is co-opted;
- the formation and negotiation of new business models throughout the 
co-option of audience labour;
- the complex landscape of cross-interests and mutual influences between 
content users and producers;
- the redefinition and negotiation of audience’s roles and relations 
with other actors.

For questions, please contact Special Issue Guest Editor Ana Jorge: 
(anajorge /at/ fch.lisboa.ucp.pt) <mailto:(anajorge /at/ fch.lisboa.ucp.pt)>

Submissions should follow the manuscript format guidelines for OBS* at 
http://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions.
All manuscripts should be submitted to (anajorge /at/ fch.lisboa.ucp.pt) 
<mailto:(anajorge /at/ fch.lisboa.ucp.pt)> , until March 30th 2018.

Manuscripts will go through a peer review process, and the Special Issue 
is planned to appear in the last issue of OBS* 2018 (Sept-Dec).


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