[Air-L] Bastard Culture! User Participation and the Extension of Cultural Industries

[mirko tobias schaefer]

Hi all,

for those who are interested in participatory culture, I'd like to post 
a link to my dissertation.

Comments and critical feedback are very welcome.

Bastard Culture! User Participation and the extension of Cultural Industries
http://mtschaefer.net/media/uploads/docs/Schaefer_Bastard-Culture.pdf

Abstract:
The computer and particularly the Internet have been represented as 
enabling technologies, turning consumers into users and users into 
producers. The unfolding online cultural production by users has been 
framed enthusiastically as participatory culture. But while many studies 
of user activities and the use of the Internet tend to romanticize 
emerging media practices, my dissertation steps beyond the usual 
framework and analyzes user participation in the context of accompanying 
popular and scholarly discourse, as well as the material aspects of 
design, and their relation to the practices of design and appropriation.

I argue that participatory culture is rather a dynamic interaction of 
users and companies, discourses and technologies. The availability of 
computers and Internet expand the traditional culture industry into the 
domain of users, who actively participate in cultural production, either 
by appropriating products from the commercial domain or by creating 
their owns. But while user activities constitute a significant loss of 
control for certain sectors of traditional media industries, especially 
in the area of distribution, the larger culture industry benefits from 
user driven innovation through the appropriation of corporate design. 
Furthermore, the media industry undergoes a shift from creating content 
to providing platforms for user driven social interactions and 
user-generated content. In this extended culture industry participation 
unfolds not only in the co-creation of media content and software-based 
products, but also in the development and defense of distinctive media 
practices that represent a sociopolitical understanding of new technologies.

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Mirko Tobias Schäfer | Assistant Professor |
Department for Media and Culture Studies | Faculty of Humanities |
Utrecht University | Kromme Nieuwegracht 20, room 2.13a | NL- 3512 HH 
Utrecht
T: +31-30-644620751 F: +31-30-253 6167
M: mirko.schaefer at let.uu.nl | W: www.mtschaefer.net