[Air-L] CPF - OBS* Special issue on The co-option of audience creativity on digital platforms

[Inês Amaral]

[With apologies for cross posting]


*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
<https://cedarahrc.com/>, 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


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 , 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).





*Inês Amaral*----------------
Professora Auxiliar *ISMT* <http://www.ismt.pt> | Investigadora *CECS*
<http://www.cecs.uminho.pt/> - UMinho
Assistant Professor *ISMT* <http://www.ismt.pt/> | Researcher *CECS*
<http://www.cecs.uminho.pt/> - UMinho
*website <http://ciberesfera.com> | degóis.pt
<http://www.degois.pt/visualizador/curriculum.jsp?key=2537238587233433> |
researchgate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ines_Amaral2>*