The two previous articles were looking at how spreadable/viral medias functionned due to participatory culture and was studied as a strategy if anything.
In the chapter 3 of Social Media: A Critical Introduction, Fuchs criticizes Jenkins and some of his peers’ theory about the internet as a participatory culture, mostly for having a too optimistic (or even ideological) and reductionist approach. Jenkins focused mostly on the cultural possibilities of spreadable medias but left apart the political aspect of what a participatory culture is supposed to be. Internet users can post and share content but, despite some judicial grey areas, it is not a free zone where everyone has the same power and influence constituting a participatory culture. Social Medias can be a great place to get recognition as an individual, a community or an artist to express themselves but the corporations owning content of media platforms have the most influential impact in terms of structures and possibilities.Like Fuchs puts it, Jenkins’ theory “ignores aspects of participatory democracy; it ignores questions about the ownership of platforms/ companies, collective decision making, profit, class and the distribution of material benefits”.
Fuchs showed the downsides of social medias we started to encounter in these pat years, I agree with his critique but Jenkins highlighted some principles that can actually happen, until corporations take advantage of it.
The case of the swedish platform Soundcloud illustrates how an online company can be established through free labor from it’s users all along giving them back the opportunity to gain success via free promotion. After being launched nearly ten years ago, Djs and electronic producers joined the platform to promote their work, whether it was productions, remixes or dj mixes. Amateur bedroom producers and Dj’s have been able to establish themselves as artists thanks to soundcloud which became the niche for new underground and innovative acts. Rather than having to give or sell their mixtapes on the streets or through obscure forums, amateur electronic producers could all share their work on the same platform, allowing them to be discovered, exchange ideas and establish their artistic identity. Their songs or mixes very often contained samples from existing songs, allowing them to present them in a new context and ideology, recontextualizing the mainstream. As electronic music gained huge popularity amongst teenagers, soundcloud also became a place for listeners to discover a new world of musical ideas independent of the record labels. Without this new trend of bedroom producers using pre-existing material to develop new cultures, soundcloud would not be the platform it is today.
A few years ago, the music industry noticed a lack of monetary opportunities for them in soundcloud and started to cause trouble to amateur artists using copyrighted content (in a sample, a mix or a remix), limiting their opportunities and deciding on who is supposed to get the most exposure. For instance, if an artist having a soundcloud account is signed on a major label, chances are the label is taking care of the legal content and making sure the artist has a white card regarding the content used on soundcloud. These artists are simply covered from the algorythms. In my case, I used to upload mix on my account which engendered a few thousands of listening. A few months after hearing about the label’s intentions with soundcloud, I received a message from the platform telling me one of my mix had been taken down for containing copyrighted content by Sony. Another mix had been taken down for the same reason a few weeks after that, I was punished by now being unable to let people download my mixes or songs (putting content for free on the platform is a choice for the user). If another of my uploads was to be taken down, my whole account would be deleted. Loosing all the contacts I made and material accessible for listeners. Leading me to be unactive on my platform and reposting things I was involved in from other accounts. Amateurism happening on the internet can be controlled once it is centralised, this is highly problematic regarding creatives from the following generations who, like every other creatives, start their learning process through imitation and reinterpretation. Intellectual property seems to be more and more used to protect the interests of established corporations, not to make sure artists can develop new ideas.
Thinking again of Donald Trump use of social media (especially twitter), he seems fully aware that creating buzz by being obnoxious will be more effective than presenting well documented projects. The participatory culture made it easier for a reduced communication, where shocking is more important thant explaining. Clicks are needed, not relevance.
Bibliography: •Fuchs, C. (2014) Social Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage. •Van Dijck, J., & Nieborg, D. (2009). Wikinomics and its Discontents: A Critical Analysis of Web 2.0 Business Manifestos. New Media & Society, 11(5), 855-874.