Whereas Assignment 7 was centered on the positive aspects of social media and user generated content, this assignment focuses more on the critical perspective on social media. In this discussion, the concept of participatory culture is instrumental to understand. Participatory culture is characterized by “low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement” (Fuchs, 2014, p. 54) meaning that it is easy for users to generate content and engage in discussion on the internet. Furthermore there is a strong support of this artistic expression and an encouragement to share created works with other users in the participatory culture (Fuchs, 2014, p. 54). Users that are not yet familiar with the tools to engage in such artistic expressions and discussions, are also mentored by more experienced users which further reinforces the participatory notion in this concept (Fuchs, 2014, p. 54). Lastly, members in the participatory culture believe that their contributions to it matter and they feel “some degree of social connection with one another” (Fuchs, 2014, p. 54).
Fuchs however is rather critical of this concept of participatory culture and raises several points against it. He names a Pepsi marketing campaign from 2007 as an example of large companies exploiting participatory culture and its users. In this marketing campaign, people were encouraged to design cans for Pepsi and share their designs which, according to Fuchs, was a means to “outsource design work and thereby surplus value-generation cheaply to consumers” (Fuchs, 2014, p. 54). Another criticism of his is that participatory culture subverts notions about ownership, profit and distribution of material benefits. Again referring to marketing schemes similar to the Pepsi one, participatory culture blurs the boundaries between consumers and content creators making issues of copyright, ownership and profit distribution particularly relevant. Furthermore, Fuchs mentions the forming of online communities as a potential threat. He gives the example of Norwegian right-wing extremists – one of which was Anders Behring Breivik – gathering on an online forum. He concludes that Jenkins’ notion of participatory culture idealized these online communities without realizing the potential dangers that come with them. Lastly Fuchs criticizes participatory culture for being not as democratic as Jenkins perceived it to be. He states that visibility is key in participatory culture and large corporations have the money and power to buy this visibility, for example by paying prominent content creators to advertise their brand (Fuchs, 2014, p. 60).
Van Dijck & Nieborg had similar criticism of the notion of participatory culture earlier in 2009. In their paper, they discuss Web 2.0 as a platform characterized by user generated content, participation, collectivism and creativity of users. Their text also focuses on manifestos which are texts that are inherently persuasive, emphasize transformations in society and try to convince people of their intentions by utilizing a “us vs. them” mentality (Van Dijck & Nieborg, 2009, p. 857). Van Dijck & Nieborg mention several Web 2.0 manifestos and criticize these for merging capitalist business ideologies with concepts of counterculture in order to persuade their readers. Van Dijck & Nieborg claim that “By celebrating a perfect match between producers and users, commerce and commons, creativity and consumerism, the authors smoothly turn the alignment of countercultural ideals with mainstream business interests into a hegemonic ideology supported by the masses” (Van Dijck & Nieborg, 2009, p. 860). They also introduce the concept of prosumption meaning a combination of production and consumption. Similar to how Jenkins described the role of users in participatory culture, prosumption means that users produce and consume content at the same time, blurring the line between the two. In Van Dijck’s and Nieborg’s text, the concern about owners of large platforms and companies having power over their users is also expressed.
References
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.