Participation in Media Organizations

Abstract

Convergence culture has moved through three distinct stages that demonstrate varying degrees of audience participation. If we are to understand participation within global media organizations, we need to look at cultural intermediation as the most contemporary approach towards a genuine convergence culture. Building on the conceptual work of Chap. 1, this chapter is organized around three distinct sections to strengthen the argument for cultural intermediation within global media organizations. Sect. 1 explores ‘Convergence Culture: The first wave’ and is an opportunity to revisit convergence culture theory from its earliest inception through fandom and textual reappropriation through to its cross sector integration into the policy and regulation governance fields. Beyond the foundational work of convergence culture by Henry Jenkins, this section brings to the fore convergent journalism (Bruns in Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and beyond: From production to produsage. Peter Lang, New York, 2008), copyright (Lessig 2006), economics (Benkler in The wealth of networks. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2006) and management (Shirky 2010). The second section, ‘Convergence Debunked?’, examines the theories that have been used to quash the futuristic rhetoric of convergence culture. By revisiting the work of Weber and Foucault who describe bureaucracy and governmentality, this section of the chapter argues for governance that incorporates convergence yet maintains the structure of institutionalization. The final section in this chapter ‘Cultural Intermediation and the Creative Economy’ builds on the affordances of convergent new governance models to demonstrate the contemporary organizational approach of convergence culture that incorporates cultural intermediation. This section demonstrates it is possible to conduct convergent media production with cultural intermediation by engaging in the principles of the creative industries’ approach towards economics and politics. This is done in part by exploring other participation and co-creation models within media organizations through other global examples of the BBC’s Connected Studio, Capture Wales, 4iP, Channel 4’s Central Station and The Guardian’s Open Journalism project. The combination of these three sections provides the basis for the following four case studies.