Platformized book prosumption on Wattpad: Reading and writing in the case of a pandemic diary

Abstract

This article investigates how readers and writers engage on the Wattpad platform. As examples of the digitalization of book culture, platforms such as Wattpad allow converging practices of reading and writing by means of collaborative community actions of prosumption in a data-driven environment of communication and cultural exchange. Following the concepts of prosumption, communities of practice and the platformization of media cultural production, I refer to Wattpad’s converging practices of reading and writing as ‘platformized book prosumption’. To understand how platformized book prosumption works on the Wattpad platform, I will analyse the reading and writing of the most frequently read COVID-19 online diary as a case study. In doing so, I will discuss the mutual relationship between author reflection and community engagement in social reading and writing on the Wattpad platform.