Thornham, H and McFarlane, A (2014) Claiming content & constructing users: user-generated content and BBC Blast. In: Buckingham, D, Bragg, S and Kehily, MJ, (eds.) Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media. Palgrave MacMillan , 186 - 201. ISBN 9781137008145
Abstract
This chapter utilizes key findings from a research project investigating teenager user generated content (UGC) in relation to creativity and learning on BBC Blast (2004-2010). The chapter draws on this research to critique three key issues in relation to new media. The first is the widely constructed conception of the user of new media in individualized terms, a construction that is doubly exacerbated by the discourse of the digital native found in youth studies (and beyond). The second issue relates to the value afforded to uploaded content, which is often taken as evidence or affirmation of creative ‘autonomy’ (Castells, 2009: 129), thereby resonating with the construction of the user of new media noted above. Both these constructions (of the user and the content) are not only compounded by the discourse of young people and in particular that of the digital native, they also heavily rely on a dichotomous understanding of new media and its’ users as (more) active, representative, interactive than ‘old’ media/audiences. Consequently, our third argument is that these constructions offer a blanket approach to both content and users, one that tends to conceptualize new media in singular terms, where uploading becomes a linear action into and onto the technology.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Editors: |
|
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Media & Communication (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 03 Jul 2014 09:39 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jul 2014 19:25 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137008152 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Palgrave MacMillan |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:79502 |