This paper argues for the synthesis of media studies with theories from professional writing to establish richer frameworks for the critical evaluation of participatory cultures and the mediascapes that materialize around them. As media production, distribution, and consumption are increasingly remediated through readily available consumer technologies like computers and mobile phones, a number of theories have been adapted or put forward to establish frameworks for critical and cultural analysis of media content. The most important observation to emerge from this scholarship is that such content is no longer simply an object of study, but a site of practice for the audience in convergent media systems (Jenkins, 2006 & 2009; Booth, 2008). The technologies available to consumers and the material work or play they support unmask the audience’s reception of media content by fostering audience activities with that content. Meaning is recast not only as interpretation, but as motives and goals enacted by the audience. The distribution supported by the participatory web places the products of the audience’s work or play into their own dynamic streams of activity, as well.

By fusing methodologies from professional writing and information design — deconstructed information architectures (Johnson-Eilola, 2006); activity theory (Engestrom, 2000; Spinuzzi, 2003) — with media convergence (Jenkins, 2006), we can map a method for analyzing convergent media experiences as emerging from activities that persistently repurpose and rehistoricize media content through computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). In doing so, we can bolster critical media studies scholarship by understanding the underlying capabilities and limitations that support convergence within the audience’s work.

I demonstrate the value of this hybrid method by tracing the audience work and play surrounding the level creation tools of Media Molecule’s Little Big Planet (2008). Specifically, I will focus on the licensing of Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1986 & 1987) as downloadable content offered by Media Molecule for players to use for their own creative projects. Content provided on the company’s website will be analyzed in conjunction with video of player-created game levels that make use of this content by recreating and adapting events from Moore’s original story and its film adaptation (2009). This will be bolstered by an activity theory analysis of Little Big Planet’s level and character creation tools to understand the design (and hence narrative) capabilities afforded to the player. Examining both the visual and narrative themes of the game design as well as the graphic novel, in conjunction with the work analysis necessary to create player-generated levels, will unveil new insights into the concept of audience practice as meaningful cultural engagement.

In recognition of the growing call for audience empowerment in media experiences, the final section of the paper will take up the common professional writing strategy of offering design solutions so as to better foster participatory engagement in media systems by looking at Little Big Planet and its community as an example of the successes of such systems.

Below is my proposal for Social Media Theory. Yeah… I can really pull this off…

Research on Twitter has exploded over the last year as the social networking service (SNS) has become increasingly popular. Since its inception, the service has proven a remarkably agile tool, especially when networked with other SNS sites. Connecting different SNS sites ad hoc has allowed Twitter to thrive as a communication channel. Relying on previous work that establishes the need for adaptable and articulated connections among different social media (Potts, 2009), this paper extends such work by examining the rather different user interfaces (UI) of two third party Twitter applications, Tweetdeck and Twhirl, in light of Activity Theory (AT) and the concept of affordances. Borrowing from the synthesis of AT and affordances offered by Baerentsen and Trettvik (2002), I argue that when combined with third-party clients, Twitter facilitates communication channels as articulated activities. Instead of fostering either synchronous (like IRC) or asynchronous networks (like blogs and message boards), these streams become persistent (McNely, 2009).

From this basis, I will argue that third-party clients more effectively exploit Twitter’s affordances by making the streams, and thus the user’s experience, modular and emergent. They allow real-time modularity in content by facilitating the near-instantaneous exchange of both written and visual information, as well as quick linking to secondary sources of information. By comparing the UIs of Tweetdeck and Twhirl, along with that of Twitter’s own web-based UI, we can assess the how these clients allow the user to adapt Twitter streams to their own communication needs and praxis. The flexibility given to users via such clients serves as a tremendous signpost to the nature of and need for modular experiences in communication channels as information content evolves. Not only do the social networks themselves need to be articulated and modular, but so do the UIs through which users engage with these networks.

References.

Baerentsenj K.B. and Trettvik, J. (2002). An activity theory approach to affordance. Published in the Association of Computing Machinery’s Proceedings of NordiCHI, Arhus, Denmark, pp. 51-60.

McNely, B.J. (2009). Bachchannel persistence and collaborative meaning-making. Published in the Association of Computing Machinery’s Proceedings of SIGDOC ’09, Bloomington, IN, pp. 297-303.

Potts, L. Using actor network theory to trace and improve multimodal communication design. Technical Communication Quarterly 18(3), pp. 281-301.