Martyn Thayne, University of Lincoln
Emerging from a critique of recent celebratory studies of new media (what have been classified as Media Studies 2.0: Tapscott, 2006; Rosen, 2006; Jenkins, 2006; Gauntlett, 2007; Merrin, 2008; Bruns, 2008), I incorporate a Deleuzian conceptual framework to demonstrate the economic motivations associated with the encouragement of user generated material. In particular, I examine the Deleuzian notion of ‘control societies’ within the context of how multimedia communication networks may be associated with the ‘re-territorialisation’ of global capitalism.
As computer algorithms increasingly collate personal information, ubiquitous interactive technologies not only suggest, influence and promote, they may also begin to produce and ‘sort’ all aspects of networked culture (Lash, 2006; Beer, 2009). This is not to deny the significance of potential forms of empowerment which are played out in participatory cultures, but it does draw attention to the complex nature of user agency. As Terranova has argued, changes to the relationship between production and consumption are played out within a field that is “always and already capitalism” (2004: 79). Consequently, the social and radically novel aspect of these transformations may be persistently undermined or appropriated by systems of economy. I suggest, with reference to a range of concrete examples, that digital interactivity is being increasingly implemented into the monetization strategies of user-generated platforms. It is highly lucrative for commercial interests to integrate themselves within online communities in order to extract the financial benefits from the practice of social participation, in addition to stimulating the individual user to interact closely with relevant goods and services. I demonstrate a number of ways that personal information transferred within these networks may be utilised in an economic context, as well as exploring the technological infrastructure used to do so.
Access All Areas Symposium 
Hi,
I’m particularly interested in examples of how the participation of social media usage is monetized. In relation to my own thinking on UGC in relation to video, we can conceive of users as ‘eyeballs’ or ‘attention resources’ (Stiegler) who are being targeted as consumers. I have moved attention away from the videos that people create as commodities to adopt the idea that UGC videos are social objects that are used in a variety of ways to conceptualize the users themselves (rather than the videos as more conventional ‘products’) as ‘fetishized commodities’ (Benjamin), the misrecognized ‘novel-but-ever-same’ objects that create value for social media corporations
It will be interesting to have evidence of how users are monetized. As a generator of content myself on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, I don’t feel like my consumption has been stimulated or that my relationship to consumerism has altered much.
Andrew