Convergence, Ahead of Print.
In parallel with the rapid growth of the digital games market, the modding phenomenon has been gaining momentum. Mod culture, a manifestation of the convergence and the remix cultures, emerges as a way to adapt digital games to the needs of their players and incorporate content from other media, such as books, movies, or series, into the game world. This systematic literature review aims to discuss the ethical considerations of modding by understanding its impact on the overall gaming experience and comprehending how players and game companies perceive and respond to modders’ motivations. 15 studies from various scientific fields were analysed. Overall, mods impact the gaming experience in a variety of ways, ranging from educational purposes to deeper social concerns. While modders find motivation to create mods stemming from a myriad of reasons, including leisure and self-improvement, the stance taken by game companies, gaming communities, and players tends to discourage them from developing new mods and deter new modders who aspire to contribute with creative content. In conclusion, it remains important to recognise that specific ethical dilemmas linked to mod culture require in-depth debate to reach a consensus. Furthermore, other aspects demand more stringent scrutiny to ensure that we can all benefit from the enriching playground of personal experimentation and exploration that modding offers in this contemporary era of convergence.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications Ltd: Convergence:
Where were you when Facebook went out? Experiences of involuntary disconnection from social media
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This paper presents findings from an online questionnaire that collected experiences from the Facebook outage on October 4th, 2021, an event that affected approximately three billion users around the globe. The purpose of the study is to contribute to recent discussions digital disconnection and digital wellbeing by using an extraordinary event of involuntary disconnection as point of departure. Our research questions were: Where were people when the services shut down, what did they think and what did they do? What correlations can be found between usage/attitudes to social media and the experiences of the outage? How can the outage of October 4th be understood as a snapshot of our cultural condition? The questionnaire was distributed to 463 Swedish university students and 191 responses were received. Our analysis shows how the involuntary disconnection caused by the outage was an event that highlights the ambivalence of digital life. It also points to some correlations between general social media use and attitudes, and the experiences and activities during the outage. The paper ends with a discussion on the implications that these findings may have for further research into digital disconnection.
This paper presents findings from an online questionnaire that collected experiences from the Facebook outage on October 4th, 2021, an event that affected approximately three billion users around the globe. The purpose of the study is to contribute to recent discussions digital disconnection and digital wellbeing by using an extraordinary event of involuntary disconnection as point of departure. Our research questions were: Where were people when the services shut down, what did they think and what did they do? What correlations can be found between usage/attitudes to social media and the experiences of the outage? How can the outage of October 4th be understood as a snapshot of our cultural condition? The questionnaire was distributed to 463 Swedish university students and 191 responses were received. Our analysis shows how the involuntary disconnection caused by the outage was an event that highlights the ambivalence of digital life. It also points to some correlations between general social media use and attitudes, and the experiences and activities during the outage. The paper ends with a discussion on the implications that these findings may have for further research into digital disconnection.
An audience studies’ contribution to the discoverability and prominence debate: Seeking UK TV audiences’ ‘routes to content’
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Despite discoverability and prominence emerging as crucial to contemporary industry and policy debates in relation to online and internet-distributed television, there remains relatively little rich, qualitative data about how contemporary audiences discover content. This article addresses this gap through empirical audience research focused on the ‘routes to content’ through which UK audiences find and decide what television to watch. Defining television broadly to include all forms of video content accessed in the home, we argue for the importance of thinking about discoverability as an audience activity, not just an industrial strategy. Building on TV audience studies’ longer history and more recent literature on engagement, media literacy, algorithms and technological affordances in contemporary media platforms, we argue for new understanding of the imaginaries shaping people’s habitual viewing activities. The article proposes four new concepts for thinking about discoverability as an audience activity. First, we explore technological affordances and default behaviour, developing the concept of the negotiated-null affordance to explain how technological affordances can be rendered invisible by habitual behaviours. Second, we focus on algorithmic literacies and propose a new dissonant algorithmic imaginary to explain our participants’ ambivalences towards algorithmic personalisation. Third, we unpack the dynamics of access that emerge in our participants’ negotiations of television technologies, services and content. Fourth, we examine the role of word of mouth and promotional paratexts, theorising a second-order algorithmic imaginary to help us understand how these forms of communication can often, themselves, be subject to algorithmic processes. In doing so, we argue for the need for further qualitative research that looks beyond the ‘savvy’ consumers that dominate audience research in order to unpack the technological, industrial, cultural and social processes that shape people’s routes to content in a platform-dominated media landscape.
Despite discoverability and prominence emerging as crucial to contemporary industry and policy debates in relation to online and internet-distributed television, there remains relatively little rich, qualitative data about how contemporary audiences discover content. This article addresses this gap through empirical audience research focused on the ‘routes to content’ through which UK audiences find and decide what television to watch. Defining television broadly to include all forms of video content accessed in the home, we argue for the importance of thinking about discoverability as an audience activity, not just an industrial strategy. Building on TV audience studies’ longer history and more recent literature on engagement, media literacy, algorithms and technological affordances in contemporary media platforms, we argue for new understanding of the imaginaries shaping people’s habitual viewing activities. The article proposes four new concepts for thinking about discoverability as an audience activity. First, we explore technological affordances and default behaviour, developing the concept of the negotiated-null affordance to explain how technological affordances can be rendered invisible by habitual behaviours. Second, we focus on algorithmic literacies and propose a new dissonant algorithmic imaginary to explain our participants’ ambivalences towards algorithmic personalisation. Third, we unpack the dynamics of access that emerge in our participants’ negotiations of television technologies, services and content. Fourth, we examine the role of word of mouth and promotional paratexts, theorising a second-order algorithmic imaginary to help us understand how these forms of communication can often, themselves, be subject to algorithmic processes. In doing so, we argue for the need for further qualitative research that looks beyond the ‘savvy’ consumers that dominate audience research in order to unpack the technological, industrial, cultural and social processes that shape people’s routes to content in a platform-dominated media landscape.
NFTs applied to the art sector: Legal issues and recent jurisprudence
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Responding to the necessity of scarcity and uniqueness in the digital format, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have recently gained much attention in cultural industries, especially video games and the art market. Faced with the digital paradigm shift and the challenge of dematerialization, creators started to use NTFs in order to emulate the concept of rarity for displaying, promoting, and monetizing their works in digital environments. An NFT is a certificate of ownership implemented through encrypted metadata pointing to a unique copy of a digital file. Likewise, NFTs enable the tokenization of a large array of digital, or even physical, assets. For this reason, they are used to facilitate the digitalization of contents heavily dependent on copyright and scarcity. Non-Fungible Tokens represent an emerging reality of significant economic, social, and cultural importance, which also raises important legal issues especially concerning the very nature of the NFT, as property or license, and the usage of copyrighted contents or trademarks. Indeed, the most frequent legal issues with NFTs are related to the attribution and exploitation of the Intellectual Property (IP) rights of the underlying content or litigations about non-contractual matters (i.e., theft). Litigious cases affecting NFTs most often take on an international dimension due to the decentralized nature of the technology on which they are developed, distributed on servers hosted in a multitude of countries, as well as the business practices of trading platforms that connect users from all over the world. Consequently, the principles of Private International Law (PIL) are applied to solve legal conflicts. This study focuses on the resolution of litigations related to NFTs in the three countries leading the global art markets: the US, the UK, and China. The analysis focuses on the application of international private law in relation to recent jurisprudence concerning conflicts involving NFTs and artworks.
Responding to the necessity of scarcity and uniqueness in the digital format, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have recently gained much attention in cultural industries, especially video games and the art market. Faced with the digital paradigm shift and the challenge of dematerialization, creators started to use NTFs in order to emulate the concept of rarity for displaying, promoting, and monetizing their works in digital environments. An NFT is a certificate of ownership implemented through encrypted metadata pointing to a unique copy of a digital file. Likewise, NFTs enable the tokenization of a large array of digital, or even physical, assets. For this reason, they are used to facilitate the digitalization of contents heavily dependent on copyright and scarcity. Non-Fungible Tokens represent an emerging reality of significant economic, social, and cultural importance, which also raises important legal issues especially concerning the very nature of the NFT, as property or license, and the usage of copyrighted contents or trademarks. Indeed, the most frequent legal issues with NFTs are related to the attribution and exploitation of the Intellectual Property (IP) rights of the underlying content or litigations about non-contractual matters (i.e., theft). Litigious cases affecting NFTs most often take on an international dimension due to the decentralized nature of the technology on which they are developed, distributed on servers hosted in a multitude of countries, as well as the business practices of trading platforms that connect users from all over the world. Consequently, the principles of Private International Law (PIL) are applied to solve legal conflicts. This study focuses on the resolution of litigations related to NFTs in the three countries leading the global art markets: the US, the UK, and China. The analysis focuses on the application of international private law in relation to recent jurisprudence concerning conflicts involving NFTs and artworks.
Camera Phantasma: Reframing virtual photographies in the age of AI
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
The recent advent of virtual photography and artificial intelligence (specifically AI photography and diffusion models), presents a major challenge to both photographers and photography theory. All our common-sense assumptions about the ontology of the image now seem to be falling apart. Are these interlopers really photography? Can we hear the final death knell for the erstwhile medium in this era of ever-increasing media convergence and virtualisation? This practice-led investigation of these new media forms draws on the author’s recent creative work in virtual photographies, and similar interventions by other photographers and new media artists, seeking to augment and expand their practice using these new tools, whilst querying what photography really means today. From in-game photography to virtual exploration using Google Street View, to AI photography using the latest denoising diffusion models (such as Midjourney), there are surprising commonalities to explore between them, linking these new practices of image-making firmly back to traditions of lens-based photography. Rather than seeking a detailed map of this difficult new terrain, or a definitive ontology of emerging virtual photographies, the author reframes the discourse around practice, examining both photography as an evolving set of practices and also notions of media hauntology – specifically the spectral ways in which new media technologies are always haunted by prior practices and modes of communication. The importance of the frame to both traditional photography and new practices of virtual photography, is suggested as a vital and persistent dimension in photographic authorship. With that authorship increasingly contested by new generative methods, easy appropriation and AI image-making, the act of framing may become the best litmus test we have, for whether or not a photograph should be considered ‘real’ or valued.
The recent advent of virtual photography and artificial intelligence (specifically AI photography and diffusion models), presents a major challenge to both photographers and photography theory. All our common-sense assumptions about the ontology of the image now seem to be falling apart. Are these interlopers really photography? Can we hear the final death knell for the erstwhile medium in this era of ever-increasing media convergence and virtualisation? This practice-led investigation of these new media forms draws on the author’s recent creative work in virtual photographies, and similar interventions by other photographers and new media artists, seeking to augment and expand their practice using these new tools, whilst querying what photography really means today. From in-game photography to virtual exploration using Google Street View, to AI photography using the latest denoising diffusion models (such as Midjourney), there are surprising commonalities to explore between them, linking these new practices of image-making firmly back to traditions of lens-based photography. Rather than seeking a detailed map of this difficult new terrain, or a definitive ontology of emerging virtual photographies, the author reframes the discourse around practice, examining both photography as an evolving set of practices and also notions of media hauntology – specifically the spectral ways in which new media technologies are always haunted by prior practices and modes of communication. The importance of the frame to both traditional photography and new practices of virtual photography, is suggested as a vital and persistent dimension in photographic authorship. With that authorship increasingly contested by new generative methods, easy appropriation and AI image-making, the act of framing may become the best litmus test we have, for whether or not a photograph should be considered ‘real’ or valued.
Witnessing distress: Cultural workers’ processing of pandemic experiences on social media platforms
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article examines the ways in which Finnish cultural workers experienced and responded to their colleagues’ and peers’ distress on social media platforms during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The theory of media witnessing as mundane world-witnessing is employed to analyse cultural workers’ modalities of experience as audience-like followers on social media. The data comprise 26 focused interviews conducted via Zoom and over phone in 2021 with cultural workers representing the fields of theatre, television and film industry, literature, music and circus. We argue that various modes of affective and politicised witnessing offered cultural workers the mechanisms to articulate and reflect on their own and others’ experiences of inequality and vulnerability as well as develop a sense of responsibility. In the context of the pandemic, mundane world-witnessing involved engagement and identification with distress, peer support and activism, as witnessed and evaluated by cultural workers on social media. Furthermore, this article theorises a new mode of witnessing prevalent on social media platforms – speculative witnessing – which carries a reflective and hesitant approach to social media ‘bubbles’, obscure algorithmic agency and imagination of absent audiences. In other words, speculative witnessing captures a dimension of metacommunicative scepticism in media witnessing that reflects a specific condition of knowing in the context of social media platforms.
This article examines the ways in which Finnish cultural workers experienced and responded to their colleagues’ and peers’ distress on social media platforms during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The theory of media witnessing as mundane world-witnessing is employed to analyse cultural workers’ modalities of experience as audience-like followers on social media. The data comprise 26 focused interviews conducted via Zoom and over phone in 2021 with cultural workers representing the fields of theatre, television and film industry, literature, music and circus. We argue that various modes of affective and politicised witnessing offered cultural workers the mechanisms to articulate and reflect on their own and others’ experiences of inequality and vulnerability as well as develop a sense of responsibility. In the context of the pandemic, mundane world-witnessing involved engagement and identification with distress, peer support and activism, as witnessed and evaluated by cultural workers on social media. Furthermore, this article theorises a new mode of witnessing prevalent on social media platforms – speculative witnessing – which carries a reflective and hesitant approach to social media ‘bubbles’, obscure algorithmic agency and imagination of absent audiences. In other words, speculative witnessing captures a dimension of metacommunicative scepticism in media witnessing that reflects a specific condition of knowing in the context of social media platforms.
Analysing podcast intimacy: Four parameters
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article presents a case study study of a proposed analytical framework for dissecting and analysing intimacy in podcasts. The podcast medium is increasingly perceived as inherently intimate, but this discourse is still unprecise and has never been clearly outlined. It is furthermore essential to better define podcast intimacy because of its effective and widespread impact on podcasters and listeners. Over time, a self-reinforcing discourse and self-fulfilling prophecy of intimacy has built up around podcasts. Based on podcast literature (Berry, 2016; Euritt, 2023; Lindgren, 2021; Meserko, 2014; Spinelli and Dann, 2019; Swiatek, 2018) and podcast intimacy’s roots in, respectively, Web 2.0 and radio, four parameters for analysing podcast intimacy are outlined: Intimacy in listening, intimacy in what is said, intimacy in how it is said and intimacy in cross-media interactions – most significantly via social media. Each parameter contains several subcategories and questions for analysis which are collected in a schema. The schema is a tool for media researchers and students to identify how and why a podcast creates intimacy. It is also valuable for increasing the awareness of how podcasts work and impact the world. And it finally offers opportunities for podcast producers and publishers to learn more about how their podcast create intimacy and how they can attract listeners and followers through the creation of intimacy.
This article presents a case study study of a proposed analytical framework for dissecting and analysing intimacy in podcasts. The podcast medium is increasingly perceived as inherently intimate, but this discourse is still unprecise and has never been clearly outlined. It is furthermore essential to better define podcast intimacy because of its effective and widespread impact on podcasters and listeners. Over time, a self-reinforcing discourse and self-fulfilling prophecy of intimacy has built up around podcasts. Based on podcast literature (Berry, 2016; Euritt, 2023; Lindgren, 2021; Meserko, 2014; Spinelli and Dann, 2019; Swiatek, 2018) and podcast intimacy’s roots in, respectively, Web 2.0 and radio, four parameters for analysing podcast intimacy are outlined: Intimacy in listening, intimacy in what is said, intimacy in how it is said and intimacy in cross-media interactions – most significantly via social media. Each parameter contains several subcategories and questions for analysis which are collected in a schema. The schema is a tool for media researchers and students to identify how and why a podcast creates intimacy. It is also valuable for increasing the awareness of how podcasts work and impact the world. And it finally offers opportunities for podcast producers and publishers to learn more about how their podcast create intimacy and how they can attract listeners and followers through the creation of intimacy.
Corrigendum to “Ja’miezing’s podcast persona: Intertextual and intercommunicative”
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Racism and the representation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in audio: An analysis of audience experience of the immersive story environment
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article investigates the power of audio as a storytelling medium and its capacity to provide immersive narrative-based experiences. In particular, it examines the potential of immersive or spatial audio to engage young people with the complex and pressing issue of racism by focusing on the artwork [re]locate: a multi-channel sound installation revisiting the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. [re]locate metaphorically places the audience at the bus stop where Stephen Lawrence was attacked, and allows them to experience an audio-only reconstruction of events associated with his murder and its aftermath. Based on a reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative feedback elicited after encounters with the artwork, the article seeks to understand young people’s perspectives on events, their sense of engagement with the story and the aesthetic and technical features of the installation that create a sense of immersion, and induce presence. It argues that the perceived potency of the artwork and its ability to engage young people with the issue not only resides in the inherent qualities of sound, but also in the capacity of the spatial audio design of the installation to heighten the sense of immersion, induce presence and enhance cognitive and emotional perspective taking.
This article investigates the power of audio as a storytelling medium and its capacity to provide immersive narrative-based experiences. In particular, it examines the potential of immersive or spatial audio to engage young people with the complex and pressing issue of racism by focusing on the artwork [re]locate: a multi-channel sound installation revisiting the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. [re]locate metaphorically places the audience at the bus stop where Stephen Lawrence was attacked, and allows them to experience an audio-only reconstruction of events associated with his murder and its aftermath. Based on a reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative feedback elicited after encounters with the artwork, the article seeks to understand young people’s perspectives on events, their sense of engagement with the story and the aesthetic and technical features of the installation that create a sense of immersion, and induce presence. It argues that the perceived potency of the artwork and its ability to engage young people with the issue not only resides in the inherent qualities of sound, but also in the capacity of the spatial audio design of the installation to heighten the sense of immersion, induce presence and enhance cognitive and emotional perspective taking.
Pluralising critical technical practice
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
In this special issue, we turn to ideas of and approaches to critical technical practices (CTPs) as entry points to doing critique and doing things critically in digitally mediated cultures and societies. We explore the pluralisation of ‘critical technical practice’, starting from its early formulations in the context of AI research and development (Agre, 1997a, 1997b) to the many ways in which it has resonated and been taken up by different publications, projects, groups, and communities of practice, and what is has come to mean. Agre defined CTP as a situational, practical, and constructive way of working: ‘a technical practice for which critical reflection upon the practice is part of the practice itself’ (1997a: XII). Communities of practice in which the notion has been adopted, adapted, and put to use range from human–computer interaction (HCI) to media art and pedagogy, from science and technology studies (STS) and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) to digital humanities, media studies and data studies. This special issue affirms the pluralisation of CTP, and serves as an invitation to (re)consider what it means to use this notion drawing on a wider body of work, including beyond Agre. In this introduction, we review and discuss CTPs according to (1) Agre, (2) indexed research, and (3) contributors to this special issue. We conclude with some questions and considerations for those interested in working with this notion.
In this special issue, we turn to ideas of and approaches to critical technical practices (CTPs) as entry points to doing critique and doing things critically in digitally mediated cultures and societies. We explore the pluralisation of ‘critical technical practice’, starting from its early formulations in the context of AI research and development (Agre, 1997a, 1997b) to the many ways in which it has resonated and been taken up by different publications, projects, groups, and communities of practice, and what is has come to mean. Agre defined CTP as a situational, practical, and constructive way of working: ‘a technical practice for which critical reflection upon the practice is part of the practice itself’ (1997a: XII). Communities of practice in which the notion has been adopted, adapted, and put to use range from human–computer interaction (HCI) to media art and pedagogy, from science and technology studies (STS) and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) to digital humanities, media studies and data studies. This special issue affirms the pluralisation of CTP, and serves as an invitation to (re)consider what it means to use this notion drawing on a wider body of work, including beyond Agre. In this introduction, we review and discuss CTPs according to (1) Agre, (2) indexed research, and (3) contributors to this special issue. We conclude with some questions and considerations for those interested in working with this notion.