Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Music Streaming Services (MSS) have recently emerged as the main format for showcasing and monetizing sound recordings by record labels and artists in the international recorded music sector. In the Caribbean, however, stakeholders have been slow to adopt and integrate these digital music platforms into their overall recorded music strategies. Within this context, this paper explores the key economic opportunities and challenges associated with the late adoption of the platform-based streaming music model. Using self-administered structured interviews with nine regional experts from the three major music markets, as well as an analysis of audio-visual and digital materials and review of documents, the information is derived using a qualitative research approach, supported by a grounded theory strategy of inquiry. The findings illustrate that on one hand there is cautious optimism with respect to the potential for the re-construction of revenue streams, due to stronger royalty inflows associated with new uses of music in the digital arena. The extent to which this is realized contends with the quantum of royalty payouts actually received by rights-holders and their overall willingness to licence their rights to MSS. Additionally, MSS provides the platform for rights-owners to reach glocal audiences. However, this is reliant on the content and user-friendly features embedded in the platforms and the readiness of regional artists to be discovered and monetized via third party playlists.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications Ltd: Convergence:
‘Huge fan of the drama’: Politics as an object of fandom
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
On June 12th 2019, in the middle of the UK Conservative party’s leadership contest, journalist Marie le Conte tweeted ‘so this is my first proper leadership contest as an actual Westminster person and honestly it’s such a hoot…huge fan of the drama’. This tweet is exemplary of a wider phenomenon. Politics is the activity through which power and resources are allocated across society – who gets what, when and how. Politics, and what it does to all of our lives, is consequential. Yet, despite this, many of those who pay the most attention to politics do so from the position of a fan, engaging with it in the way that others engage with entertainment forms like sport and television shows. Previous studies have paid attention to the fandoms and anti-fandoms that develop around individual politicians and movements – in other words, they maintain a focus on the behaviours and actions of these fans of politics. By contrast, in this paper we explore the construction of politics itself as an object of fandom, asking what happens to politics when it is treated in this way. The activity of politics can be socially constructed by humans to serve some purpose. Thus, who does the constructing and how they do this, affects what it becomes. Our claim is that constructing politics as an object of fandom (i.e. constructing it as ‘the drama’) affects politics itself.
On June 12th 2019, in the middle of the UK Conservative party’s leadership contest, journalist Marie le Conte tweeted ‘so this is my first proper leadership contest as an actual Westminster person and honestly it’s such a hoot…huge fan of the drama’. This tweet is exemplary of a wider phenomenon. Politics is the activity through which power and resources are allocated across society – who gets what, when and how. Politics, and what it does to all of our lives, is consequential. Yet, despite this, many of those who pay the most attention to politics do so from the position of a fan, engaging with it in the way that others engage with entertainment forms like sport and television shows. Previous studies have paid attention to the fandoms and anti-fandoms that develop around individual politicians and movements – in other words, they maintain a focus on the behaviours and actions of these fans of politics. By contrast, in this paper we explore the construction of politics itself as an object of fandom, asking what happens to politics when it is treated in this way. The activity of politics can be socially constructed by humans to serve some purpose. Thus, who does the constructing and how they do this, affects what it becomes. Our claim is that constructing politics as an object of fandom (i.e. constructing it as ‘the drama’) affects politics itself.
‘Come support the locals!’: mediating peripheral spaces on Google maps via user-generated content
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
New media platforms offer diverse modes of mediation of every day and tourist places and communities. Spatial social media now augment older forms of mediation, partly by enabling contributions from ‘ordinary’ users, who create and share spatial discourses. This study examines the discursive construction of peripheral places, produced through user-generated content. Employing qualitative methodology, we sample and analyze 1,053 texts, shared on Google Maps in southern regions of Israel. The key conclusions suggest that compared to traditional media discourses depicting peripheral spaces in Israel, the findings demonstrate a shift from homogeneous depictions to more diverse and multilayered ones. Digital affordances result in more actors and stakeholders partaking in discursive construction, including private and institutional local players, visitors and tourists. Theoretical contributions are offered to the field of digital placemaking, by considering the subjective, evaluative and ideological layers that augment geographical data digital maps provide (‘bottom-up’ perspective), and to the fields of study of marginalized peripheral and rural communities and tourism crisis in peripheral (post-Coronavirus) locations.
New media platforms offer diverse modes of mediation of every day and tourist places and communities. Spatial social media now augment older forms of mediation, partly by enabling contributions from ‘ordinary’ users, who create and share spatial discourses. This study examines the discursive construction of peripheral places, produced through user-generated content. Employing qualitative methodology, we sample and analyze 1,053 texts, shared on Google Maps in southern regions of Israel. The key conclusions suggest that compared to traditional media discourses depicting peripheral spaces in Israel, the findings demonstrate a shift from homogeneous depictions to more diverse and multilayered ones. Digital affordances result in more actors and stakeholders partaking in discursive construction, including private and institutional local players, visitors and tourists. Theoretical contributions are offered to the field of digital placemaking, by considering the subjective, evaluative and ideological layers that augment geographical data digital maps provide (‘bottom-up’ perspective), and to the fields of study of marginalized peripheral and rural communities and tourism crisis in peripheral (post-Coronavirus) locations.
Book review: The private is political: Networked privacy and social media by Alice Marwick
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
The role of geolocation data in U.S. political campaigning: How digital political strategists perceive it
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
The use of geolocation data by political campaigns is often the subject of media concern. Research has investigated the role of data in and use by political campaigns, but less attention has been paid to digital political strategists largely responsible for decisions behind the assemblage and mining of voter databases to deliver micro-targeted messages on behalf of political campaigns. In this study, we conducted interviews with 14 leading industry professionals in the United States to examine the common scenarios and associated concerns of using geolocation data to target voters. Our findings reveal that geolocation data are an important asset in political campaigns, but their value is contingent on additional factors. Concerns regarding geolocation data, as interviewees suggested, may at times be influenced more by the popular media narratives than the true reality of data, their scope, and associated capabilities. Our results point to geolocation data’s greatest usefulness to campaigns not in their own right, but when data are paired with other insights about voters’ behaviors. Ultimately, the lack of industry regulation reveals discrepancies in best practices and raises concerns over the potential misuse of geolocation data in the political space.
The use of geolocation data by political campaigns is often the subject of media concern. Research has investigated the role of data in and use by political campaigns, but less attention has been paid to digital political strategists largely responsible for decisions behind the assemblage and mining of voter databases to deliver micro-targeted messages on behalf of political campaigns. In this study, we conducted interviews with 14 leading industry professionals in the United States to examine the common scenarios and associated concerns of using geolocation data to target voters. Our findings reveal that geolocation data are an important asset in political campaigns, but their value is contingent on additional factors. Concerns regarding geolocation data, as interviewees suggested, may at times be influenced more by the popular media narratives than the true reality of data, their scope, and associated capabilities. Our results point to geolocation data’s greatest usefulness to campaigns not in their own right, but when data are paired with other insights about voters’ behaviors. Ultimately, the lack of industry regulation reveals discrepancies in best practices and raises concerns over the potential misuse of geolocation data in the political space.
Ja’miezing’s Podcast Persona: Intertextual and Intercommunicative
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
An online persona is a public presentation of a human or non-human actor such as organisations and locations, digital objects, artificial intelligence, and media texts. This article provides an analysis of the online persona of the Australian satirical comedy podcast, Ja'miezing. Written, directed, performed, and produced by comedian Chris Lilley, Ja'miezing is a narrative podcast series that features the intimate details of the post-high school life of the character Ja’mie. The podcast launched following Lilley’s online cancellation which resulted in his previous mockumentary television shows being removed from Netflix and the Australian Broadcast Corporation’s video-on-demand service, ABC iview. The study builds on the five dimensions of persona – public, mediatised, performative, collective, and value – by drawing on contributions from podcast studies to better understand the unique features and practices of podcast personas. It seeks to untangle the complex interplay between the intertextual and intercommunicative connections of podcast producer, host, character, platform, and audience micropublics as they contribute to the online presentation of the podcast’s persona. The article highlights the potential of podcast personas as a unique form of a non-human online persona that requires further investigation. This approach also has implications for how to consider other forms of mediated communication with online personas.
An online persona is a public presentation of a human or non-human actor such as organisations and locations, digital objects, artificial intelligence, and media texts. This article provides an analysis of the online persona of the Australian satirical comedy podcast, Ja'miezing. Written, directed, performed, and produced by comedian Chris Lilley, Ja'miezing is a narrative podcast series that features the intimate details of the post-high school life of the character Ja’mie. The podcast launched following Lilley’s online cancellation which resulted in his previous mockumentary television shows being removed from Netflix and the Australian Broadcast Corporation’s video-on-demand service, ABC iview. The study builds on the five dimensions of persona – public, mediatised, performative, collective, and value – by drawing on contributions from podcast studies to better understand the unique features and practices of podcast personas. It seeks to untangle the complex interplay between the intertextual and intercommunicative connections of podcast producer, host, character, platform, and audience micropublics as they contribute to the online presentation of the podcast’s persona. The article highlights the potential of podcast personas as a unique form of a non-human online persona that requires further investigation. This approach also has implications for how to consider other forms of mediated communication with online personas.
The social robot? Analyzing whether and how the telepresence robot AV1 affords socialization
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Telepresence robots are increasingly used in schools as a way of including students who are unable to be physically present in the classroom with other students. The use of such robots is intended not just to help students follow their education but also to serve a social purpose. However, the extent to which the robots actually afford socializing needs to be explored further. This article analyzes how, to what extent, for whom, and under what circumstances the telepresence robot AV1 affords social contact for the heterogenous group of homebound Norwegian upper secondary school students. Building on Jenny Davis’ mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances, we focus on how AV1 affords for different students in specific circumstances. Our analysis draws on interviews with 11 upper secondary school students in Norway and finds that individual traits and circumstances such as health issues and social networks are important aspects when assessing whether a technology affords socializing. Based on our findings, we argue for expanding the mechanisms and conditions framework to include not just its current focus on perception, dexterity, and cultural and institutional legitimacy, but also the users’ emotions.
Telepresence robots are increasingly used in schools as a way of including students who are unable to be physically present in the classroom with other students. The use of such robots is intended not just to help students follow their education but also to serve a social purpose. However, the extent to which the robots actually afford socializing needs to be explored further. This article analyzes how, to what extent, for whom, and under what circumstances the telepresence robot AV1 affords social contact for the heterogenous group of homebound Norwegian upper secondary school students. Building on Jenny Davis’ mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances, we focus on how AV1 affords for different students in specific circumstances. Our analysis draws on interviews with 11 upper secondary school students in Norway and finds that individual traits and circumstances such as health issues and social networks are important aspects when assessing whether a technology affords socializing. Based on our findings, we argue for expanding the mechanisms and conditions framework to include not just its current focus on perception, dexterity, and cultural and institutional legitimacy, but also the users’ emotions.
Arendt in the Metaverse: Four properties of eXtended Reality that imperil factual truth and democracy
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article explores the democratic implications of the wide adoption of XR (eXtended Reality) technologies, drawing on Hannah Arendt’s political theory and her concept of common reality. Arendt argues that the intersubjective construction of a common reality is what enables the establishment of factual truth and that both are prerequisites for a functional democracy. Without them, ideology can be established as truth by anti-democratic forces with power over media outlets, paving a path toward totalitarianism. This article argues that XR technologies can be used to inhibit the construction of a common reality through the same individualization of media experiences that has been shown to impede democratic processes in the social media context. The companies generating increased revenue through individualized micro-segmentation are now also vying for dominance in the XR media arena. It is argued in this article that such individualization can impede the co-construction of a common reality and a factual truth because XR media are hyper-persuasive and capable of altering an individual’s overall perception of reality. The viability of such platform-controlled individualization in XR is demonstrated through an Arendt-based critique of four properties related to XR technologies: Hypertargeted personalization, false memory creation, reality indistinguishability, and predictive processing theory. Based on these analyses, the article concludes that XR policy and regulation must consider how XR gives platforms unprecedented persuasive powers as they become capable of altering a user’s reality perception remotely and how, per Arendt, this may threaten democracy.
This article explores the democratic implications of the wide adoption of XR (eXtended Reality) technologies, drawing on Hannah Arendt’s political theory and her concept of common reality. Arendt argues that the intersubjective construction of a common reality is what enables the establishment of factual truth and that both are prerequisites for a functional democracy. Without them, ideology can be established as truth by anti-democratic forces with power over media outlets, paving a path toward totalitarianism. This article argues that XR technologies can be used to inhibit the construction of a common reality through the same individualization of media experiences that has been shown to impede democratic processes in the social media context. The companies generating increased revenue through individualized micro-segmentation are now also vying for dominance in the XR media arena. It is argued in this article that such individualization can impede the co-construction of a common reality and a factual truth because XR media are hyper-persuasive and capable of altering an individual’s overall perception of reality. The viability of such platform-controlled individualization in XR is demonstrated through an Arendt-based critique of four properties related to XR technologies: Hypertargeted personalization, false memory creation, reality indistinguishability, and predictive processing theory. Based on these analyses, the article concludes that XR policy and regulation must consider how XR gives platforms unprecedented persuasive powers as they become capable of altering a user’s reality perception remotely and how, per Arendt, this may threaten democracy.
Making immersive storytelling accessible: Interactive low-tech implementation in elementary school civic learning
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Immersive storytelling (IST) is usually conceptualized within the framework of technologically immersive tools such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While these tools offer some unique features (such as visual fidelity, interactivity, and embodied, first-person perspective), their level of technological immersion (based on the system’s objective qualities) might not directly translate to the psychological immersion experienced by the user. Such tools also tend to require access to digital or financial resources unavailable to many schools. We propose a low-tech alternative approach leveraging storytelling’s power for learning through affordable, accessible, and familiar classroom technology – Google Slides. We used the Participatory Learning framework to generate curricular design principles that aim to create a sense of psychological immersion through active participation in technology-mediated storytelling. In this design case study paper, we describe the design of a 10-day unit on Native American history implemented across nine teachers’ elementary school classrooms in the US. We examine the interplay between pedagogical and technological constraints in the design process, the role of the theoretical framework in the design, and conclude by detailing future directions for research on low-tech immersive storytelling environments.
Immersive storytelling (IST) is usually conceptualized within the framework of technologically immersive tools such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While these tools offer some unique features (such as visual fidelity, interactivity, and embodied, first-person perspective), their level of technological immersion (based on the system’s objective qualities) might not directly translate to the psychological immersion experienced by the user. Such tools also tend to require access to digital or financial resources unavailable to many schools. We propose a low-tech alternative approach leveraging storytelling’s power for learning through affordable, accessible, and familiar classroom technology – Google Slides. We used the Participatory Learning framework to generate curricular design principles that aim to create a sense of psychological immersion through active participation in technology-mediated storytelling. In this design case study paper, we describe the design of a 10-day unit on Native American history implemented across nine teachers’ elementary school classrooms in the US. We examine the interplay between pedagogical and technological constraints in the design process, the role of the theoretical framework in the design, and conclude by detailing future directions for research on low-tech immersive storytelling environments.
Platformed solidarity: Examining the performative politics of Twitter hashflags
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This paper conceptualises platformed solidarity, describing how platforms change their affordances to support particular social justice causes, sometimes temporarily, and often in response to current events. Such actions allow platforms to perform their support of different interests in response to issues such as racial and gender equality or pro-democratic aims, among other examples. In each case, a specific feature of the platform is modified to visibly promote support, altering how their users experience these spaces. In doing so, these interventions highlight how major platforms demonstrate their politics, raising questions about the differences between the politics that they publicly portray and policies they enact. This paper explores platformed solidarity through an extended examination of Twitter hashflags, typically temporary visuals attached to hashtags of particular commercial, social, and political interests and offering affective emphasis to selected content. While the bulk of hashflags are commercial products, created in partnership with brands to encourage engagement and promotion of a campaign or product, there have been a number of hashflags for major events and causes, from elections to selected social justice campaigns. We suggest that examples of platformed solidarity can elucidate what global platforms see as their role and influence in public communication. However, this raises important questions about what causes, events, and groups are deemed worthy of platformed solidarity? What values do they represent and how – if at all – are these supported by platforms’ policy decisions regarding the same issues? We suggest that, whether cynical or well-intentioned, these surface-level interventions do not always necessarily align with higher-order corporate priorities and decision-making. As such, we suggest that platformed solidarity is a corporate tactic that can have overlap with considerations of ‘woke capitalism’, where visible gestures towards causes and issues are made but underpinned by platforms’ missions to maintain high user numbers, grow engagement, and profit.
This paper conceptualises platformed solidarity, describing how platforms change their affordances to support particular social justice causes, sometimes temporarily, and often in response to current events. Such actions allow platforms to perform their support of different interests in response to issues such as racial and gender equality or pro-democratic aims, among other examples. In each case, a specific feature of the platform is modified to visibly promote support, altering how their users experience these spaces. In doing so, these interventions highlight how major platforms demonstrate their politics, raising questions about the differences between the politics that they publicly portray and policies they enact. This paper explores platformed solidarity through an extended examination of Twitter hashflags, typically temporary visuals attached to hashtags of particular commercial, social, and political interests and offering affective emphasis to selected content. While the bulk of hashflags are commercial products, created in partnership with brands to encourage engagement and promotion of a campaign or product, there have been a number of hashflags for major events and causes, from elections to selected social justice campaigns. We suggest that examples of platformed solidarity can elucidate what global platforms see as their role and influence in public communication. However, this raises important questions about what causes, events, and groups are deemed worthy of platformed solidarity? What values do they represent and how – if at all – are these supported by platforms’ policy decisions regarding the same issues? We suggest that, whether cynical or well-intentioned, these surface-level interventions do not always necessarily align with higher-order corporate priorities and decision-making. As such, we suggest that platformed solidarity is a corporate tactic that can have overlap with considerations of ‘woke capitalism’, where visible gestures towards causes and issues are made but underpinned by platforms’ missions to maintain high user numbers, grow engagement, and profit.