Participation as commodity: a conceptual approach to different forms of users’ implication in collaborative audiovisual projects

Abstract

This paper focuses on the concept of participation, widely used —and also contested— in relation to the engagement of users in the creation of media content.on the Internet. Particularly, our interest lies in the participation of publics in the design, development and diffusion of complex media products, such as feature films, webseries or transmedia projects. Even if most of the academic debates on user agency, in terms of participation, are connected to content sharing platforms —which rely heavily on user–generated content—, or the so–called social media, the engagement of individuals in participatory–related media projects becomes an important contribution to the delimitation and reevaluation of key concepts around the engagement of users in cultural production processes.