Title
Towards a framework of publics: Re-encountering media sharing and its user
Abstract
Design and evaluation of user-generated media production and sharing in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) often focus on formal and informal media sharing, such as communication within social networks, automatic notifications of activities, and the exchange of digital artifacts. However, conceptual tools for understanding how people relate to the audiences they reach through these systems are limited. The increasing interest in user-generated content in HCI demands the infusion of new methods and theories that explicitly engage the construction and use of media within and among large groups of individuals and systems. In this paper, we suggest that the notion of “publics,” drawn from media theory, provides useful insights into user-driven, social, and cultural forms of technology use and digital content creation. We illustrate this by employing the notion of publics to the findings from a two-month deployment of a mobile photo sharing platform in a youth housing community. The results of this empirical work coupled with a theoretical examination of publics stimulate reflection on prevailing interpretations of user-designer-reader roles. The paper provides an outlook for potentially new and productive ways of understanding interdependencies within those activities. Implications that can be drawn from this work concern the role of digital media creation and sharing for the formation of collectives and how people position themselves collectively in relation to larger social groups and societal norms. The analysis suggests fruitful crossovers among HCI, Media Theory and New Media Research by approaching the user as both consumer and producer of digital content.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1145/1970378.1970379
ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact.
Keywords
Field
DocType
social network,digital media creation,digital content,re-encountering media,mobile photo sharing platform,digital artifact,larger social group,digital content creation,informal media,user-generated media production,media theory,new media,user generated content,public,social groups,digital media,human computer interaction,social networking
Media relations,Social group,Social network,Computer science,Media system dependency theory,New media,Digital artifact,Human–computer interaction,Digital content,Multimedia,Digital media
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
18
2
1073-0516
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
15
1.02
33
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Silvia Lindtner173057.44
Judy Chen2182.09
Gillian Hayes31852155.64
Paul Dourish48020900.72