Collaborative Media: Production, Consumption, and Design Interventions

by Jonas Lowgren, Bo Reimer

A thorough analysis of contemporary digital media practices, showing how people increasingly not only consume but also produce and even design media. With many new forms of digital media–including such popular social media as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr—the people formerly known as the audience no longer only consume but also produce and even design media. Jonas Löwgren and Bo Reimer term this phenomenon collaborative media, and in this book they investigate the qualities and characteristics of these forms of media in terms of what they enable people to do. They do so through an interdisciplinary research approach that combines the social sciences and humanities traditions of empirical and theoretical work with practice-based, design-oriented interventions.

Löwgren and Reimer offer analysis and a series of illuminating case studies—examples of projects in collaborative media that range from small multidisciplinary research experiments to commercial projects used by millions of people. Löwgren and Reimer discuss the case studies at three levels of society and the role of collaborative media in societal change; institutions and the relationship of collaborative media with established media structures; and tribes, the nurturing of small communities within a large technical infrastructure. They conclude by advocating an interventionist turn within social analysis and media design.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2013

Reviews

[Mikal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was another challenging read, like: Where The Action Is, Smart Things and Pervasive Information Architecture. It also seemed to be quite longer than it's length (208 pages) portends.

Ultimately finishing this book was rewarding. It is comprised of rich information and the author makes intersections that are not obvious.

I do have a big concern that this book isn't quite what its description offers. In the first line of the Book Description, "Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr" appear as examples. Yet, save for the introductory chapter (expanding the audience of those interested in their book) they don't get more than a few sentences of mention or a single case study within the book.

The reason for this distinction is based on the fact that the authors (Jonas Lowgren and Bo Reimer) take a broader definition of collaborative media than even their book description alludes. Collaborative media as the authors describe it takes an equal interest in Machinima as it does in technical documentation production and collaborative video discovery and production. With such a broad scope, many of which with niche communities or audiences, the book is not one of focused concentration but one that weaves together various intersecting threads.

The breadth leads to a challenge of obfuscation, for example here is the best "definition" of collaborative media I found:

Thus, what we focus on, and want to delineate, is the specificities of certain media as forms for practice; the specificities of what they can make possible. Collaborative media is a particular cultural form for collaborative, mediated practice.

Löwgren, Jonas; Reimer, Bo (2013-11-15). Collaborative Media: Production, Consumption, and Design Interventions (Kindle Locations 308-310). The MIT Press. Kindle Edition.

The break down of the factors of collaborative media is interesting- the authors friend that there are three phases, design, production, and consumption and these phases produce two types of materials: infrastructure and text. Further the authors point out the productions and the design that occurs during consumption, by consuming "media texts" viewers of youtube shape what is popular and what is related.

This framework alone is a strong contribution to the analysis of social media and considerations to take into account as you develop social media. Ultimately while the authors cast a wide net, with many of the returns lacking value, the nuggets and connections that are made through the authors deliberate study of their own research projects are novel and helps us take a closer lens to studying and identifying new opportunities and unmet needs in collaborative media landscapes.