Collaboration, Connections and Consequences – A study of cultural intermediation within the ABC Pool institutional online community Jonathon Hutchinson BA (Media and Communication) (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology June 2013 2 Abstract This thesis investigates how the different interests of the stakeholders within an institutional online community intersect and how those interests are negotiated within a public service broadcaster (PSB), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). An institutional online community is defined as an online community operating within a public, commercial or non- commercial institution and not an open, independently facilitated online community. In the context of a rapidly changing media landscape in which audiences no longer only watch and consume content but now also actively participate in the making and sharing of media content, what does it mean to be a public broadcaster? How are the co-creative activities of the PSB and its audience mediated? These questions prompted my three-year ethnographic study of ABC Pool (www.abc.net.au/pool), the user-generated content space in the Radio Multiplatform and Content Development division. In endeavoring to explore the core research problems, I worked as the community manager. This thesis will also describe the community manager role as one type of intermediary within a PSB as it negotiates the challenges and opportunities of a shift towards a more participatory and co-creative media landscape. The thesis demonstrates a new approach towards the cultural intermediation of user created content within institutional online communities. That is, understanding the explicit multiple modes of intermediation for the collaborative production of cultural artifacts within the ABC. The research moves beyond the exploration of the community manager role as one type of Jonathon Hutchinson PhD Thesis iii intermediary to demonstrate the activities of multiple cultural intermediaries that engage in collaborative peer production. Collaborative production is not determined nor is it managed by one singular mediation device: it is the result of multiple mediations occurring simultaneously to manage the interests of all cultural production stakeholders. Cultural intermediation provides the basis for institutional online community governance. This thesis offers three models of institutional online community governance to accommodate the varying levels of decentralisation within co-creative environments. Finally, this thesis proposes further research of co-creative and collaborative activities in institutional online communities beyond the public service media organisation. iv Keywords Participatory Cultures, User-generated Content (UGC), Community Manager, Public Service Broadcaster (PSB), Public Service Media (PSM), Online Community, Institution, Creativity, Ethnographic Action Research, Cultural Intermediary, Cultural Intermediation, Cultural Practice Jonathon Hutchinson PhD Thesis v Table of Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ III! KEYWORDS ................................................................................................................ V! TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... VII! TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... XI! STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... XIII! PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIAL .......................................................................... XV! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ XVI! Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................................ 1! 1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................ 7! RQ1) How do the different interests of the stakeholders within an institutional online community intersect, and how are those interests negotiated? ................. 8! RQ2) What are the larger implications of institutional online communities within PSB? .................................................................................................................. 12! 1.2 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................... 14! 1.3 THE RESEARCH PROCESS ................................................................................... 16! 1.4 THE KEY ISSUES ................................................................................................. 22! 1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ................................................................................ 26! Chapter 2 – Locating online community within public service broadcasting and the ABC .......................................................................... 35! 2.1 COMMUNITY ....................................................................................................... 37! 2.1.1 Online Community ..................................................................................... 42! 2.1.2 Participatory Cultures ................................................................................ 48! Jonathon Hutchinson PhD Thesis vii 2.2 INSTITUTION ....................................................................................................... 54! 2.2.1 Opportunities and challenges of Institutions ............................................. 58! 2.3 PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING ....................................................................... 61! 2.3.1 The history of ABC Online ......................................................................... 65! 2.3.2 Collaboration within Public Service Broadcasting ..................................... 68! 2.4 COMMUNITY MANAGER ....................................................................................... 72! 2.4.1 The cultural intermediary ........................................................................... 77! 2.5 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 79! Chapter 3 – Methodology ............................................................................ 83! 3.1 ETHNOGRAPHIC ACTION RESEARCH .................................................................... 88! 3.1.1 Ethnographic Research ............................................................................. 88! 3.1.2 Participant Observation ............................................................................. 90! 3.1.3 Ethnographic Field Notes .......................................................................... 91! 3.1.4 Action Research ........................................................................................ 94! 3.1.5 Reflexivity .................................................................................................. 97! 3.2 SURVEY RESEARCH .......................................................................................... 100! 3.3 FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH ................................................................................ 102! 3.4 SEMI STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS ........................................................................ 104! 3.5 GROUNDED THEORY ......................................................................................... 105! Chapter 4 – ABC Pool ................................................................................ 109! 4.1 ABC POOL: THE REARVIEW MIRROR ................................................................. 112! 4.1.1 Developing Pool ...................................................................................... 114! 4.1.2 Pool as beta ............................................................................................ 122! 4.1.3 ABC Pool: Version 1.0 ............................................................................ 132! 4.2 THE TRIANGULATION OF ABC POOL .................................................................. 138! 4.2.1 Communication ....................................................................................... 140! viii 4.2.2 Creative feedback ................................................................................... 145! 4.2.3 Creative collaboration ............................................................................. 150! 4.3 ABC POOL STAKEHOLDERS .............................................................................. 158! 4.3.1 Pool participants: An online community? ................................................ 160! 4.3.2 The ABC Pool Team: co-creative facilitators .......................................... 165! 4.3.3 ABC as Institution: cultural facilitator ....................................................... 169! 4.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 174! 5. Cultural Intermediation – from community manager to cultural intermediaries ............................................................................................ 177! 5.1 MY EXPERIENCE IN THIS ROLE ........................................................................... 180! 5.1.1 Main$treaM ............................................................................................