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Distinction and status production on user-generated content platforms : using Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Production to understand social dynamics in online fields
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Levina, Natalia and Arriaga, Manuel (2014) Distinction and status production on user-generated content platforms : using Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Production to understand social dynamics in online fields. Information Systems Research, 25 (3). pp. 468-488. doi:10.1287/isre.2014.0535 ISSN 1047-7047.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2014.0535
Abstract
In this paper, we propose an analytical lens for studying social status production processes across a wide variety of user-generated content (UGC) platforms. Various streams of research, including those focused on social network analysis in social media, online communities, reputation systems, blogs, and multiplayer games, have discussed social status production online in ways that are diverse and incompatible. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of fields of cultural production, we introduce the notion of an online field and associated sociological concepts to help explain how diverse types of producers and consumers of content jointly generate unique power relations online. We elaborate on what role external resources and status markers may play in shaping social dynamics in online fields. Using this unifying theory we are able to integrate previous research findings and propose an explanation of social processes behind both the similarity across UGC platforms, which all offer multiple ways of pursuing distinction through content production, as well as the differences across such platforms in terms of which distinctions matter. We elaborate what role platform design choices play in shaping which forms of distinction count and how they are pursued as well as implications these have for status gaining strategies. We conclude the paper by suggesting how our theory can be used in future qualitative and quantitative research studies.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | User-generated content, Social media, Bourdieu, Pierre, 1930-2002 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Information Systems Research | ||||||
| Publisher: | Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1047-7047 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 25 September 2014 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 25 | ||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 468-488 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1287/isre.2014.0535 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 23 February 2018 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 23 February 2018 |
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