can practice theories inspire new insights into youtube consumption studies

Can Practice Theories Inspire New Insights into YouTube Can Practice Theories Inspire New Insights into YouTube

Consumption Studies?Consumption Studies?

Jie Gu

8 October 2009

The Australian National UniversityThe Australian National University

IntroductionIntroduction

What: A practice approach to study new media consumption

Why: The rise of Web 2.0 sites and users’ new participatory practices

How: YouTube as a case A review of old Internet use studies Two main themes from practice theories A proposed model for YouTube consumption

Old FrameworksOld Frameworks New ChallengesNew Challenges

ritualistic motivations

instrumental motivations

demographics

Internet addiction

…

STRUCTURALU&G TECHNOLOGY

access

availability

web repertoire

Internet structures…

attitude

perceived use of use

perceptions

technology expertise

…

Old Frameworks New ChallengesOld Frameworks New Challenges

Weakness

• The gap between individual and structural

• The blankness in ‘how to’ consume in subtleties

Challenges

• New media practices in everyday life, blogging, photo and video sharing

• Shifted research focus to a specific website

CF. Cox et al. (2008)―Flickr user behaviours

Yeo (forthcoming)―YouTube user behaviours

Practice Theories and Consumption StudiesPractice Theories and Consumption Studies

Theoretical Foundations

• Schatzki (1996) and Rouse (2007)’s normative understanding practice frameworks

• Warde (2005) and Couldry (2004)’s existing applications

Two Main Themes

• Human activity embedded in the organization of practice

• Practice as a spatially-temporally unfolded entity

Activity Embedded in PracticeActivity Embedded in Practice key elements

Individual level practice level rule Intention understandingdesire belief emotion

people material equipment competencetask&project

understandings should do this practice

correctly,acceptably, contradictorily,…

objective conditions

can do and have to do this practice depending on material availability, competence level, …

activities

Activity Embedded in PracticeActivity Embedded in Practice

Preconditions of Using Practice Approach

• Warde: Use of specific goods or services (cars) is a moment occurring in a social practice (motoring practices)

Shove and Pantzar (2005)―Use of Nordic walk

sticks Nordic walking practices

Watson and Shove (2008)―Craft

consumption DIY practices

• I will add: only if the use of specific goods or services is not an optional or marginal component of a practice but a starting point a practice deve- -lops only from that and centres primarily round that.

how to watch videos as media textshow to consume youtube as media services

video broadcasting practice


Advantages of Using Practice Approach

• Practice approach adds more explanatory parameters particularly by those key elements at the level of practice

Nordic walking

practices DIY practices

competence, image and product

competence, project and producer

key elements at practice level

knowledge of filming and editing videos media literacy (Hartley 2009)

video equipment performance skill

YouTube technologies and services, …

video broadcasting


Research Task of Using Practice Approach

• Identify the key elements of YouTube broadcasting practices

• Explain the variance in consumption pattern with users’ understandings and objective conditions of implementing video broadcasting practices

consumption behaviours

understandings of key elements exhibited in consumption behaviours

objective conditionsof implementing key elements

Spatially-Temporally Unfolded PracticeSpatially-Temporally Unfolded Practice

Spatial Property of Practice

• Different practices interact and interlace with each other

• An individual pursues plural practices

• Participants interact with each other

Existing Applications

• Couldry: inserts media consumption-based practices into other social practices and then study the coordination

Cornelio et al. (2007)―YouTubing Playful practices

Roig et al. (2009)―Videogaming Playful practices

Shove and Pantzar (2007)― film-based photographing practice Digital photographing

Floorball practices Surrounding teaching practices


Research Implications and Tasks

individual YouTubing practice

TV watching

previous video making

weblogging

facebooking

others?

individual

individual

individual


Temporal Property of Practice

• Practices are usually carried out in a routine style but also subject to change due to some unpredictable internal and external factors

• Routine: Habitus, ritualization, …

• Change: New technologies or things changing circumstances new opportunities personnel changes new ideas …


Research Implications and Tasks

• Involve a dimension of time to look at how and why consumption patterns evolve with the practice

• Exploring the factors that might affect people’s entry into, development with and even withdraw from the use of YouTube

Advantages of Using Practice Approach

• Extend consumption to the flow and texture of everyday life

• Stress the routine and recursive character of consumption and also justify its evolving and changing patterns with a long-term perspective

key elements

understandings objective conditions

consumption patterns

equipment competenceYouTube service

intention commitmentunderstanding

TV watching

broadcasting practices

Pre-youtubevideo making

socialmedia use

generalinternet use

user

demographics

technological innovation

social and cultural change

personal change

ConclusionConclusion

New media consumption studies benefit from the practice approach mainly in terms of:

• An better understanding of the influences from users’ new participatory practices

• An integrated model including more explanatory factors while not falling victim to individualism and wholism

Thank you for attention!Thank you for attention!

Jie Gu

Ph.D Candidate School of Humanities Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 [email protected]

can practice theories inspire new insights into youtube consumption studies

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