TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. THE PROPOSED TITLE 2

2. THE PROPOSED SUPERVISORS AND THEIR CREDENTIALS 2

3. INTRODUCTION / ABSTRACT 4

3.1 Abstract 4

3.2 Introduction 5

4. PROGRAM OF RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATION 6

4.1 Research Problem 6

4.2 Individual Contribution to the Research Team 7

5. DESIGN OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH 7

5.1 Methodology and Research Plan 7

5.2 Collaborative Arrangement Evidence 13

5.3 Timeline for Completion of the Program 13

5.4 Preliminary Literature Review 14

5.5 Coursework 19

6. RESEARCH ETHICS / STATEMENT 19

7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STATEMENT 19

8. HEALTH AND SAFETY STATEMENT 19

9. REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY 19

1. THE PROPOSED TITLE

Collaboration, Connections, and Consequences - A Study into Social Media
Production and the Communities that Surround User-Generated Content (UGC).

Thesis Type: By Publication

2. THE PROPOSED SUPERVISORS AND THEIR CREDENTIALS

Principal Supervisor - Associate Professor Axel Bruns
Dr Axel Bruns is an Associate Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty at
Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He is a Chief
Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
(CCi), and a Senior Researcher in the Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre.

Bruns is the author of Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production
to Produsage (2008) and Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production
(2005), and the editor of Uses of Blogs with Joanne Jacobs (2006; all released by
Peter Lang, New York). In 1997, Bruns was a co-founder of the premier online
academic publisher M/C - Media and Culture, which publishes M/C Journal and M/C
Reviews, and he continues to serve as M/C's General Editor. In 2000, he also co-
founded dotlit: The Online Journal of Creative Writing with Donna Lee Brien and
Philip Neilsen from QUT's Creative Writing and Cultural Studies discipline. Bruns was
the Web developer responsible for QUT's streaming media station EMIT, which
began Webcasting in 2002.

Bruns' research interests are in produsage (or collaborative user-led content

development), blogging, citizen journalism, online publishing, virtual communities,
creative industries, creative hypertext writing, and popular music studies. He has
published a variety of articles in these fields, many of which can be found at
snurb.info and Produsage.org. He also contributes to the Gatewatching.org group
blog with Jason Wilson and Barry Saunders.

Associate Supervisors
Dr John Banks
Dr John Banks is a research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries
and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology. He was awarded his PhD in
the field of Cultural Studies from the University of Queensland in 2005. His research
interests focus on the interface between media corporations and user-led innovation,
user-created content and consumer co-creation. He has a particular interest in
videogames. He also has an interest in developing models grounded in complexity
theory, evolutionary economic theory, game theory, social network analysis and
computational adaptive multi-agent modeling for understanding and analysing these
co-creative relationships.

From 2000-2005 Banks worked in the videogames industry for Australia based Auran
Games (www.auran.com) as an online community manager, focusing on the
development of user-led content creation networks; he has published widely on
research grounded in this industry background. Recent publications include:

2008 With Humphreys, S. “The Labour of User Co-Creators: Emergent Social

Network Markets?” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New
Media Technologies 14 (4): 401-18
2009 “Co-creative Expertise: Auran Games and Fury – A Case Study” Media
International Australia No 130, February: 77-89.
2009 With Deuze, M. “Co-Creative Labour” International Journal of Cultural Studies
12.5 September: 419-431.
2010 With Burgess, J. “User-Created Content and Online Social Networks” Media

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and Communication in Australia 3rd ed. Graham Turner and Stuart Cunningham,
(eds). Allen and Unwin: Sydney. 295-306.
2010 With Potts, J. “Co-creating Games: A Co-evolutionary Analysis” New Media &
Society 12(2): 253-270.

He also recently completed a book manuscript, 'Making Co-creative Culture' this is

currently under consideration by a leading publisher for publication in 2010-2011.

Oksana Zelenko
Oksana Zelenko is a design researcher in the Creative Industries Faculty, School of
Art and Design. She recently completed her PhD thesis on the use of new media and
interaction design to promote children's resilience. She has worked as the interface
designer and researcher on ARC funded projects including developing a world first in
online visual counselling as part of the QUT Online Visual Counselling Tools project.
The new software is currently used by young people across Australia and the Kids
Helpline, Australia’s largest youth counseling organization. She designed interactive
learning objects for use by university students, and has worked as a designer and
researcher on the QUT Resilient Children and Communities Project, based in the
Centre for Health Research, QUT.

Zelenko has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels across the fields of
visual communication, interaction design, electronic creative writing, design of media
communication resources, virtual cultures and environments, digital media production
and contemporary issues in design. She has presented her research at national and
international conferences, including the UN sponsored conference on Engaging
Communities. She is currently a co-editor and contributor to a forthcoming
international volume of interdisciplinary practice-based research entitled Design and
Ethics.

Zelenko's broader practice includes the design of interactive and educational

programs for cross-cultural training of medical staff working in remote regions across
the Pacific, online staff support modules for Queensland Government, and more
recently, the design of training modules for health workers at World Vision, China.

Zelenko, O, Felton, E, Vaughan, S. (Eds) Design and Ethics:

Reflections on Practice, Sense. Forthcoming 2011.  

Beattie, D, Cunningham, S, Jones, R, Zelenko, O. (2006) “I use online

so the counselors can’t hear me crying’: Creating Design Solutions for
Online Counselling”, Media International Australia: Culture & Policy,
No. 118, pp. 43-52.

Zelenko, O. and Hamilton, J. G. (2008) Empowering children as participants

in designing resilience strengthening online tools. In: ED-Media 2008—World
Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications,
June 30-July 4, 2008, Austria.

Associate External Supervisor

Sherre DeLys
Sherre DeLys is an audio artist, acting Executive Producer Music at Radio National,
and Executive Producer of ABC's Pool. As founder of Pool, DeLys worked with new
media researchers, a small team of ABC producers, and community members to

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establish a collaborative online space inviting the former audience into an open-
ended process of co-creation within a creative commons/open-source framework.

DeLys’ own collaborative radio art has been commissioned by national broadcasters
and artist-run internet stations, exhibited at The Pompidou Centre and Kiasma
Modern Art Museum Helsinki, presented at Sydney Opera House and Chicago
Cultural Center, podcast by The Guardian, and awarded international jury prizes. She
co-founded Mind/ Body/ Split, a group of improvising musicians using pirated and
found texts, electronics, tapes, and instrumental sounds. DeLys has created sound
designs for STC, hosted conversations with musicians for ABCTV, and has published
widely.

DeLys is an Associate member of the Centre for Media Arts Innovation at the
University of Technology Sydney. She was one of 3 ABC staff selected as trainees
for ABC’s first ‘New Media’ division in 1994, and was awarded the Australia Council
New Media Arts Fellowship in 2002. She has taught at many of Sydney’s university
media and arts courses and provided professional workshops and master classes for
radio feature makers in Europe, U.S.A, and Australasia. She regularly presents at
conferences, festivals, and has published in numerous journals.

DeLys, S and Marius F 2006, ‘The Exchange: A Radio-Web Project for Creative
Practitioners and Researchers’, Convergence: The International Journal of Research
into New Media Technologies, vol. 12, pp 129 – 135.
DeLys, S 1996, ‘The Lyre’s Island: Some Australian Music, Sound Art and Design,
curated by Doug Kahn - Contributors’ Notes’, Leonardo Music Journal, vol. 6, pp.
111-112.
DeLys, S 2010, ‘Out There’, in J Biewen & A Dilworth (eds), Reality Radio: Telling
True Stories in Sound, 1st edn. University of North Carolina Press, North Carolina,
pp.86 – 95.
DeLys, S, Jacobs, J, Bunt, B, Foley, M 2007 ‘The Pool Project’, IEEE MultiMedia, vol.
14, no. 4, pp.c2, 1, 4.

3. INTRODUCTION / ABSTRACT
3.1 Abstract
This research investigates how user-generated content and related audience
activities are in the process of transforming and challenging public broadcasters such
as the ABC. In the context of a rapidly changing media landscape in which
audiences no longer 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? I consider these issues by undertaking a three-year ethnographic study
of ABC Pool, the user-generated content space in the Multiplatform and Content
Development department, working as the Community Manager. This project will also
consider and describe the Community Manager role within a public broadcaster
organisation as it negotiates the challenges and opportunities of a shift towards a
more participatory and co-creative media landscape.

3.2 Introduction
The rationale supporting this research is based on the growing increase of user-
generated content within media organisations. The research investigates convergent
media cultures that are increasingly characterized by media consumers and
audiences that participate in media creation with professional media organisations
(Banks & Potts 2010; Burgess & Green 2009; Jenkins 2006). My research project

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specifically examines these topics in the context of the production of creative content
in the ABC’s online research and development community, Pool.

Pool is the online space providing an opportunity to incorporate social media into the
ABC. The inclusion of user-generated content into broadcast production presents
both challenges and opportunities for the community members, traditional media
producers, and the public broadcaster. I will be observing, participating in and
mapping the changes that occur over the next three years within this space. How do
the Pool community members, the ABC staff, the institution, the technology, and the
design of Pool interrelate with each other? How do these actors negotiate these
relationships? What are the outcomes of these interactions? How will the ABC Pool
project evolve to incorporate these changes? I will approach these questions by
documenting the dynamics of Pool from my perspective as the Community Manager.

The Community Manager role fundamentally involves mediating the relationship

between the ABC Pool production team, ABC management, and the online
community of Pool users. The role also entails enabling, encouraging, and assisting
a community of volunteers to perform tasks within their online community. (Bacon
2009) As a Community Manager at ABC Pool, I will contribute to editorial meetings,
collaborate with producers utilizing UGC for radio productions, and engage with Pool
producers on strategies to govern the space and practice. Additionally the role
includes overseeing the daily operations of the site, moderating submitted content,
conversing and interacting with the community members, stimulating development
and discussion within the forums, and situating the Pool community within a wider
audience. This role fundamentally involves mediating the relationship between the
ABC pool production team, ABC management, and the online community of Pool
users.

This study investigates participatory media cultures in which audiences and

consumers increasingly produce creative content within the Australian national
broadcaster. Within this context, I will address the overarching questions: can a
creative community such as Pool self manage? What are the contributing factors
surrounding the formation of this type of community? What are the challenges
surrounding developing such an approach? How will the Pool community members,
Pool production team and ABC staff understand and negotiate potential tensions and
conflicts of shifting to such an approach? My research will address possible cultural
shifts from grass roots input within this public media organisation.

Foundational Research
The proposed research rests on an established body of knowledge I have acquired of
this field, namely my recently completed Honours Research on user-generated
content with broadcast outcomes in the ABC Pool community. As part of that study, I
have developed an understanding of who the “super users” are and their goals
through creative contribution to the online community. These users are key
participants and informants for this research. I also have an understanding of the
ABC from the work I did as a Research Assistant in 2009. This provided a way to
meet the key stakeholders within the organisation, and to further deepen my
understanding of the culture.

My previous research is an important foundation for this project’s methodology.

Having developed a preliminary understanding of the online community, I am able to
design the research phases more effectively and select appropriate tools for data
collection and analysis. I have established the following preliminary themes:
 The areas of interest for the Pool community members,

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  An initial understanding of the existing tensions between the ABC staff and
the Pool community of users as the ABC incorporates participatory media,
 How technology and design both enables and constrains use of the platform,
 What the role of the Social Media Producer involves,
 Who are willing participants for focus groups and in-depth interviews,
 Who is incorporating social media into their publishing practices at the ABC,
 How the Pool production team design and engage with their guidelines.

4. PROGRAM OF RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATION

4.1 Research Problem
The overarching question this research project addresses is how does user-
generated content and the communities surrounding this activity challenge and
transform public broadcasters such as the ABC? The inclusion of Pool’s user-
generated content into broadcast production at the ABC challenges the relationships
between the actors involved, including the pool community members, ABC staff, the
institution, the technology, and the design of the platform. My placement as a
community manager within Pool enables me to explore first-hand how the larger
framework of the ABC incorporates this type of activity, and what challenges and
opportunities arise.

My approach to this overall question breaks down into a number of constituent

elements.

First, I will examine the membership of the Pool community using my role as the
community manager. By interacting with the users who submit content, post
commentary and participate in discussions I will develop insights into the types of
interactions that make up the Pool community dynamic. I will ask does the Pool
community membership include students, media practitioners, artists, co-creators,
collaborators, audience members, or ABC staff? I will collect these data using
surveys.

Second, I will explore how the participants engage with the Pool space. Are they
engaging by submitting media content only, or do they engage in other ways? What
types of interactions sustain the Pool community? I will use content analysis of
participant’s contributions to highlight the answers to this question.

Third, as the community manager, I will establish why the users participate in Pool.
Early indications suggest that Pool users participate for many reasons including
exclusivity of membership, the opportunity to collaborate, community involvement,
creativity and inspiration. Pool is associated with the ABC brand, which may also
suggest that users are participating to gain recognition from the ABC and to have the
chance of their work being used by the ABC. Pool may also be used as a space to
store and display the community member’s creative works. I will conduct surveys,
focus groups, and in-depth interviews to establish why Pool users engage in the way
they do.

Fourth, mapping and analysing how the users interconnect with each other will allow
me to address the question of how they work together as a broader community. Who
tends to stimulate production? What types of activities occur? What is considered
appropriate conduct as negotiated by the Pool members? I will also examine the
conditions surrounding heightened participation and what relationship this has to the
broader patterns of how the ‘community’ operates. I will utilise focus groups to gather
initial data, followed by social mapping to understand how these data relate to each
other within the organisation of the community.

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Fifth, I will examine how community managers mediate relationships between users
and professional media producers. How can I understand what motivates users to
participate in Pool? Based on this knowledge how can I assist them to do what they
want to do? Therefore the aim of my role is to understand the conditions which shape
community management roles for the participants and the community. The extent of
my intervention is determined and shaped by the dynamic of the Pool community
including what actions I undertake, how I deliver/perform and when. This forms part
of the action research component of my ethnographic work and is informed by my
systematic approach through focus groups and in-depth interviews.

Sixth, working as the community manager allows me to work with managerial staff at
the ABC. These relationships will begin to answer the questions surrounding what a
project like Pool contributes to the ABC. Through my embedding as a researcher at
the ABC, I have an understanding of the operational policies, for example editorial
policies, and I can examine how this affects a community of user-generated content
practitioners. The outcomes presented through my interventions will assist in
answering how UGC and its surrounding communities fit in with the ABC’s mission of
being a public broadcaster. I will conduct in-depth interviews and focus groups with
ABC staff to establish approaches and attitudes to user-generated practices. I will
also gather data from other industry professionals working with online communities
contributing user-generated content, to identify similar or alternative approaches
outside the ABC.

Lastly, by understanding projects such as Pool and ABC Open as pilot projects for
the further incorporation of UGC into the operations of the ABC, I will be able to
explore what this may mean for the ABC in the future. What can we learn from these
projects that can be included into future projects? How does the ABC need to shift
and moderate their policies? If the frameworks were different, what could user-
generated content potentially do for the ABC?

4.2 Individual Contribution to the Research Team - NA

5. DESIGN OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH

5.1 Methodology and Research Plan
This proposed research will draw on principles of qualitative research. More
specifically I will use an ethnographic methodology that incorporates aspects of
action research. Other qualitative research instruments such as focus groups will
supplement this ethnographic approach.

Ethnographic Action Research

By being embedded within the Pool community and situated within the ABC this
research adopts an ethnographic methodology. Ethnography provides a way to
approach social research through participant observation. Hammersley and Atkinson
(1995) define ethnography as a methodology that:

“involves the ethnographer participating, overtly or covertly, in people’s daily

lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what
is said, asking questions – in fact, collecting whatever data are available to
throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research.” (Hammersley &
Atkinson 1995: 11)

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The ethnographic participant observation approach enables me to collect rich
qualitative data about both this community and the professional ABC staff and
managers working on the Pool project. Ethnographic participant observation
however, is not objective, (Fine 2003) and does not claim to be (Hammersley &
Atkinson 1995). I am aware of my subjective position within this work as a participant
observer and indeed as a community manager working on the Pool project, and will
carefully manage the reflexivity implications of this intervention. My distinct position
as community manager provides first hand access to the community and thereby
allows me to undertake fine-grained and richly textured descriptive research. This
approach allows me to gain access to everyday practices and the participants’
understandings of their community (Hammersley & Atkinson 1995; Tacchi, Slater &
Hearn 2003). My project draws on similarities with past research projects within the
media and cultural disciplines that adopt ethnographic methodology to investigate
both online communities and media organisations.

Georgina Born’s seminal work Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of
the BBC (2004) was a ten-year ethnographic research project on the BBC. During
this time she was able to gain a thorough understanding of the cultures within the
BBC, whilst observing the change of two of its historically significant leaders. This
ethnographic work provides an important study of the world’s largest public
broadcaster. Nancy Baym’s ethnographic research of online fan communities
provides another example of applying ethnographic methodology within the media
field. Her book Tune In Log On (2000) is the result of long-term involvement with the
online community Rec.Arts.Television.Soaps (R.A.T.S.). Within this research Baym
was able to gain an understanding of who participates in these online forums, how
they actually do this and what their incentives are. An experienced ethnographer,
Baym outlines at the offset of her study her role as an active participant in the
communities she studies, and the subjective nature of her involvement within the
space. These works provide helpful models for undertaking ethnographic research
that I will draw on.

The specific nature of my engagement with the ABC and the Pool project has the
implication that it is not simply broadly ethnographic research but more specifically
ethnographic action research. “Action research means integrating your research into
the development of your project.” (Tacchi, Slater & Hearn 2003) Unlike the work of
Born, for example, my project sees me actively involved in the community as the
community manager. This position sees me working with the ABC team and offering
advice. I am placed between the ABC management team and the Pool community in
a mediating role that seeks to improve Pool’s operations and the ABC’s engagement
with Pool’s community of users. The research constitutes ethnographic action
research as my direct interventions within the site and relationships seek to inform
and potentially improve the research participants’ practices.

John Banks’s research of the online gamer communities in the context of a computer
games development company (2002) provides an example that demonstrates
ethnographic long-term placement in the workplace environment. Banks was
employed by Auran Games in the capacity of online community manager. His
research also sought to guide and improve the company’s online community
management strategies. Unlike Banks, I am not employed by the ABC to undertake
this research eliminating the implications surrounding an employment relationship. In
that regard, my project has greater similarities to the HeartNET project undertaken by
Leesa Costello (Bonniface) (2004). The objective of Costello’s project was to assess
the impacts of a shared experience with other heart patients within an online support
community. (Bonniface & Green 2007) To gain a better understanding of the patients

8
involved with this community, Costello became the community manager of HeartNET,
responsible for building and engaging with this particular group of participants.
Through her active participation within the community, Costello was able to advise
and improve the lives of participants within the HeartNET community.

The position of the researcher within these projects has to be carefully managed.
“The possibility of doing harm, however, was carefully weighed against the likelihood
of ‘doing good’, as members valued and seemed to benefit from these discussions.”
(Bonniface & Green 2007) Costello suggests here that the methodological and
ethical implications of such active participation within the community need to be
carefully and sensitively managed. Ethnographic research has the potential to
intervene with the relationships studied, causing a blurring of the boundaries of the
research. (Hammersley & Atkinson 1995)

Data Collection Methods

The following elements, participant observation, field notes, focus groups, in-depth
interviews, and data analysis are the key components in my research methodology:

Participant Observation
Participant observation is a broad research method designed to help researchers to
comparatively analyse what participants say they do within the community.
“Participant Observation means engaging with people in as many different situations
as possible” (Tacchi, Slater & Hearn 2003). This method remains the characteristic
feature of the ethnographic approach and is crucial for understanding the people and
the culture surrounding this research topic. I will undertake this method from a “first-
hand experience.” (Atkinson et al. 2005)

The participant observational approach is crucial to my research. As the researcher, I

place myself within a position to understand what the community actually does and
how they do it – not just what they say they do. Undertaking the role of the
Community Manager of Pool allows me to do this in the most suitable way as I
interact both with the whole community and with individual community members.
Interaction is performed in many ways including designing “call outs” with broadcast
outcomes, and commenting on a user’s latest contribution. This engagement
provides me with greater interaction and feedback from the community. The Pool
members are willing to share their motivations to produce content, their criticisms on
the current iteration of the user interface, and are motivated to develop broader
online networks with other Pool members.

Field Notes
Starting on my first day at the ABC as a participant observer, I have been keeping
detailed field notes on day-to-day events. These contain my thoughts, interpretations
and insights of these events. They also include emerging themes and relationships
for correlation in the mind mapping software that I am using. To date I have identified
the following broad themes: convergent culture, examples of user-led innovation, and
Community Manager insights. This process allows me to create graphic
representations of data for further analysis.

Each day I spend an hour documenting community interactions throughout the day
within a wiki. Examples of daily occurrences include – a phone call, a conversation,
or an action that helps one of the community members. These notes can be basic or
descriptive, or can be more analytical or conceptual. (Tacchi, Slater & Hearn 2003)

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By incorporating these concepts into a mind mapping software, the relationship and
interaction of emerging themes becomes apparent.

Field notes constitute a key research method of the first twelve months of research.
The resulted themes will help outline relationships that surround Pool and its
community. I anticipate I will have clearly identified potential areas around how the
site is managed, why people are creating content, and where the future of Pool may
lie. I will have also identified the key participants within Pool, relevant ABC staff, and
beneficial external individuals. This will not only benefit my research process by
providing a starting point for focus group research, but will also address the outlined
development to social media practices within the ABC outlined in the research
problem. At this time, I will also have completed my comprehensive literature review.

Participants
The participants involved are Pool community members, key ABC staff, and other
external individuals who serve as Community Managers within their online
communities. Participants from Pool will include a mixture of the Community Editors
and creative contributors who are active members. The key ABC staff will be Pool
team members, management in the Multiplatform and Content Division, other people
involved in ABC online communities (for example Hungry Beast moderators,
Unearthed Super Users, Online News moderators), and upper levels of
management, ideally including ABC Managing Director Mark Scott. External industry
contacts Alison Michalk at Fairfax Digital’s Essential Baby, and Venessa Paech at
Lonely Planet will provide additional insights into the role of the Community Manager.
I am already connected to these external contacts through the Australian Community
Managers Roundtable that meet regularly to exchange information from their
respective communities.

Focus Groups
I will conduct focus groups as part of the research process. A focus group is a small
group of participants, usually eight to ten from the same community that are gathered
to talk about emerging areas of the research project. (Breen 2006) The purpose of
conducting focus groups is to gain insights into the benefits of group dynamics -
conversation that might not emerge in one-on-one interviews, where conversation is
directed. (Tacchi, Slater & Hearn 2003) I will play a significant role in this process, as
it is my job as a Community Manager to stimulate and facilitate the discussion and
maintain focus, while not inhibiting any interesting developments. I will use a set of
open-ended questions to prompt the discussion. The questions may include the
preliminary themes and relationships emerging from my field notes.

The areas to be discussed will emerge through my participant observation fieldwork.

My field notes suggest the following themes are beginning to emerge: Pool’s
democratic space, a flat hierarchy of management, the next stages of Pool, and the
impact of Pool on a wider audience.

The selection criteria for the focus group’s participants will be constructed and
finalised as the fieldwork research progresses. For example, even at this early stage
of research the more vocal and constructive members are becoming obvious, along
with the more engaged users, suggesting these users for peopled ethnography.
Similarly, I am talking with ABC staff to gain insight on who has informed opinions on
these emerging research topics.

I acknowledge that I am based in Sydney and this will provide a geographical

location for most cases of participants taking part in focus groups. I have included

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field trips to Melbourne and Brisbane to incorporate a wider Australian voice into this
process. Quantitative data indicates that the majority of users are located in Sydney
and Melbourne. It is likely these focus groups will address the open structure of Pool,
the approach to Pool management, and the wider impacts of the Pool community.

In-Depth Interviews
I will undertake in-depth and semi-structured interviews. Interviews are a research
tool that “…aim to get the other person to tell their own story in their own words and
in their own way.” (Tacchi, Slater & Hearn 2003) This method of research works on a
more refined set of themes to discuss in a one-on-one basis with people directly
involved with Pool, and involved with online communities. In-depth interviews will
occur during 2011. The interview schedule will build on the outcomes of focus
groups. It will also incorporate the foundational research, and the data from
participant-observer fieldwork.

Feedback Forms
My research design is based upon an iterative process, making feedback essential to
its development and refinement. I will endeavour to encourage feedback from the
Pool community through my role as the Community Manager. Upon ethical approval
my email address will become available for personal communication. The Pool
website also has a feedback form set up, providing information on a regular basis
from the community members.

As I deploy the community management strategies, I will monitor their impact upon
the community. From previous research, I know the community members are
considerate with information, and if the feedback will improve their site, they
contribute their views openly. I will instigate a call for feedback as each action project
is rolled out. This call will be performed through a site wide email, and then by
individually emailing the more vocal Pool respondents. This information will also be
entered into a log journal, where colour coding will highlight common responses from
the community.

Data Analysis
The techniques and research tools described above outline how I will collect raw field
data, enabling me to understand and address the core research questions and
topics. In ethnography, time is spent daily to understand what issues are emerging,
develop ideas and interpretations to pursue through further investigation, and explore
the ideas through all of the different types of material I am gathering. (Tacchi, Slater
& Hearn 2003) I will be able to identify and analyse relevant themes and issues from
the gathered data. The data analysis is important because it establishes
developmental answers central to the unknown issues in the research problem. The
established findings will assist in understanding what the community wants and
where the shift in agency to a read/write culture may occur.

During the methods of participant observation, field notes, focus groups, and in-depth
interviews, I will adopt an approach that Hammersley and Atkinson suggest as
organizing themes. These organizing themes are “based on folk models: the terms,
images, and ideas that are current in the culture itself,” (Atkinson et al. 2005)
suggesting a structure of categories and frameworks the participants use to
understand current practices and relationships. Early indications suggest ideas
surrounding Pool’s development and incorporating enabling technology are emerging
from the community participants. Additionally models addressing community

11
interactions that highlight new ways of managing the community, or possibly self-
regulation, are appearing. These areas suggest how to group themes together from a
participant’s perspective.

The data analysis will highlight where research gaps appear and where further work
is needed, allowing additional research to take place. This is an iterative cycle, where
the research is informing the practice as detailed information is extracted from the
gathered data.

Social Mapping and Contextualising

This research method asks the participants to plot out where they see the boundaries
of their space. Within this project, I am asking the participants to refine their
understandings of community within the online space of Pool. For example, how do
they understand the interactions with each other to define their community? Through
social analysis, I will begin to understand how the community socially interacts with
each other. “Categories of production, exchange, organization, communication and
inquiry will be used in order to organize and give shape to the information.” (James,
Phipps & Mulligan 2004) I will then visually represent these key thematic concepts to
provide an understanding of how they interact with and co-depend upon each other.
It also assists in answering the research problem visually, which becomes critical
within my second and third year of research as I begin to merge my field data with
existing field literature.

I am modelling the proposed project’s methodology on an approach utilised in the

2007 project for the Australian Federal Election that relied on citizen journalism and
user-created content. Youdecide 2007 draws on connecting the significance of co-
created media within an online community and professional media organisations.
This project incorporated participating communities and achieved “a cycle of
developing and promoting online resources, evaluating their impact in the Australian
mediasphere and public sphere,” and provided “insights for further initiatives in
citizen journalism and online political communication.” (Flew & Wilson 2008) The
cycle of development and evaluation aligns with my methodology by incorporating
the field research data from the Pool community into the research process.

I am also incorporating techniques used by another participative online community

project with a Community Manager for Western Australians who suffer heart-related
episodes. The project included two stages; stage one analysed the online community
to understand how it functions, while stage two followed up with interviews of the
community members to further understand these behaviours. (Bonniface, Green &
Swanson 2005) The HeartNET methodology provides an example on which I am
modelling my research to explain how Pool functions, and why it functions this way.

My research process will unfold chronologically in the following order: participant

observation with field notes, focus groups, in-depth interviews, data analysis, and
social mapping and contextualising. At the completion of my second year, I will have
collected a considerable amount of data. This includes understanding the
characteristics of the community, the position of the community within the ABC, and
the role of the Community Manager amongst the tension of participatory media within
a public broadcaster. The findings will inform the overarching issue of social
production. Do the participants freely offer their production skills to the media
organisation, or are there other reasons why they participate within this community?
The research findings will not only inform the ABC but also outline the significance of
social media projects within other online spaces. I will analyse and interpret the data
during the final year.

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5.2 Collaborative Arrangement Evidence
This research project is working in collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation as I am embedded within the Multiplatform and Content Department’s
research and development online social media space, Pool. Currently this role sees
me physically positioned within Radio National, providing access to the various in-
house producers that are located at ABC Ultimo. I have access to online
departments, including the managerial teams of these spaces.

Within this partnership, the ABC has agreed to allow access to departments and
information where necessary for my research. For further information on any
conditions by the ABC, please refer to the attached Role description and External
MOU.

5.3 Timeline for Completion of the Program

5.4 Preliminary Literature Review

The current state of the media landscape is “highly volatile and altered” due to “the
explosion of Web 2.0 services and associated user-generated content.”
(Cunningham & Turner 2010: 2) The impact of user-created content is felt across
many industries, “but we need to move beyond a celebratory marveling at the
phenomenon of user-created content and to focus on how to think systematically
about this phenomenon.” (Banks & Potts 2010: 254) Participatory cultures have
shifted from the edge of economic models to the core (Jenkins 2006), bringing with
them complex relationships between the organization and the communities involved
(Burgess & Banks 2009). Media organisations acknowledge the need for
participatory media, and even recognize the potential that exists within the crowd.
Common practice for organisations is to provide and even develop a community of
“users” for their product. How to manage these communities and the relationships
within their creative communities poses the greatest challenge.

The idea of participatory and convergent cultures developed by Henry Jenkins is the
starting point for this study, placing the project within the disciplines of media studies

13
and cultural studies. Participatory media is noted in Henry Jenkins’ Convergence
Culture (2006), and is supported by the work on the networked economy in Yochai
Benkler’s book, Wealth of Networks (2006). Both authors argue for the importance of
the consumer perspective upon changing media and cultural practices. Jenkins
suggests the media we produce and consume is convergent, although he concludes
media convergence is crossing over into a political space. Benkler (2006) notes that
through improved technologies, Web 2.0 and the Internet, we are more inclined to
socially produce. Improved production possibilities may contribute to the popularity of
the Internet and provide people with tools to participate. Pool was created as a
platform to demonstrate this increased opportunity to produce and publish content.

The characteristics of convergence cultures are incessantly being negotiated.

Jenkins describes the phenomenon as “where old and new media collide, where
grass roots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer
and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways.” (Jenkins 2006:
6) The boundary lines of mass communication are repositioning. The producer and
the consumer are partly taking on each other’s role in a way that neither is
completely certain about. “Convergence is customarily used to describe the
dissolving distinctions between media systems, media content and the resulting trade
between systems.” (Cunningham & Turner 2010: 6) The cultural characteristics also
imply it is not just media that is converging; it is a convergence of policy, industry,
and technology. (Dijck 2009)

Technology is of significance and impacts upon this research, particularly the

enabling aspect of technology literature. Key scholars engaging with this discussion
are Raymond Williams (1989) and Jonathon Zittrain (2008). How we use these
technologies has significance upon the technology itself with vast social impacts.
“People say ‘television has altered the world’, or ‘radio has altered the world’, or,
reaching further back, ‘printing altered the world’. And we usually, at first, know what
these statements mean. Evident and widespread social effects have undoubtedly
followed the uses of all these inventions. But then, in expanding the statements in
this way, we have already – and sometimes without noticing it – introduced a further
category: that of uses.” (Williams 1989: 175). The technology surrounding user-
generated content has improved social networking, but it is the flow on from this
concept that is of mass social significance. “The Web 2.0 concept captured features
that have long been seen as central to the Web as a communication infrastructure,
such as the scope for mass participation, real-time interactivity, collaborative
learning, and social networking.” (Flew & Wilson 2008: 25) It is these “uses” that
provide opportunities and complications for public media organisations.

Technology development does not determine the social and communicative

opportunities within Pool, however technology does shape the way in how the space
is used. Jonathan Zittrain approaches this “locked down” or “gated” situation versus a
generative approach. Generativity provides “accessibility to people all over the world
– people without particular credentials or wealth or connections – who can share the
technologies’ power for various ends many of which were unanticipated or, if
anticipated, would never have been thought to be valuable” (Zittrain 2007: 51) This
generative approach impacts upon Pool and its approach towards open design. Pool
has been designed incorporating the lowest barrier to entry by utilizing a flat and non-
gated platform. However is this really the case? What is the effect of these “gates”
that appear when design is introduced to Pool?

Zittrain also suggests within his book The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It,
the innovative edge of the Internet is under threat. If we are locked into platforms, or

14
proprietary systems, how can new ideas emerge from within our existing practices?
Zittrain outlines four specific areas of generativity, additional to the description above,
that engage the openness of design. The design must have strong leverage against
possible tasks; it must adapt to the range of tasks; it must be easy to master; and it
must be accessible. (Zittrain 2008) How does this idea of generativity shape the Pool
space considering the community’s wants, desires, and technological aptitude?

In addition to technology, media organisations in general are grappling with ideas

surrounding user-generated content including policy and distribution. There has been
a mixed reaction to accessing content; some media organisations are embracing the
new query culture (Lovink & Scholz 2007) while others are locking down access.
(Burgess & Banks 2009; Green & Jenkins 2009) The evolving audience is informed,
educated, and inspired to engage and contribute to the conversation, however they
too are struggling with the interrelationship of the media organisation. (Jenkins 2006)
A new publishing space has been established for users to contribute their creative
work, enabling new community practices within media organisations. This incentive is
the importance of user-created content impacting on culture and media
organisations, leading to a continually renegotiated relationship between audience
and broadcasters. (Burgess & Banks 2009)

The extent of involvement of the participating audience is unclear, however it is

obvious the inclusion of this external opinion is crucial to media practice. “Consumer
participation is also increasingly part of the environment in which media professionals
do their traditional production work. Their daily work practices and routines are
unsettled and challenged by the need to involve increasingly demanding and unruly
users in the process of making and circulating media content.” (Burgess & Banks
2009: 300) This emerging idea of the shifting expertise between professional and
amateur is current within the media industry field. The professional media producers
of the ABC recognize the skills present within the participating audience, but how
they incorporate these “unruly users” is the challenge faced by this media
organisation. An opportunity exists within this research to examine the effects on the
ABC workforce including the audience media production within their daily work
practices.

This signifies the importance of understanding the characteristics of the members

can vary greatly whilst investigating the types of participant communities constituting
an ABC user-generated community. “Their motivations may be purely personal and
expressive; they may be driven by a desire to form and participate in communities of
interest; or their participation may be entrepreneurial in nature (building an audience,
aspiring to a career)” (Burgess & Banks 2009: 299). The characteristics expressed
here are significant to those of the Pool community. This is obvious within earlier
observational work done this year on Pool, and compliments the work done by the
Australasian Centre of Interactive Design (ACID) during 2009. The Interim Report
released outlined the following:

“Students saw Pool as a place to display their work, to build a portfolio and a
professional reputation. Other users came to Pool with the simple intent of storing
their work… To others, story telling was a main motivator… To these people, Pool
could be a great collection and archive of Australian stories, and one that they wish
to contribute to.” (Foley et al. 2009: 11)

Emerging literature takes this discussion further by introducing new incentives or

motivations for participating audiences. In Co-creating Games: a co-evolutionary
analysis (2010), John Banks and Jason Potts suggest fans participate for reasons

15
other than market driven desires. A relationship exists between different and even
conflicting incentives for these types of audiences to engage with creative content. It
is apparent that incentives such as professional stature are as enticing as monetary
gain within organisations that are non-market orientated. Scholars are debating the
characteristics of these relationships between market and non-market, commercial
and non-commercial and how the participants position themselves and participate
within these organisations.

Fans and prosumers are well aware of the tension existing between the often gift
economy incentives and motivations for making and sharing user-generated content
and the more bottom-line profit driven incentives of commercial media platform
owners. Henry Jenkins and Joshua Green refer to these tensions and conflicts as the
“moral economy” implications of user-generated content. The ABC is a non-
commercial media organisation, but operates within a media market. The participants
of the co-created spaces associated with the ABC therefore do not have the
opportunity to commercially benefit from the content they are producing. Why then
does the audience participate if it is not for the mutual benefit of knowledge or to gain
commercial benefits? Is it as Banks and Potts suggest, for professional leverage?
For the moment, a temporary understanding has been realized, strengthened within
the produsage example. Bruns outlines in his description of produsage, “a more
benign corporate embrace may produce benefits to both industry and community…
Positive commercial take-up of produsage ideas and principles will similarly help to
accelerate trends while maintaining industry sustainability.” (Bruns 2008: 24)

As this paradigm shift occurs between the producer and the consumer, and expertise
transfers between the two, “this requires media companies to recognize and respect
the contribution of media consumers’ expertise in the context of a co-creative
relationship for mutual benefit.” (Banks 2009: 15) Banks suggests this approach is
indeed positive for traditional gatekeepers to pursue as new knowledge and
techniques are established and negotiated. However it is a negotiation that relies
upon “co-creation,” (Banks 2002) a practice still being negotiated by consumers and
producers. Within the context of this research project, the ABC is that producer that
gains from the potential benefits, yet what these benefits are is still unclear.

Critical approaches and perspectives on user-generated content are also currently

emerging through the works of scholars such as Benkler (2006), Shirky (2008), Bruns
(2008), and Jenkins (2006) who all believe in the social benefits demonstrated
through co-creation as a practice: “it is possible for creative work of individuals
participating in the blogosphere, on photo-, music-, and videosharing sites, and in the
other related environments to be seen by millions, and it is possible for individuals
therefore to emerge as the new stars of these grassroots communities at least for a
short moment.” (Bruns 2008: 32) Greater exposure to a wider audience is merely the
beginning for these types of “prosumers.” (Toffler 1980) “Shareable goods” as Yochai
Benkler describes them, provide an insight into larger social implications. By
removing the market, a typical economic approach of supply and demand, essentially
the inferior products disappear “thereby improving the overall quality of supply.”
(Benkler 2005: 281) The need for governance begins to fall away in this instance as
a true democratic, flat hierarchy begins to emerge. These reasons may be the
motivations to contributing to participatory online communities.

These critical approaches also address the current debate surrounding social
production – are media organisations exploiting a free labour force to produce
content, (Green & Jenkins 2009; Lovink & Scholz 2007) or is there a deeper, non-
market social benefit? (Benkler 2006; Bruns 2008; Lessig 2004; Shirky 2008) “Free

16
Culture” as Lovink (2007) points out, “is blossoming,” but what is constituted as over-
use of the “gift economy” and user generated content? This labour practice has been
referred to by Lovink and Scholz as “a form of unpaid outsourcing of creative labour,
contributing to the downsizing of internal production teams.” (Lovink & Scholz 2007)
The cost savings an organisation could potentially make on this business model
provides more than enough incentive to encourage incorporation of user-created
content within their practices. “Now it doesn’t matter where the laborers are – they
might be down the block, they might be in Indonesia – as long as they are connected
to the network.” (Howe 2006)

These perspectives are both different and competing about the practice of user-
created content. Scholars such as Scholz and Lovink are criticizing the work of
Jenkins for ignoring questions such as labour implications of user-generated content.
This research provides an opportunity to contribute to these debates by considering
how these activities impact on the working lives of media professionals at a public
broadcaster.

Institutionalized media professionals are negotiating the significance of user-

generated content upon their own practice. The role of the Community Manager is
key to understanding this relationship, or tension as it referred to, between the
professional and the amateur. The Community Manager at Pool acts as a translator
between the community members and the broadcast professionals. At times neither
agency completely understands the other, and has been referred to as “herding cats”
by Jono Bacon. There is little literature published on this role of managing a
community, particularly within a public broadcaster. Laurel Papworth provides a
contextual insight into this Community Manager position in her blog, “The Business
of Being Social.”

A Community Manager does have traits common amongst most online communities.
“Our function as community leaders is to enable people to be the best they can in the
community that they have chosen to be a part of. Our job is to help our community
members achieve their greatest ambitions, and to help them work with other
community members to realize not only their own personal goals, but the goals of the
community itself.” (Bacon 2009: 6) Understanding the goals of the Pool community
within the ABC presents a reason to investigate this group of “prosumers.” (Toffler
1980) Managing the inclusion of user involvement at the ABC, coupled with the
surrounding policy, suggests a dichotomy of anxiety and reward. The generated
literature this investigation produces will become a resource for other Community
Managers within public broadcasters.

Incorporating the Community Manager within this context highlights a shift between
the producers and the consumers. The transformation of expertise may be apparent
and builds on the work by Axel Bruns around produsage. “It highlights that within the
communities which engage in the collaborative creation and extension of information
and knowledge… the role of consumer and even that of end user have long
disappeared, and the distinctions between producers and users of content have
faded into comparative insignificance.” (Bruns 2008: 42) The participants of Pool are
part of this movement that erases the distinctions between producer and consumer of
creative content, whether they are aware of it or not. Either way, they are a key group
to study the effects of produsage on the public broadcaster.

There is perhaps a need for professionals and amateurs to work together in these
relationships, possibly more so now than before. “In reality, it is not true that there is
a participatory ‘revolution’ occurring, in which amateur content producers are simply

17
taking over from media professionals” (Burgess & Green 2009: 15). This Burgess
and Green quote confirms a connection Pool has between the participant community
and the broadcaster. Both the professional and the amateur have a creative story to
tell, and a certain voice to project on the production of this creative content. The
ideas displayed by the crowd demonstrate a new voice and direction, strengthened
by the professional skill the in-house ABC media professionals can contribute.

Pool is the ideal space and online community to examine the outlined gaps in
knowledge. As a user case, the research and findings from Pool will contribute to
current and emerging debates within the media and cultural studies disciplines.

5.5 Coursework
IFN001 Advanced Information Retrieval Skills (AIRS) aims to improve my research
skills in the library databases, journals, books and online material. It encourages me
to find appropriate search terms within my research field, include generic search
functionality, engage with advanced systems like RSS feeds, and document my
research adequately using Endnote software. There are no prescribed texts for this
program and assessment is within a reflective journal and reflective log that records
my progress.

KKP601 Approaches to Enquiry within the Creative Industries furthers this research
by critically evaluating the relevance of the information I am farming. It is useful to
understand the structure of post-graduate work, approach the research using
alternative frameworks, understand academic protocols like ethics and plagiarism,
and how to use critical enquiry. The assessment works in conjunction with this stage
2 document, as I have to present an oral presentation on my methodology and a
3000-word literature review. Key readings include:
Denzin, Norman K. and Lincoln Yvonna S. (2000) Introduction. In Denzin, Norman K.
and Lincoln, Yvonna S (Eds.) The Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand
Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.

6. RESEARCH ETHICS / STATEMENT

I have submitted my application for ethics approval. I am applying for Human Low
Risk Ethical clearance, as I am mainly utilising information that is in the public
domain and from interviews, am screening participants, and I am excluding minors
within my research.

7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STATEMENT

QUT does own the intellectual property rights, I have signed the Assignment Deed,
and the paperwork is in progress.

8. HEALTH AND SAFETY STATEMENT

N/A

9. REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sources Cited:
Atkinson, P, Coffey, A, Delamont, S, Lofland, J & Lofland, L 2005, Handbook of
Ethnography, 3rd edn, Sage, London.
Bacon, J 2009, The Art of Community, O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol.
Banks, J 2002, 'Chapter 8: Gamers as CO-creators : Enlisting the Virtual Audience
- A Report from the Net Face', in M Balnaves, T O'Regan & J Sternberg
(eds), Mobilising the Audience, University of Queensland press, Brisbane,
p. 188.

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---- 2009, 'Co-Creative Expertise: Auran Games and Fury - A Case Study', Media
International Australia, vol. 130, p. 13.
Banks, J & Potts, J 2010, 'Co-creating Games: a co-evolutionary analysis', New
Media and Society, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 253 - 70.
Benkler, Y 2005, 'Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods and the Emergence of
Sharing as a Modality of Economic Production', The Yale Law Journal, vol.
114, no. 273, pp. 273 - 358.
---- 2006, The Wealth of Networks, 1st edn, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Bonniface, L & Green, L 2007, 'Finding a new kind of knowledge on the HeartNET
website', Health Information and Libraries Journal, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 67
-76.
Bonniface, L, Green, L & Swanson, M 2005, 'Affect and an Effective Online
Therapeutic Community', M/C Journal, vol. 8, no. 6.
Breen, R 2006, 'A practical Guide to Focus Group Research', Journal of
Geogrpaphy in Higher Education, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 463 - 75.
Bruns, A 2008, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to
Produsage, Peter Lang, New York.
Burgess, J & Banks, J 2009, 'User-created Content and Online Social Networks', in
S Cunningham & G Turner (eds), The Media and Communications in
Australia, 3 edn, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, pp. 295 - 306.
Burgess, J & Green, J 2009, YouTube: online video and participatory culture, Polity
Press, Cambridge.
Cunningham, S & Turner, G 2010, Media and Communication in Australia, 3 edn,
Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Dijck, Jv 2009, 'Users Like You? Theorizing agency in user-generated content',
Media, Culture & Society, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 41-58.
Fine, GA 2003, 'Towards a peopled ethnography : Developing theory from group
life', Ethnography, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 41 - 60.
Flew, T & Wilson, J 2008, 'Citizen Journalism and Political Participation - The
Youdecide 2007 project and the 2007 Australian Federal Election',
Australian Journal of Communication, vol. 35, no. 2, p. 22.
Foley, M, Yuille, J, Marmo, C & Stanton, R 2009, Pool User Research, Australasian
Cooperative Research Centre for Interactive Design, Melbourne.
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(eds), Media Industries: history theory and method, Wiley-Blackwell,
Maiden MA, pp. 213 - 25 & 31 - 44.
Hammersley, M & Atkinson, P 1995, Ethnography Principles in Practice,
Routledge, London.
Howe, J 2006, The Rise of Crowdsourcing, Wired Magazine, viewed 12th March
2010 2010,
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds_pr.html>.
James, P, Phipps, P & Mulligan, M 2004, Community Sustainability.info, RMIT
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Jenkins, H 2006, Convergence Culture - Where Old and New Media Collide, 1st edn,
New York University Press.
Lessig, L 2004, Free Culture, The Penguin Press, New York.
Lovink, G & Scholz, T 2007, The Art of Free Cooperation, Autonomedia, New York.

19
Shirky, C 2008, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organising without
Organisations, Allen Lane, New York.
Tacchi, J, Slater, D & Hearn, G 2003, Ethnographic Action Research - A User's
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Toffler, A 1980, The Third Wave, Bantam, New York.
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49.
---- 2008, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop it., 1st edn, Yale University
Press, London.

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