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Co‐creation and New Media: The Entrepreneurial Work of Climbing Photographers in Digital Times
Author(s) -
Dumont Guillaume
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
anthropology of work review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.151
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1417
pISSN - 0883-024X
DOI - 10.1111/awr.12056
Subject(s) - climbing , livelihood , work (physics) , salient , business , digital content , value (mathematics) , media content , public relations , digital media , creative economy , sociology , political science , engineering , multimedia , creativity , computer science , mechanical engineering , structural engineering , machine learning , law , agriculture , ecology , biology
Abstract The term co‐creation refers to the emergence and rise of consumers’ participation in making and circulating media content, participation that has become a salient source of economic and symbolic value. The recuperation of this content for commercial purposes has been progressively acknowledged, but less is known about how these co‐creative practices shape the work of professional media producers. In this article, I investigate this issue by exploring the work of professional climbing photographers. Climbing magazines and brands now use consumers’ produced content and the latter circulates on the channels traditionally reserved for professional content. Professional photographers, therefore, have to develop different strategies to secure work opportunities, and their work is becoming increasingly multilayered. In addition, while the co‐creative practices may be pleasurable for consumers, their impacts on the work of professionals are not as they result in an increase of labor effort to sustain professionals’ livelihoods as media producers.