Distinction and Status Production on User-Generated Content Platforms: Using Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Production to Understand Social Dynamics in Online Fields

Author List: Levina, Natalia; Arriaga, Manuel;
Information Systems Research, 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3, Page 468-488.
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 <i>online field</i> 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.
Keywords: electronic commerce;social media;user-generated content;status;power;Bourdieu practice theory;network analysis
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#131 0.197 media social content user-generated ugc blogs study online traditional popularity suggest different discourse news making anonymity marketing videos choices page
#100 0.176 affective concepts role questions game gaming production games logic play shaping frames future network natural processes evidence addresses reference theorizing
#127 0.114 systems information research theory implications practice discussed findings field paper practitioners role general important key grounded researchers domain new identified
#28 0.104 cultural culture differences cross-cultural states united status national cultures japanese studies japan influence comparison versus china participants country singapore diverse
#98 0.091 platform platforms dynamics ecosystem greater generation open ecosystems evolution two-sided technologies investigate generations migration services implications interplay disruptive control markets
#111 0.072 e-government collective sociomaterial material institutions actors practice particular organizational routines practices relations mindfulness different analysis ways draw agencies drawing ideas
#175 0.062 taxonomy systems different concept isd alternative generalization mechanistic distinction types generalizability theoretical speech richer induction original form inductive empirical organic