Democratization of the process of fan video production in the context of cultural logic of late capitalism

Relevance of the study. With the spread of the Internet, fans have become so visible that their creativity, practices and perceptions have influenced on popular culture in general. Nowadays, the logic of a convergence culture manifests itself not only at the level of communication or at the level of cultural production, it is embedded in the means of production at the level of technology, automating the process of interaction of fans with platforms in such a way as to provide the platform with the greatest benefit. An analysis of the development of fan vidding across two platforms - YouTube and TikTok - allows us to examine the relationship between fans and media producers in terms of cultural and economic transformations, described in terms of “late capitalism” and “platform capitalism”. Purpose. Pick out the features of the transformation and construction of meanings in fan vids of Russian-language fandom culture on two different platforms - YouTube and TikTok. Methods. The research is based on a set of qualitative methods, seeking to integrate ethnographic (participatory observation, questionnaire survey), semiotic and psychoanalytic approaches to the analysis of fan vids. The dialectical method applied to the analysis of the relationship between fans and media producers allows us to describe their development and contradictions. Research result. 1. TikTok - fan vids has a more complex structure, referring to a larger number of contexts, however, the interpretation process itself becomes more standard and algorithmic due to the simplicity of the means and the presence of a large number of unified templates that facilitate instant recognition. 2. TikTok - fan vids is becoming more mainstream and typified - but at the same time is intended to demonstrate the individuality of a person, having standardized mechanisms for expressing this individuality. The built-in author's tag anchors the vidder's connection to their product by associating personal identity with self-expression through the practice of vidding. 3. Due to the simplification of the workflow, fan vids created and / or posted on TikTok, in comparison with YouTube, are more determined by the situational context, they are more focused on a specific audience and are often interactive. User interface features facilitate communication and grouping by interests, strengthening the collective identity of users. Thus, changes in the video creation process and the specifics of a specific site have an impact on the content produced and the culture of vidding itself, changing many key aspects, despite the fact that the techniques used by vidders to the text of the canon remain largely the same. Conclusions. By strengthening the connection between a vidder's identity with its product and the platform itself, TikTok turns identity into a core user exploitation mechanism. At the same time, the complete transformation of fans into passive and exploited consumers also seems to us impossible: this process proceeds as a struggle and must be understood dialectically.

Keywords

Authors

References