New Publication: Consumer workers in the converging media markets
07.06.2012
Johanna Moisander, a faculty member of the Department of Communication, has just published an article on consumer work with Saara Könkkölä and Pikka-Maaria Laine. The article was published in International Journal of Consumer Studies and it deals with the strategic and productive roles that consumers play as immaterial labour or consumer workers in the converging media markets.
Consumer workers as immaterial labour in the converging media markets: three value-creation practices
Johanna Moisander, Saara Könkkölä and Pikka-Maaria Laine
Abstract
This paper takes a practice-based approach to consumer studies and focuses on the strategic and productive roles that consumers play as immaterial labour or consumer workers in the converging media markets. Based on a case study of a print media organization and its customers, the aim is to discuss the collaborative practices through which value is created in the market. By means of a textual analysis of online and interview data, three value- creation practices are abstracted and illustrated: constructing a sense of belonging and collective identity, mutual helping and peer support, and building pride and self-respect. Overall, the paper suggests that in global media environments, consumer-customers are playing increasingly significant strategic roles in the practices and processes through which value is co-created in the market. It is therefore concluded that the idea of consumers, and media audiences in particular, as recipients of communication and targets of marketing activities needs to be problematized and the dynamic strategic roles that consumers cur- rently play in the market need to be acknowledged and actively incorporated into the business praxis of media corporations.
Available online at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1470-6431/earlyview