This is our presentation for the ECREA Conference held in Istanbul on November 2012. Our research is being addressed at challenging the notions of popular crowd terms like 'crowdfunding' or 'crowdsourcing' and showing its limits regarding participatory media production. This presentation took place as a part of the Digital Culture and Communication workshop.

1. In the crowd: articulating participation
in complex media production
Antoni Roig, Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, Talia Leibovitz
(Universitat Oberta de Catalunya/ IN3)
ECREA: 4th European Communication Conference, Istanbul, 24-27 October, 2012

2. Research framework
Our interest in participation and collaboration practices in
complex media project like films and TV series heavily
relying on the web and social media.
Observation that ‘crowd' is used as an all-purpose tag to
refer to any kind of participation and engagement in
processes of media production.
Evidences that popular 'crowd' terms in media, like
'crowdsourcing' and 'crowdfunding' do not encompass
diversity of creative practices involved in participatory
media production.
Need for a critical approach

3. Starting position
Crowdsourcing is a biased concept, coming from
economics, which emphasizes:
- Problem solving
- Economical efficiency
- Embedment of consumer into product.
- Tasks
- Organization through calls or contests.
- Hierarchy
- A content/ provider relationship

4. Starting position
…and neglects
- Decision-making processes
- Participant recognition as creative agent
- Creation of a community.
(Deuze, 2008; Carpentier, 2011)

5. Research objectives
Contrast of established notions of crowdsourcing
with actual participatory media production
practices.
Identification of limits of crowdsourcing models in
media production.
Outlining of further categories and features
related to participatory media production.

6. Work-in-progress research
Identification of broad and established conceptualization of
crowdsourcing (Estellés and González, 2012).
Critical evaluation of definition in relation to media creation
Outline of a questionnaire for case analysis based on
participatory practices in media production (connected to
previous research).
Comparative analysis of ten cases according to the following
criteria:

Use of participatory discourses

Relevance according to scope and significance

Geographical, organizational and structural variations.

7. Crowdsourcing is a type of participative online activity in
which an individual, an institution, a non-profit
organization, or company proposes to a group of
individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity, and
number, via a flexible open call, the voluntary undertaking
of a task. The undertaking of the task, of variable
complexity and modularity, and in which the crowd should
participate bringing their work, money, knowledge and/or
experience, always entails mutual benefit. The user will
receive the satisfaction of a given type of need, be it
economic, social recognition, self-esteem, or the
development of individual skills, while the crowdsourcer
will obtain and utilize to their advantage what the user has
brought to the venture, whose form will depend on the type
of activity undertaken (Estellés & Gonzalez 2012)

8. Crowdsourcing in media creation
Crowdsourcing is not just about outsourcing
problems, not a production model.
The 'crowd' is made up of users and consumers
with a wide array of motivations.
Crowdfunding practices can be included in
crowdsourcing.

9. Questionnaire design
Six dimensions:
1) Self-presentation of the project (discourses)
2) Explicit aims and rules
3) Outline of production processes (what is opened)
4) Union bonds among participants (community)
5) Mechanisms of participation (how it is opened)
6) Legitimation of participants’ outcomes (user
output)

10. Cases
Empire Uncut (US) Collaborative filmmaking, remix
Iron Sky (Fin-Ger) Task-based filmmaking and community
engagement
The Cosmonaut (Sp) Crowdfunding and community engagement
A Swarm Of Angels Open source filmmaking and crowdsourcing
(UK)
El dietista (Sp) crowdfunding
Lost Zombies (US) Co-creation based on social networking
The entertainment Celebrity-mediated co-creation
experience (Nl)
Life in a day (UK-US) crowdsourcing
Gesamt (Dk) Celebrity-mediated collaborative filmmaking, remix
Arròs Movie (Sp) Crowdfunding and collaborative filmmaking

11. Comparative analysis
Re-appropriation Money Community Co-creation Work
Life in a day x x
Gesamt x x x
Arròs Movie x x x
El dietista x
Lost Zombies x x x
Entertainment x x x
experience
Empire Uncut x x x
The Cosmonaut x x x
Iron Sky x x x
A Swarm of Angels x x x x x

12. Conclusions
•Discourses on communities are ubiquitous, but it doesn’t
mean that an actual community is being fostered.
•Crowdsourcing doesn’t take into consideration the
empowerment of a community: they are looking for
engagement with a potential audience instead
•Crowdsourced projects are not necessarily co-creation; and
when it happens, it is usually restricted.
•All cases analyzed present some sort of hierarchical structure
•Maximization of participation: COMMUNITY+CO-
CREATION+WORK.

13. Future research
•Emphasis on motivations: why collaborate?
•What kinds of ‘WORK’? What possible categories could we
identify?
•Which are the mechanisms for building actual communities?
•Systematization of cases: towards a taxonomy of crowd-
based media projects.
•What do we mean as ‘significant parts’ in co-creation
projects?
•Financial sources and copyright issues.

14. Any que
s-
Thank you!!
tion
s ?
www.newmediapractices.org