Issue 6.
Natalia Sokolova
Natalia Sokolova is Professor in the Department of Sociology of the University of Samara (Russia, the Volga region). She is the Director of the M.A programme ‘Digital Media and Internet’. She received her doctorate in Philosophy from the Moscow State University and she completed her post-doctoral research [doktorskaia dissertatsiia] at the University of Samara in 2010. Her research project was devoted to vernacular online practices and the transformation of popular culture under the influence of new media. Her research interests include critical theory of media, new media, cultural theory, visual studies and gender studies. Her publications in Russian include Popular Culture Web 2.0: Mapping Modern Media-landscape (Samara, 2009) and articles on aesthetics and the politics of popular and fan culture. She is currently researching Russian transmedia with a particular focus on the role of audiences in its production.
6.1 ‘This is your show!’ Mass Creative Practices in Transmedial Projects
In this article, I examine the role of mass creative, predominantly online practices in forming and maintaining transmedial projects in the realm of popular culture. Unlike other studies that explore amateur practices from the perspective of an aesthetical canon, high and low cultures, professional and amateur activities, I focus on them in a wider socio-cultural context and interpret them as practices built in the contemporary models of cultural production. I demonstrate how transmedia reflect the contradictory nature of contemporary popular culture: they provide opportunities for mass creativity and, at the same time, signify total commodification of amateur practices. I use Invasion, Metro 2033 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as my case studies.
Language of contribution: Russian