ABSTRACT
This chapter looks to the case study of social media platform owner Grandex, Inc. to see how users can manipulate those two factors to co-opt the potential argumentative power of participatory culture. Corporate investment in sites that host participatory culture raises serious questions about the ability to create user centered communities on social media platforms. Social media platforms rely on their users to act as both content providers and content consumers, but ultimately, they look to advertising as their major source of income. Social media sites take many different approaches to organizing their home pages. An emphasis on internet users’ ability to take part in creating the media they consume is a defining characteristic of participatory culture, which seeks to increase the number of voices able to participate in conversation online and create a more democratic media system. Critics commonly complain that participatory culture is exploitative because sites ask users to provide content without compensation.
