ABSTRACT
Try fi nding a popular media product these days that does not contain “interactive” capabilities-prompts for consumers to click a choice, transmit a text message, or post a response, all mechanisms designed to include users in the production process. Blockbuster television franchises convert interactivity into stunning marketing profi ts and unprecedented consumer loyalty. New media authors, including bloggers and “citizen journalists,” champion interactivity as well, touting its possibilities for democratizing coverage, developing peer-adjudicated editorial standards, and promoting fresh aesthetics. Interactivity is both a tool of mass-media expansion and an eff ort to undermine top-down regulation, manipulation, and consolidation of media content and style.
