ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between proactive content production and the notion of connection with other people in any given user community. The political aspects of creativity as a mode of connection are seen as an expression of market logic with broader spheres of political engagement and participatory democracy. The chapter examines the notion of consumer-subject as located through a complex matrix of recognition. In relation to this, it begins to consider Web 2.0 functionality in relation to a number of key dimensions, including: creativity, connectivity, agency, individual identity; it also considers the ‘trade-off argument’ concerning personal data, digital rights and digital labour. The chapter discusses how notions of demonstrable consumption and competitive self-interest are embedded in market societies, and contextualises the tension between this market society logic and contrary notions of mutuality in ethics debates. The chapter then concludes by showing how these ethics debates shape a distinction between utilitarian interest-as-advantage and ludic interest-as-curiosity in the contemporary media ecosystem.
