Elisabetta Locatelli

Although the platformization process has been intensively studied, a better understanding is needed of how it has affected media dynamics such as the formation of media memory. The original contribution of this paper to the research field is, thus, to highlight the interrelatedness of issues, such as media memory, social media, and the platformization process that are usually considered independently...

Although the platformization process has been intensively studied, a better understanding is needed of how it has affected media dynamics such as the formation of media memory. The original contribution of this paper to the research field is, thus, to highlight the interrelatedness of issues, such as media memory, social media, and the platformization process that are usually considered independently. To achieve this, three theoretical frameworks ‒ media and memory, social media logic, and platformization ‒ will be bridged by means of the platformization of cultural production of Nieborg and Poell with the aim of analysing the case study of the Festival di Sanremo, chosen because of its relevance to the Italian mediascape, Italian cultural memory, and social media presence. The argument will demonstrate that the ongoing process of platformization of media memory is operating in three dimensions: archive, assemblage, and ephemerality. The analysis of the case proposed will also help to highlight the fact that the platformization process is not an unavoidable end, but that there are margins of resistance to it adopting digital platforms connected to mainstream social media ones though independent of them. Issues left open are the governance and the responsibility for custody of media memories, the risk of a fragmented use of archived contents, the decontextualization of media memories, their (mis)appropriation, manipulation, hegemonic selection, and the threat that media memory may become a commodity, reactivated only when necessary and at the mercy of social media platforms’ policies.

RIASSUNTO I blog sono stati i primi spazi online pensati come strumenti di empowerment dell’utente, non più solo fruitore ma attivo produttore di contenuti, in perfetta sintonia con la logica del web 2.0. Superata la fase di maturazione, la blogosfera sta oggi attraversando una fase di trasformazione segnata da fenomeni anche contraddittori. Da un lato i blog sembrano, infatti, aver replicato gli stessi meccanismi che criticavano nei mass media, ovvero hanno maggiormente enfatizzato la componente di narcisismo e di esibizione del sé; dall’altro si presentano, invece, come spazi di costruzione della sfera pubblica e di espressione dell’identità individuale o collettiva. Il saggio si propone di fare il punto su alcune tendenze della blogosfera contemporanea attraverso la presentazione e la problematizzazione della prospettiva di Geert Lovink, che inserisce i blog all’interno della sua teoria critica della rete, sottolineandone i limiti teorici ed empirici grazie al confronto con riflessioni teoriche e ricerche che hanno analizzato, anche con uno sguardo internazionale, funzioni e pratiche d’uso dei blog. In questa direzione nelle conclusioni si cercherà un ulteriore rilancio attraverso l’interpretazione del blog come «tecnologia del sé», secondo l’accezione foucaultiana dell’espressione. SUMMARY Blogs were the first on line spaces considered empowerment tools for users, and have become more and more producers of contents, perfectly in sync with web 2.0 logics. Now that the maturation phase is over, the blogosphere is going through a transformation phase also characterized by contradictory phenomena. In fact, on the one hand, blogs seem to have copied the same mechanisms they criticized in the mass media: they have greatly emphasized narcissist and self-exhibition behavior; but on the other hand, they present themselves as spaces aimed to build up public circles and express individual and collective individualities. This essay aims to take stock of some trends of contemporary blogosphere by presenting and problematizing Geert Lovink’s perspective. Theoretic and empirical limits of his perspective will be underlined through the comparison with theoretical and empirical research, even from an international perspective, that have analyzed functionalities of blogs and user practices. Following this direction, in the conclusions of the essay, we shall try to raise the interpretation of blogs as «technology of self», according to Foucault’s acceptation of this phrase.

Blogs and social networks are both spaces for online relationships that can be used for very different purposes...

RÉSUMÉ L’article vise à illustrer les résultats de la recherche exploratoire menée pour comprendre la relation entre le réseau social de trace, analysant les trois différents environnements en ligne (Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed) partant des pratiques mises en oeuvre par ceux qui les vivent tous les jours. L’établissement de recherche combine la cartographie des différentes plates-formes en ligne avec l’observation des pratiques des utilisateurs, choisis entre adopteurs précoces et gros utilisateurs de l’Internet, où les réseaux sociaux étaient à la fois objet et outil de recherche. La conclusion principale est que entre réseaux sociaux et trace il existe un lien structurel: le réseau social ne peut exister seulement grâce aux utilisateurs dont l’utilisation et la consommation des traces est configurée comme une pratique collective, comme dans l’autre personne ils trouvent également un co-auteur, et comme travail que le sujet fait lui-même en se rapportant avec l’instrument et les autres utilisateurs. Les contenus peuvent également être définis comme traces et non pas comme des simple signes, car le processus de renvoi est toujours ouvert. En effet, ils sont laissés hors de la présence réelle de l’émetteur et du destinataire, sans pour cela en perdre le sens, mais plutôt en s’appuyant sur l’interprétation de ceux qui la liront et sur leur liberté de la mettre dans d’autres contextes que ceux pour lesquels elle a été conçue. SUMMARY The article aims to illustrate the results of an exploratory research conducted to understand the relationship between trace and social network, analyzing three different online environments (Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed) starting from practices implemented by those who live them every day. A research facility has been implemented that would combine the mapping of the various online platforms with the observation of some users’ practices, chosen between Internet early adopters and heavy users, where social networks were both subject and research tool. The main result that emerged is that between social networks and trace there is a structural link: the social network can only exist thanks to the users whose use and consumption of traces is configured both as a collective practice, because in the other person they also find a co-author, and as a work that the person creates, relating to the instrument and to other people. Contents can also be defined either as traces, but not as simple signs, as the referral process is always open. Indeed, they are also left beyond a real presence of the issuer and the recipient, not losing their meaning, but rather relying on the interpretation of those who will read it and on their freedom to put it in contexts other than those for which it was designed.

La fotografia ufficiale di Barack Obama, 44° Presidente degli Stati Uniti d’America, è stata scattata con una fotocamera digitale e rilasciata sotto licenza Creative Commons.