Communication models of
institutional online
communities: the role of the
ABC cultural intermediary
Jonathon Hutchinson
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and
Innovation (CCi), Queensland University of Technology
jonathon.hutchinson@qut.edu.au
@dhutchman
The Problem…
How do online communities and public service
broadcasters collaborate on the production of
cultural artefacts?
Theoretical framework
• Peer production (Benkler 2006)
• Participatory Cultures (Jenkins 2006)
• Produsage (Bruns 2008)
• Meritocracy (Malaby 2009)
• Bureaucracy (Kreiss et al. 2011; Weber 1983)
• Distinctive innovation (Cunningham 2013)
• Cultural intermediation (Bourdieu 1984;
Negus 2010)
Theory to practice
• Decentralised activity through ICT
technology – UGC
• Participatory cultures within media
organisations
• UGC at the ABC – ABC Pool
• Editorial and regulatory issues
• Institutional online communities
Institutional online communities
“an online community operating within a public,
commercial or non-commercial institution and
not an open, independently facilitated online
community” (Hutchinson: 14, forthcoming)
How then to manage IOC within PSB?
Cultural Intermediation
• Human and non-human actors
• Coding, platforms, design etc.
• Enable/disable certain functionality
• Usually the work of community manager
• “The combination of all of these human and
non-human actors as they negotiate cultural
artefact production is described as cultural
intermediation” (Hutchinson: 5, forthcoming)
Methodology
• Ethnographic action reseach
• Participant observation
• Focus Groups
• Interviews
ABC Pool [abc.net.au/pool]
ABC Pool users
ABC Pool Community Manager
Cultural Intermediary
Institutional Online Community
Governance
Conclusions
• Institutional online communities
• Community Manager
• Cultural intermediation
• Multiple forms of cultural intermediation
• Institutional online community governance
models
Jonathon Hutchinson
jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au
@dhutchman

Communication models of institutional online communities: the role of the ABC cultural intermediary