Crowdfunding the Future: Media Industries, Ethics, and Digital Society

by Lucy Bennett

Overview

The concept of crowdfunding, where grassroots creative projects are funded by the masses through websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, has been steadily gaining attention over the last few years. Crowdfunding the Future undertakes a dynamic interdisciplinary approach to the examination of the new, and growing, phenomenon of crowdfunding and its encompassment of digital society and media industries. The book offers a wide range of perspectives and empirical research, providing analyses of crowdfunded projects, the interaction between producers and audiences, and the role that websites such as Kickstarter play in discussions around fan agency and exploitation, as well as the ethics of crowdfunding. With a series of chapters covering a global range of disciplines and topics, this volume offers a comprehensive overview on crowdfunding, examining and unraveling the international debates around this increasingly popular practice. The book is suitable for courses covering media studies, fandom, digital media, sociology, film production, anthropology, audience, and cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433126826
Publisher:	Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
Publication date:	04/30/2015
Series:	Digital Formations Series
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Lucy Bennett (PhD, Cardiff University) is a research assistant at JOMEC, Cardiff University, and co-founder of the Fan Studies Network. Her work has appeared in New Media & Society, Transformative Works and Cultures, Social Semiotics, Journal of Fandom Studies, Continuum, Cinema Journal, Celebrity Studies, and Participations.
Bertha Chin (PhD, Cardiff University) is an independent scholar. Her work has appeared in Social Semiotics, Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television, Participations, Transformative Works and Cultures, and M/C Journal.
Bethan Jones is a PhD candidate at Aberystwyth University. Her work has appeared in Transformative Works and Cultures, Participations, Sexualities, and the Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance.

Table of Contents

Contents: Lucy Bennett/Bertha Chin/Bethan Jones: Funding the Future? Contextualising Crowdfunding – Talia Leibovitz/Antoni Roig Telo/Jordi Sánchez-Navarro: Up Close and Personal: Exploring the Bonds Between Promoters and Backers in Audiovisual Crowdfunded Projects – Tanya R. Cochran: Crowdfunding the Narrative, or the High Cost of «Fan-ancing» – Anne Kustritz: Exploiting Surplus Labours of Love: Narrating Ownership and Theft in Crowdfunding Controversies – David Gehring/D. E. Wittkower: On the Sale of Community in Crowdfunding: Questions of Power, Inclusion, and Value – Rodrigo Davies: Four Civic Roles for Crowdfunding – Marcelo Träsel/Marcelo Fontoura: Crowdfunding and Pluralisation: Coverage of the Participatory Website Spot.Us and the American Press – Giovanni Boccia Artieri/Augusto Valeriani: Is It Fair to Monetise Microcelebrity? Mapping Reactions to a Crowdfunded Reporting Project Launched by an Italian Twitter-star – Deb Verhoeven/Stuart Palmer: Because It Takes a Village to Fund the Answers: Crowdfunding University Research – Ethan Tussey: Fixing Television by Funding a Movie: The Crowdfunding of Veronica Mars – Larissa Wodtke: Public Service Announcements With Guitars: Rock ’n Roll as Crowdfunding Cause for Amanda Palmer and IAMX – Tanja Aitamurto: The Role of Crowdfunding as a Business Model in Journalism: A Five-layered Model of Value Creation – Carlos A. Scolari/Antoni Roig Telo: Crowdfunding and Transmedia Storytelling: A Tale of Two Spanish Projects – Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: Kickstarting Big Bang Press, Publishing Original Novels by Fanfic Authors – Will Brooker: Building a Better Kickstarter: Crowdfunding My So-Called Secret Identity.

Editorial Reviews

«This outstanding collection successfully kickstarts the critical analysis of crowdfunding. Combining nuanced work on fandom with examinations of ethics and civic projects, the book’s wide-ranging, international scope is especially impressive. Also featuring reflections from crowdfunding campaign creators alongside acute scholarly studies, Crowdfunding the Future is an incredibly rewarding read.» (Professor Matt Hills, Aberystwyth University)

«This is an important, timely contribution to the fields of media studies and fan studies. Taken together, the chapters, including the afterword by Paul Booth, offer engaging discussions of this emerging technocultural practice in relation to media fans and industries, academic research and community journalism. A range of ethical, economic, and affective issues as well as the relations of power that shape the conditions for crowdfunding are critically examined, giving this collection much-needed breadth and depth» (Rhiannon Bury, Author, Television 2.0: New Perspectives on Digital Convergence, Audiences and Fans (Peter Lang, forthcoming))

«This outstanding collection successfully kickstarts the critical analysis of crowdfunding. Combining nuanced work on fandom with examinations of ethics and civic projects, the book’s wide-ranging, international scope is especially impressive. Also featuring reflections from crowdfunding campaign creators alongside acute scholarly studies, Crowdfunding the Future is an incredibly rewarding read.» (Professor Matt Hills, Aberystwyth University)

«This is an important, timely contribution to the fields of media studies and fan studies. Taken together, the chapters, including the afterword by Paul Booth, offer engaging discussions of this emerging technocultural practice in relation to media fans and industries, academic research and community journalism. A range of ethical, economic, and affective issues as well as the relations of power that shape the conditions for crowdfunding are critically examined, giving this collection much-needed breadth and depth» (Rhiannon Bury, Author, Television 2.0: New Perspectives on Digital Convergence, Audiences and Fans (Peter Lang, forthcoming))

From the Publisher