The emergence of the techno-elite audience and free/open source content: a case study on BBC Backstage

Abstract

This peer-reviewed paper advances public broadcasting services (PBS) studies, by investigating how innovation takes place within public broadcasting services and examining the relationship between the PBS and civil society. Through employing sociological concepts and methodological frameworks to study an open data community that the BBC tried to build, the article extends current research on participatory audiences by looking into an emergent group of audiences that are capable of manipulating digital technologies to influence, challenge, or strengthen existing elite perspectives in the media. In this respect, they form a new elite class themselves. The article identifies the profiles and practices of this new audience group, the 'techno-elite audience', and employs the concept of a 'techno-elite' to politicise, conceptualise and incite discussion about media literacy, digital practices and media production and consumption. The journal Participations is an online and openly accessible journal, devoted to developing the broad field of study of cultural and media audiences. This research links to my ongoing work on open data, hacker communities, cross-boundary collaboration and open source innovation. Early developments of this paper were presented at the International Workshop Educational Challenge: Innovation in Creative Industries, Tallinn, Estonia 26–27 March 2010, and the EU COST ACTION IS0906 Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies Brussels Meeting, 12–14 April 2012.