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PN 263
Reciprocity and the Amateur Hyperlocal Journalist
D. Harte
1
1
Birmingham City University, School of Media, Birmingham, United Kingdom
The increased interest in new forms of local journalism by media policy-makers in the UK has led to some utopian claims about the potential of such forms
to ensure local media plurality and provide an authentic voice for citizens’ concerns. Research to date has noted the degree to which this emergent layer
of ‘hyperlocal’ media – community-orientated, with a majority of non-professional practitioners – is motivated by civic rather than financial concerns
(Williams et al. 2014, Harte et al. 2016). Based on interviews with 35 hyperlocal journalists in the UK, this paper draws on the framework outlined by Lewis
et al. (2013) of ‘reciprocal journalism’to help understand the ways in which hyperlocal journalists operate and examines whether their actions ‘may lead to
better community and, indeed, better journalism’(Lewis et al. 2013: 236). It finds that there are many examples of intended and unintended attempts to
engender reciprocity. Further, informal information exchange, both on and offline, and instrumental gift-giving, play a role in ensuring the sustainability
of hyperlocal media operations.Within the often informal newsroom of the hyperlocal journalist, reciprocity can be seen as a key factor in avoiding the need
for self-exploitation of the journalist’s labour. However, whilst hyperlocal media has been characterised ‘a range of journalism acting in the public good’
(Metzgar 2011: 773), there are limits to its potential to fulfil such an ideal. This research notes the tensions inherent in the amateur journalism domain
as it attempts to balance the needs of accountability journalism with those of improving the community’s image to the wider public. The research was
undertaken as part of a 30-month UK Research Council funded project, ‘Media Community and the Creative Citizen’. The broad study aims, in aggregate, at
understanding better the value to local democracy and local communities of news published by hyperlocal services.
PN 264
Blurring the Boundaries: Horror Fan Enterprise in an Alternative Economy
O. Carter
1
1
Birmingham City University, School of Media, Birmingham, United Kingdom
This paper considers how the censorship of violent video on VHS in the United Kingdom led to the emergence of an informal economy of fan production, in
which fans emulated professional practices to benefit economically from their activities. The first domestic videocassette recorders were released in the UK
in 1977. The new medium enjoyed such an accelerated level of adoption that by 1983 almost ‘six million video machines had found their way into homes
across Britain’(Kerekes and Slater, 2000: 7). The speed in which home video became popular meant that there was a high public demand for content. This
created an opportunity for enterprise, with a number of newly formed video labels taking advantage of this demand by purchasing the rights to cheap films
for release. These films were ‘low-budget’, often of the horror and exploitation genres, originating from all over the world, but particularly from European
countries such as Italy (Brewster, Fenton and Morris, 2005: 4). Because of their obscurity and excessive nature, many of these films would not have received
theatrical exhibition and were not classified by the BBFC. The subsequent ‘video nasties’ moral panic that centred on these unclassified Italian titles led
to the 1984 Video Recordings Act. Drawing on interviews conducted with fan producers, interaction with the texts they produced, online fan activity and
the author’s experiences as a fan, this paper argues that regulation of violent horror films led to the formation of an enduring 'alternative economy' of fan
production. It suggests how, in this alternative economy, fans can be understood as ‘creative’ workers who use digital technologies to produce artefacts
that are exchanged as gifts or commodities. This practice highlights the blurring of boundaries between amateur and professional production. The paper
focusses on how two entrepreneurs set up their own enterprises in this alternative economy, specialising in producing fan-based publications. This activity
illustrates the economics of fan production and how it becomes ‘professionalised’.