The international conference “Beyond the Audience: Rethinking Participation and Power in the Age of Data Capitalism” invites scholars, media researchers, and critical theorists to rethink the figure of the audience in a digitized, datafied, and platform-controlled world. Keynote speaker Tiziana Terranova from the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ will be leading the discussion, with additional speakers to be announced.
Rethinking the “Audience” in the Digital Era
Traditional concepts of the audience often describe a broad, indistinct group united by media consumption. However, in the age of algorithmic curation and participatory media, these boundaries blur. Users are no longer passive consumers but active content creators—yet this apparent empowerment often conceals a deeper commodification and exploitation of labor, creativity, and data.
A Duality of Perspectives: Political Economy vs. Active Agency
The conference grapples with the tension between two schools of thought:
- The political economy perspective, which critiques how media exploits attention, labor, and data for profit.
- The cultural studies perspective, which champions audiences’ creative agency and everyday media practices.
By juxtaposing these views, the conference aims to question romanticized labels like “user” or “creator” and examine their material realities within surveillance and platform capitalism.
Key Discussion Areas
The event will explore how traditional top-down models are being replaced—or distorted—by platforms and personalization algorithms. It will also interrogate whether new forms of audience engagement truly democratize media or simply mask exploitative power dynamics under the guise of interaction.
Indicative Themes for Submission
Researchers are encouraged to submit theoretical or case-driven papers related to, but not limited to, the following topics:
- The audience commodity and its contemporary applications
- The audience as worker in the digital age
- Questioning the term ‘audience’
- Content creators, bloggers and influencers
- Algorithmic audiences
- Datafied audiences
- Generative AI and audience replacement
- Clickification of news and information
- The effectiveness of media literacy in the context of data societies
- Activism, hashtags and platforms
- Audience exploitation
- Mobile audiences
- Media lifeworlds and everydayness
- Film and music audiences
- Data journalism and news audiences
- Social listening and feedback
- Cybernetic audiences
- Audience polarization
- Fans in data-driven contexts
- Streaming audiences
- Audiences in Video on Demand (VOD), Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) and Over the Top (OTT) Platforms
- Audiences and piracy
- Audiences as publics and communities
- Deepfakes and Gen-Z
Submission Guidelines
Interested participants should submit an abstract (max 500 words) and a short bio by September 30, 2025 to:
📧 conference@medemap.eu
Accepted papers will explore the intersections of media participation, audience identity, commodification, algorithmic systems, and cultural resistance in the digital age.
Conference Details:
📍 IULM University, Rome
📅 January 15–16, 2026
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