Assembling Publishing Publics

This week’s readings focused on the concept of Actor Network Theory (ANT) which was developed by Michael Callon, Bruno Latour and John Law. To be honest, this was a theory that was very difficult to learn and having spent a few hours reading and rereading, I think I might just have the gist of it.

Previous concepts that have tried to conceptualise how networks are formed have usually employed narrow focus on either technological or social factors. The problem with these theories is that they don’t fully capture the nature of publishing (Deluki 2009). Social determinism can lead to technological changes and technological determinism can create social changes. Therefore ANT suggests that all actors/actants (whether human, non-human, technology) have an equal role in the function of a network and should be conceptualised in the same means (Wikipedia 2014). This is what is known as a principle of generalised symmetry.

What really helped me grasp this concept is the example that Goguen (2003) provided:  

“Newton did not really act alone in creating the theory of gravitation: he needed observational data from the Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, he needed publication support from the Royal Society and its members (most especially Edmund Halley), he needed the geometry of Euclid, the astronomy of Kepler, the mechanics of Galileo, the rooms, lab, food, etc.”

While we typically associate the theory of gravitation with Newton, ANT suggests that other actors have as much to do with the discovery as Newton himself.  Each actant is a nodal point where if it is excluded from the network, the network will fail (Banks 2011). From this, we can determine how networks are formed and what actors hold it together.

In relation to publishing, both social and technological factors affect the nature of this network. Let’s use YouTube videos as an example of a publishing network. In order for videos to be recorded , commented and published you need the technological components like, a camera, a comment page, hyperlinks, and a computer (with internet access) to view the published video. However, for this network to function, you need social actors that drive the video like the vlogger, advertisers and the audience (that comment, share and like the video). ANT suggests that each actor plays an equal role in making this network successful, but this is where I disagree.

The flaw of this theory is that it does not account for the different power relations between each actor in the process (Banks 2011). While the audiences can help determine the value and the popularity of the video through likes and views, the publisher/vlogger has ultimate control over the content. Without the existence of the internet to view the video then the network will fail. What is put in the front page of YouTube is technologically determined through algorithms based on “watch time” (Jarboe 2011) and who you’re subscribed to. However, without the people utilising these machines, the network ceases to exist, therefore human actors play a much more powerful role in determining the nature of the network. This puts into question whether technological components should even be assigned agency into the network.

I am not saying that technical and social actors cannot coexist in the publishing network but disregarding power, class, culture imbalances can be problematic for the theory. I will therefore be very cautious about applying ANT into conceptualising publics and publishing, not until I get a much deeper understanding of the subject.

References

Banks, D. (2011). A Brief Summary of Actor Network Theory » Cyborgology. [online] Thesocietypages.org. Available at: http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/12/02/a-brief-summary-of-actor-network-theory/ [Accessed 18 Aug. 2014].

Goguen, J. (2003). CSE 275: Chapter 6. [online] Cseweb.ucsd.edu. Available at: http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~goguen/courses/275/s6.html [Accessed 18 Aug. 2014].

Jarboe, G. (2012). YouTube Algorithm Change: 'Time Watched' Key to Higher Video Search Rankings. [online] Search Engine Watch. Available at: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2218696/YouTube-Algorithm-Change-Time-Watched-Key-to-Higher-Video-Search-Rankings [Accessed 18 Aug. 2014].

Wikipedia, (n.d.). Actor–network theory. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor-network_theory [Accessed 18 Aug. 2014].