Short video platforms (SVP) are fast-growing media in which a large amount of user-generated content is aggregated from and distributed to billions of mobile Internet users every day in China. Akin to other Internet platforms, SVP operators utilize algorithmic recommending to improve the efficiency of delivering content to like-minded users and facilitate personalized experiences. Except for the technological innovation, the popularity of SVP can be attributed to the national strategy of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, which has stimulated piles of entrepreneurs to join in SVP and pursue the commercialization of content production. Consequently, the entrepreneurial production of short videos in algorithm-driven platforms is a pervasive media practice in China.
The Domestication Theory and the Actor-network Theory are similar in interpreting the implications of new technologies on social practices (Berker et al., 2006; Couldry, 2008). However, they are distinctive in that the former emphasizes on revealing transforming details while the latter highlights non-human factors and networked relationships (ibid.). In this paper, they are integrated to clarify the interaction of different actants: entrepreneurs, platform managers, algorithmic technologies and platform rules. Based on the analytic framework, the interactive process can be divided into three stages: problematization, alliance and mobilization.
Empirical data were selected within six months (from June to December 2019). The author interviewed six managers at different positions of two platforms (Douyin and Kuaishou), as well as six short video entrepreneurs who are producing different categories of short videos and vary on the numbers of followers. Therefore, the data sources can present the current situation integrally.
With initial analysis, it was found that two times of algorithmic domestication occurring in the production of short videos; each constructs an actor network. Firstly, the network of responsibility consensus is led by content managers and supported by technological and commercial managers. Secondly, the network of pattern consensus is led by head producers and supported by middle and tail producers. Algorithmic rules play the role of obligatory passage point in each network and domesticate other actants in all the three stages. Moreover, they connect the two networks and stand in the center of platform power.
Domesticated in algorithm-driven platforms, short video entrepreneurs discipline themselves with platform managers' professional suggestions and community leaders' inspiring experiences. The latter is manipulated by the former because they rely on the managers to strengthen their competencies. As a result, the short video production in algorithm-driven platforms is deeply intervened by commercial incentives embedded in programmable codes that are inaccessible to the public, which degrades the nature of openness and transparency of online culture.
[1] Berker, Thomas et al. (2006). Introduction. In Berker, Thomas et al. (Eds.). Domestication of Media and Technology (pp. 1-17). New York, NY: Open University Press.
[2] Couldry, Nick (2008). Actor network theory and media: Do they connect and on what terms?. In Hepp, A., Krotz, F., Moores, S. & Winter, C.(Eds.). Connectivity, Networks and Flows: Conceptualizing Contemporary Communications (pp. 93-110). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.