Description
This paper concerns the current advancement of queer media. The development of queer media varies across the world, and in some places such as China their platformization came before the streaming age. While queer media streaming has been increasingly studied (Monaghan 2024), the platformization of queer media is only began to draw scholarly attention (Griffin 2024). Platformization is believed to facilitate citizen participation, but it also expedites the capitalization and control of social relations and negotiations (Coundry and Mejias 2019). This unfolding uncertainty and diversity of the platform society encourage us to locally and empirically examine the phenomenon of platformization (de Kloet et al 2019), including that of queer media. Heeding this advice, this study explored the platformization of queer media by focusing on one queer media platform. This platform was unique in that it was built and operated by a queer subtitling community where audiences of queer media gathered together online to voluntarily and collectively subtitle and stream the queer media of their choices. To explore the dynamics of their platform, I conducted a twelve-month netnographic fieldwork on the platform and in their community. It was found that the platform was financed and operated only by the community members themselves but that the management was hierarchical and some components of the platform still relied on technologies of established commercial entities. This conforms to the established dynamic of participatory culture and the assumed complexity of platformization. Moreover, this queer media platform was largely shaped by the queer media audiences’ own participation and politics and established a queer-only utopia that formed a stark contrast to traditional streaming platforms where heterosexuality continued to be normalized (Griffin 2024).| Period | 29 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Media for All 11 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Degree of Recognition | International |