Digital Content Creation in 2018: A Study for Non-Profit Organizations and Social Actors

This study explores the phenomenon of new power as a framework for empowerment for non-profit organizations. The concept is coined by social entrepreneurs Henry Timms and Jeremy Heimans in their book New Power (2018), and the aim is to investigate the effects of new media today through analysis of twelve media actors experiences of working in the creative industries. Through a flexible study based on the paradigm of phenomenology, this thesis researched by examining new power as a 'black box’—an object of human perception—to arrive at new understandings of the workings of media environments today. The qualitative data is backed by a case study of a niche community in the form of digital scrapings that reveal characteristics of spreadable mechanisms in a networked community. Drawing on dominating theories about participatory cultures, convergence media, and mediatization, the study found tendencies of new media leading to the subordination to the power of prevailing media actors. It concludes by considering future implications for the evolution of Web 3.0, where digital platforms will evolve into a co-constitutive digital sphere where media actors and individuals alike will take action in shaping the digital culture of media, as in the cases of leading digital companies BuzzFeed and Reddit.Keywords:Media Transformation, Non-profit organization, Web 2.0, Media Transformation, New Media, Participatory Cultures, New Power, Social Mobilization, Digital Promis