“积极受众”的价值生产——论传播政治经济学“受众观”与Web2.0“受众劳动论”之争

The Value Production of Active Audiences——The Concept of “Audience” in PEC Theories and The Debates of The Web2.0 Audience Labor Theory

"受众劳动何以生产剩余价值"这一问题关乎"受众劳动论"的合理性,近年来引发了学界争论。为理清这一问题,本文梳理了传播政治经济学"受众观",认为被诟病为"经济简化论"、"被动受众"是对斯麦兹传统的误读,传播政治经济学强调"积极受众"的生产性,受众具有主观能动性,是意义的真实制造者。正是基于此种能动的"受众观",Web2.0"受众劳动论"揭示了数字媒介用户被卷入到新的数字经济流通形式中服务于数字生产、消费和市场多个环节的过程;论证了受众劳动生产剩余价值,是生产性劳动;广告生产商品的"使用价值承诺",通过作用于实践意识来完成价值实践。但是,当前的"受众劳动论"把政治经济所代表的压制性权力与劳动个体二元对立,忽视了在资本前置的媒介化社会中,资本、技术、权力与劳动者都要在资本关系中确立自身。

＂The productive of audience labor＂ is a key point of audience labor theory, which caused debates among western academe. In order to figure out this question, this article combs through the ＂active audience＂ concept from the perspective of political economy of communities, aims to describe the theoretical supposition, demonstrating methods, arguments and debates of audience labor theory. This article considers that it is a misinterpretation that audience labor theory is a kind of economic determinism with passive audience argument. Actually, the theories of audience labor emphasis the activeness of audiences, and regard audiences as the ＂true producers of meaning＂. The theories of ＂Prosumer commodity＂, ＂You media＂ and ＂Philia＂ reveal that audiences are involved in the new digital economy circulation, working for digital production, consumption and marketing. Meanwhile, digital audience labor is productive labor that produce surplus value. Ads produce the ＂use-value promise＂ of commodity, and implement value practice by affecting practical consciousness. However, this theory emphasis the binary opposition between working individuals and oppressive powers from political economy, which ignore that working individual himself has to determine its own meaning in the capital logic mediated society.