Users like you? Theorizing agency in user-generated content

With the emergence of user-generated content platforms, 'users' are typically referred to as active, engaged and creative contributors of content, as illustrated by new hybrid terms such as 'produsers' or 'co-creators'. This article explores user agency as a complex concept, involving not only the user's cultural role as a facilitator of civic engagement and participation` but also his economic meaning as a producer, consumer and data provider, as well as his volatile position as volunteer or aspiring professional in the emerging labour market. We need such a multidisciplinary approach to user agency if we want to understand how socio-economic and technological transformations affect the recent shake-up in power relationships between media companies. advertisers and users. Video-sharing site YouTube serves as a case study. The 'you' in YouTube not only refers to content creators, but also to data providers whose profiled information is capitalized by site owners. Commercialization of user-generated platforms and incorporation of self-produced content in digital environments powered by Google render user agency even more complex.