Podcasting personas in the creative knowledge industries

Using digitally networked media to garner attention and build an online reputation has become a popular practice in the information and technology industries (Marwick, 2013). This phenomenon is often subsumed under the rhetoric of individual empowerment that celebrates ideals such as self-expression and entrepreneurialism (Gandini, 2016), and the promising potentials of participation. This thesis investigates how a selection of Australian creative knowledge workers use podcasting to construct networked identities that serve to increase their professional opportunities and build their reputations, yet may simultaneously contribute to experiences of precariousness through the blurring of public and private lives. To understand this tension, I draw on a range of discourses including participatory media studies, affect theory and Persona Studies. The research places early theories of media participation in dialogue with Persona Studies, and proposes that the study of persona may offer a more nuanced understanding of participatory media use in the contemporary moment.