As I have described extensively in previous chapters, the recently emerged media practices that have been labelled participatory culture must be understood as built up from three interrelated components: a) narratives and rhetoric developed and distributed in popular and scholar discourses, b) specific technological qualities, and c) media practices. This book has argued that the emerging media practice and the discourse on information technologies harbour a promise for social progress. In fact, the affordances to fulfil such a promise can be inscribed into technological design, which in return can also stimulate participation. In many aspects, the participatory culture constitutes new formations of cultural production. The intertwined dynamics of design and appropriation in the cultural industries are one of them. It mingles users and producers in processes of producing, modifying and distributing artefacts. While traditional distinctions such as those of user-producer and audience-sender begin to blur, the increasing participation of users in the production of media texts and the appropriation of consumer goods and technology need to be analysed in a way that differentiates the various ways in which what has come to be known as participatory culture takes shape.

The popular discourses and the representation of technology in media have been recognized as crucial for shaping public understanding of participatory culture and labelling new media as enabling technologies. References to past ‘media revolutions’, as well as employing commonly shared images and associations created awareness and shaped an imagination of possible uses for new technologies. Those discourses often have been overly optimistic regarding social progress through technological advancement, and a revolutionary change in power structures between consumers and producers was hastily announced. However, the framing of these new media was crucial for creating awareness and market capitalization as well as for political agenda setting. Tracing the constituents of participatory culture revealed that dynamic actor networks are transforming the meaning of technologies, affecting discourses, and shaping media practice. As I pointed out earlier in this book, technology matters, and many media practices are directly related to specific technological qualities of computer, software, and the Internet. Furthermore, laying bare these actor networks through various case studies resulted in suggesting the need for a shift in understanding participatory culture.