Paid or semi-public media? The Norwegian film industry’s strategies for social media

Abstract

In this article, I explore how conglomerates and the independent film companies in Norway conceptualize their social media strategies before the release of their films in movie theatres. I analyse applications made to the Norwegian Film Institute’s (NFI) support programme for promotional grants in 2015. The ability of individual companies to interpret and go beyond a framing of social media as semi-public platforms – where companies can gain visibility free of charge – is one indication of how strategic knowledge differs. Major distributors tend to perceive social media as a place to buy attention from a targeted audience. Thus, they are taking advantage of traffic data offered by surveillance technologies embedded in social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. This, I argue, is a distinct feature of strategic resources linked to power, networks and knowledge about audiences, which intensify power differentials between large, established corporations and small-scale independent players.