From RandomBuzzers to Figment: Teens’ Affective and Immaterial Labor

Abstract

Chapter 3 is a case study of Random House’s RandomBuzzers.com (RandomBuzzers, 2011) website. This early participatory site dedicated to the publisher’s teen consumers adds user-generated peer-to-peer reviews to the tradition of librarian-based reviews in journals such as Kirkus, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and the Horn Book. On this site, teens received free advance review copies of young adult books in exchange for writing reviews of such titles. Participating teens received “Buzz Bucks,” a currency earned for their affective labor, which could be used on the site to buy Random House products (such as more books), and were awarded with badges they could display with their user profiles (a form of cultural capital). Using RandomBuzzers.com as a case study, this chapter examines how technology enables a convergence of reader and critic. At the time of the research, several publishers developed interactive sites for teens with a focus on peer-to-peer reviewing, including Little, Brown’s Hip Scouts (LB Teens, n.d.) and Simon and Schuster’s Pulse It (Pulse It, 2009). RandomBuzzers was chosen for this study because it was more sophisticated than the others—especially because it offered a form of payment to its participants.