The purpose of this study is to examine how Wattpad practices capitalism through romance stories in the production, distribution, and consumption of popular literature. The theory used in this study is Mosco's political economy of media theory, which is about reciprocal social relations that include the production, distribution, and consumption of a product. The results of this study are the discovery of political economic ideologies in the production, distribution, and consumption of popular romance genre literature on the Wattpad application. First, in the process of commodification of romance novel content that is in great demand by readers and users of the Wattpad application, because the stories closely reflect the lives of teenagers today. Second, in the process of audience commodification, the number of readers of romance novels greatly influences the rating that will later be used as a reference for advertisers in placing their ads on the Wattpad application. Third, in the process of spatialization, it can be observed that Wattpad offers features to facilitate its users' writing, reading, rating, and interaction. Finally, the discovery of the process of political economic structuration between readers, writers, and Wattpad that occurs through the production, distribution, and consumption of romance novels. This is because readers highly seek after romance novels, so authors tend to publish in the same genre to attract more readers. Wattpad, of course, benefits from the romance genre's success in dominating the market. Furthermore, it's known that political and economic ideologies significantly influence readers' tastes in Indonesia and the authors' production processes.
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Based on the description, the researcher used the romance novels entitled “Mariposa” and “Dosenku, Suamiku”, published through Wattpad as material objects. (517)
Here's the abstract:
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