Enchanted Sensemaking among Content Creators

2025

Daniela Jaramillo-Dent /

Michael Latzer

Working Paper – Media Change & Innovation Division. University of Zurich, Zurich.

The content creator industry is growing and evolving, with creators assuming increasingly prominent roles in society through the generation and circulation of content that impacts audiences’ online and offline lives. This expansion is occurring regardless of the precarious and uncertain nature of content creation. Against this backdrop, this study explores creators’ sensemaking approaches and their characteristics. In this paper we focus on two aspects of creators’ sensemaking: the non-rational and non-utilitarian sources of understanding that we term enchanted sensemaking. Our conceptualization incorporates three theoretical perspectives on enchantment: Weber's (2004) (dis)enchantment of modernity, Gell’s (1994) enchantment of technology, and Huizinga’s (1943) enchantment of play to examine creator cultures. It considers previous research exploring aspects of enchantment towards digital and algorithmic media. Through 30 semi-structured interviews in two countries (Spain and Switzerland), complemented by a visual elicitation method, this paper contributes to the field of creator studies by: (1) conceptualizing creators’ enchanted sensemaking and its types; (2) identifying the instances and modes of enchanted sensemaking and (3) illustrating how these sensemaking approaches influence content creation decisions and impact overall ecosystem dynamics.