Synthetic Reception: Manufacturing the Signals of Uptake in Hype and Technology Expectations

Hype is made in its reception as well as in its promises. Audiences decide what deserves attention partly by observing one another, and counts, first reactions and endorsements tell each observer what others find worth engaging with. Research on hype and expectations reads these signals of uptake as organic, as the sum of independent judgements. I systematise reception as a focus for this research and propose synthetic reception: a producer’s concealed contribution to a signal of uptake that observers read as given off by independent audience members. What it fakes is the independence of the signal. The concept draws on research on hype, signalling and trust, starts from a music-marketing agency’s account of its own methods, and reaches into science (paper mills) and technology (a reported creator campaign). Four facets target the inferences audiences draw from the uptake of others: how many attend (momentum), what the uptake says (vox populi), whether someone with standing has judged it (authority) and whether it is the participants’ own (authenticity). Each corresponds to an object of hype research, from attention curves to the appropriation of circulating representations and sociotechnical imaginaries. For technology assessment, the concept adds a question to its reading of public uptake as a signal of relevance: whether that uptake is organic.