Participatory culture

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Participatory culture is a neologism in reference of, but opposite to a Consumer culture — in other words a culture in which private persons (the public) do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers (prosumers). The term is most often applied to the production or creation of some type of published media. Recent advances in technologies (mostly personal computers and the internet) have enabled private persons to create and publish such media, usually through the internet. This new culture as it relates to the internet has been described as Web 2.0.

The internet has come to play an integral part in the expansion of participatory culture because of its ability to reach large populations of people in a comparatively small amount of time. The potential of participatory culture has been investigated by professor Henry Jenkins of MIT.

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[edit] Participatory Culture and Technology

As technology continues to expand the number of ways that communication may take place it has also increased the opportunities for consumers to create their own content. Barriers like time and money are beginning to become less significant to large groups of consumers. For example, the creation of movies once required large amounts of expensive equipment, but now movie clips can be made with equipment that is affordable to a growing number of people. The ease with which consumers create new material has also grown. Extensive knowledge of computer programming is no longer necessary to create content on the internet.

[edit] Relationship to Web 2.0

Not only has hardware increased the individual's ability to submit content to the internet so that it may be reached by a wide audience, but in addition numerous internet sites have increased access. Websites like Flickr, Wikipedia, and Facebook encourage the submission of content to the internet. They increase the ease with which a user may post content by allowing them to submit information even if they only have an internet browser. The need for additional software is eliminated. These websites also serve to create online community provides motive for the production of content. These communities and their web services have been labelled as part of Web 2.0.[1]

[edit] Potential Benefits of Participatory culture

Participatory culture has been hailed by some as a way to reform communication and enhance the quality of media. According to professor Henry Jenkins, participatory culture is beneficial because it increases the number of those who produce media and increases the amount of competition. Competition forces producers to pay more attention to the needs of consumers who can turn to other sources for information.[2] As participation becomes easier, the diversity of voices that can be heard also increases. At one time only a few mass media giants controlled most of the information that flowed into the homes of the public, but with the advance of technology even a single person has the ability to spread information around the world. The diversification of media has benefits because in cases where the control of media becomes concentrated it gives those who have control the ability to influence the opinions and information that flows to the public domain.[3] Media concentration provides opportunity for corruption, but as information continues to become accessed from more and more places it becomes increasingly difficult to control the flow of information to the will of an agenda. Participatory Culture is also seen as a more democratic form of communication as it stimulates the audience to take an active part because they can input their own ideas and assume a less passive role.[3] The democratic tendency lent to communication by participatory culture allows new models of production that are not based on a hierarchical standard. In the face of increased participation, the traditional hierarchies will not disappear, but "Community, collaboration, and self-organization" can become the foundation of corporations as powerful alternatives.[4] Although there may be no real hierarchy evident in many collaborative websites, their ability to form large pools of collective intelligence is not compromised.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ O'Reilly, Tim. (2005-09-30). What Is Web 2.0. O'Reilly Network. Retrieved on 2007-05-01
  2. ^ Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture:Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8147-4281-5
  3. ^ a b Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven: Yale, 2006. ISBN 0-3001-1056-1
  4. ^ Tapscott, Don. Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics:How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Penguin USA: New York, 2006. ISBN 1-5918-4138-0

[edit] External links