Participatory media

Participatory media is a means of communicating information in which the people who would normally be considered the audience actively contribute to the communication. The concept includes such things as citizen news sites, blogs, video blogs (vlogs), podcasts, wikis, and more. It is sometimes called “citizen media.”

Although the concept has existed to a lesser degree for centuries, the growth of technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries expanded the possibilities for average people to contribute to media and changed many in the public from being strictly consumers of media to being active participants and creators.

Participatory media is viewed in different lights, with some focusing on the challenges it poses to traditional media and the potential for confusing or inaccurate information to be spread. Others celebrate the potential it has to give everyone a voice in contemporary culture. Most agreed, however, that participatory media would continue to have a significant place in society.

Background

Historians note that participatory media has been part of various forms of communication in culture for many years. Audiences have long booed, cheered, heckled, and otherwise contributed to plays and sporting events as long as these have been held. The development and spread of printing technology in the fifteenth century made written communications more readily available and increased the number of people who could contribute as well as those who could see these contributions. Newspapers and magazines further contributed by printing letters to the editor and opinion pieces contributed by their readers, expanding the ability of average people to have their say. It was not long before people taking advantage of printing technology were having an impact on culture; for example, people expressing their opinions via pamphlets and broadsheets played an important role in launching the American Revolution in the 1770s.

Additional new technology such as radio and television created more audiences but did not allow for as much audience participation. This began to change with the development of affordable video and audio technology in the twentieth century that allowed average people to capture life moments on the spot and share them. For example, one of the most famous films in American history is the amateur home movie shot by Abraham Zapruder in November 1963 as President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

However, it was the proliferation of the World Wide Web and other accessible, relatively inexpensive technologies beginning in the 1980s that led to the rapid expansion of opportunities for people to share what they recorded and wrote, often in real time.

Overview

People have long understood the power of communications media to share stories that changed culture. However, this approach relied on attracting the interest of journalists and broadcasters who were willing to tell the story. One of the key changes with participatory media is that the public can skip the “middleperson”—the television stations, newspaper editors, and so on—and tell the story they want told in their own way and in their own time. This happened because of technology, including portable video technology, cell phone cameras, and more, that became available at prices that many people could afford.

The ability to record and create content, combined with the availability of the internet as a place to post them, removed barriers to content creation and made it possible for nearly anyone to share news, information, video and photos, opinions, entertainment content, and more from nearly anywhere and at nearly any time. The people who used to be the audience became the creators. Instead of consuming information and entertainment provided by others, the audience now had a much greater role in what content would be created and shared.

In many cases, this community-created media also determines what will be covered by traditional media as well. Crowdsourced videos of protests, accidents, unfolding disasters, and other events that get posted online and attract an audience spur traditional media to provide coverage for such events that may otherwise have had little or no coverage. This participatory aspect creates a new power paradigm in the relationship between media and its audience.

The ability of participatory media to affect what and how the news gets covered goes beyond the actions of those who create content. Nearly every contemporary media outlet has an online presence where it posts news stories, photos, videos, and other content. The ability for what was formerly a passive audience to now be able to comment, share, and respond directly with “likes” and hashtags allows the audience to essentially vote for and against certain content. This drives the type and manner in which various content is created and posted by these outlets and gives the audience new power over communications media. Participatory media allows the audience to play a major role in setting the agenda for what information is shared.

Another benefit of participatory media is the opportunity for creatives and artisans to be seen and heard. It is no longer necessary to get an agent or land a contract for a writer, musician, videographer, photographer, artist, or others to have their creations seen, read, or heard. Online platforms, including podcasts, music and video sharing sites, and more exist or can be created for sharing nearly anything, and an audience can be only a few clicks away. Feedback is almost instantaneous and can even be monetized, helping creatives achieve goals that would not be possible without participatory media.

While having wider sources for news and a greater voice for the audience are benefits, participatory media has drawbacks as well. The fact that nearly anyone can create, post, and share news, memes, opinions, and other media means that it is more difficult to determine its accuracy. Wiki sites, blogs, and sites that appear to be newspapers and magazines can be made by almost anyone, regardless of their level of expertise in the subject matter. It can be difficult to determine the creator’s motivations, agendas, and viewpoints. This means participatory media makes it harder to know what information is trustworthy and requires more diligence from the audience to ensure they are not misled or misinformed.

Significant debate has emerged over adapting to this new aspect of communication media, with discussion over the responsibility of the platforms that accept participatory media to monitor blatantly false or dangerous information, the role of these platforms in assisting legal authorities, and how traditional media should respond to the breakdown of its long-standing model. However, most experts agreed that the boundaries between media and audience had become so thoroughly blurred that participatory media would remain a significant factor for the foreseeable future.

Bibliography

Bowman, Shayne and Chris Willis. “We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information.” Media Center at the American Press Institute, July 2003, ict4peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/we‗media.pdf. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“The Future of Social Media and Entertainment Is Participatory.” Mediaocean, 17 May 2022, www.mediaocean.com/future-of-social-media-and-entertainment-is-participatory%C2%A0. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Jenkins on Participatory Culture.” Works and Days, Kalantzis and Cope, newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-7/jenkins-on-participatory-culture. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

MacKinnon, Rebecca. “Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: The Future of Global Participatory Media.” On Global Communication, Ono, Yoshikuni, ed., Seikai Shisosya, Kyoto, 2007, rconversation.blogs.com/MacKinnon‗blogging‗and‗journalism‗2007.pdf. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

Zaffar, Hanan, and Jyoti Thakur. "Video Volunteers Is Creating Space for Marginalized Voices in India." International Journalists' Network, 9 July 2024, ijnet.org/en/story/video-volunteers-creating-space-marginalized-voices-india. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

Zuckerman, Ethan. “How Participatory Media Promote Coverage of Social Movements.” Nieman Reports, 21 Jan. 2021, niemanreports.org/articles/how-participatory-media-promote-coverage-of-social-movements/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.