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Participatory Media Literacy
Participatory Media Literacy
Guide To This Site's Contents
Welcome to Participatory Media Literacy (Home) Participatory Media Education Resources Welcome to Participatory Media LiteracyRecent technological changes have made much wider social changes possible: Until the end of the twentieth century, only a relatively small and wealthy fraction of the human race could broadcast television programs, publish newspapers, create encyclopedias; by the twenty first century, however, inexpensive digital computers and ubiquitous Internet access made the means of high quality media production and distribution accessible to a substantial portion of the world's population. In 2006, more than one billion people are connected to the Internet and close to three billion people carry mobile telephones. These technological changes in accessibility of production tools and distribution media have led to social, cultural, economic, political changes in the ways people communicate, a set of technologies, practices, and skills some call participatory media. Participatory media enable broad participation in the production of culture, power, community, and wealth. The ways people use these new media will significantly influence and in some cases transform cultural production, citizenship, economic enterprise, and education. Like the early days of print, radio, and television, the present structure of the participatory media regime -- the political, economic, social and cultural institutions that constrain and empower the way the new medium can be used -- is still unsettled. As legislative and regulatory battles, business competition, and social institutions vie to put particular stamps on the new regime, one potentially decisive and presently unknown variable is the degree and kind of public participation. Of course, since the unique power of the new media regime is precisely its participatory potential, the number of people who participate in shaping it, and the skill with which they make the attempt, is particularly salient. The outcome of these unknown factors will likely determine whether participatory media will be enclosed economically and centrally controlled or coopted politically, or whether they will enable broad cultural production and authentically democratic political influence. Participatory media include (but aren't limited to) blogs, wikis, RSS, tagging and social bookmarking, music-photo-video sharing, mashups, podcasts, and videoblogs. These distinctly different media share three common, interrelated characteristics:
The technical power of many-to-many communication networks amplifies human social networking capabilities [abstract][pdf]. The cognitive and social components of participatory media are important: Media production differs from other kinds of production because media have the power to persuade, inspire, educate, and direct human activity. Communities, movements, markets, societies, and civilizations are the products of the human talent for accomplishing complex tasks together -- incited, organized, and coordinated through the use of communication media. The technical networks that carry bits from node to node and the media woven from those bits enable the humans at those nodes to learn, argue, deliberate, transact, and organize on scales and at paces that were never before possible. At this stage, the focus of attention is shifting from the characteristics of the enabling media (digital, networked, etc.) to the ways people are using them -- a matter of literacy, not just technology. A particular kind of literacy is necessary for the potential power of communication networks to manifest. Unlike the operational knowledge needed to wield a lever or hammer, the skill sets that accompany media such as writing are complex and entail each individual tool-user's social involvement with a community of other people who have also mastered the skill. Like the alphabet and the printing press, the Internet grants new powers of collective action to those who master its literacy. The Participatory Media Learning Program is about mastering the new literacies by understanding their significance as well as by learning their use through direct practice SyllabusThis wiki-based curriculum combines texts that address the social, political, economic, cultural aspects of participatory media with practical instructions in the use of each medium. Exercises combine theory and practice:
Media literacy, civic engagement, and practical skills are intrinsically, if not always visibly, interrelated. This syllabus aims to illuminate those interconnections, invite media users to become media producers, and introduce media producers to the cultural, social, economic, and political contexts of their productions. Resource ListsA dynamic repository of resources related to the meaning and practice of participatory media. Contact howard at rheingold dot com if you want to add to it. Blogging ResourcesWiki ResourcesRSS ResourcesSocial Media ResourcesPodcasting ResourcesDigital Video ResourcesMashup ResourcesChat Backchannel ResourcesParticipatory Media Education ResourcesWelcome to the WorkspaceThis is the home page for Participatory Media Literacy. Please feel free to add or modify pages -- even this one -- as you see fit. That's the idea of a Workspace.
People: (if you plan to contribute, contact howard at rheingold.com and after you are registered, feel free to create an intro page) |
