Participatory Culture

One comment made on the recent draft of the ISP New Media Fluency goals was that the term Participatory Media might not be the best term. I think that's true in a sense -- certainly it is not as familiar a term as, say, Quantitative Literacy. But it does have a meaning and a history (and wide acceptance) in the current discussions around how we expect our students to use technology after they leave us for the wider world.

So I'm backing up a little and thinking of how we might define participatory media succinctly, in a way that resonates with the core goals of faculty and the college. Participatory media are the tools used to engage in participatory culture, and I think one of the better definitions of participatory culture is from the MacArthur Report Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. In it, participatory culture is defined as:

a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created). Forms of participatory culture include:

Affiliations — memberships, formal and informal, in online communities centered around various forms of media, such as Friendster, Facebook, message boards, metagaming, game clans, or MySpace).

Expressions — producing new creative forms, such as digital sampling, skinning and modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction writing, zines, mash-ups).

Collaborative Problem-solving — working together in teams, formal and informal, to complete tasks and develop new knowledge (such as through Wikipedia, alternative reality gaming, spoiling).

Circulations — Shaping the flow of media (such as podcasting, blogging).

There's a couple things about this definition worth noting. One is that it chooses to see collaboration as a facet of participatory culture (a point that was made at the meeting: the line here between participation and collaboration is admittedly fuzzy). I'm fine with seeing participation as the broad umbrella term, although I think in practice the use of tools for business and civic collaboration require a distinct set skills from those of broader participatory culture, and we probably need to teach those differences explicitly.

But also note in that what is defined as participatory culture is precisely the sort of environment in which most of our students will continue their learning. One of the key goals of integrative education is teaching students how to continue learning on their own -- if we avoid teaching them how to interact with technology-mediated communities, we really haven't done that.

The report continues, addressing why we need to teach students to navigate these cultures:

A growing body of scholarship suggests potential benefits of these forms of participatory culture, including opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, a changed attitude toward intellectual property, the diversification of cultural expression, the development of skills valued in the modern workplace, and a more empowered conception of citizenship. Access to this participatory culture functions as a new form of the hidden curriculum, shaping which youth will succeed and which will be left behind as they enter school and the workplace.

...

Educators must work together to ensure that every American young person has access to the skills and experiences needed to become a full participant, can articulate their understanding of how media shapes perceptions, and has been socialized into the emerging ethical standards that should shape their practices as media makers and participants in online communities. A central goal of this report is to shift the focus of the conversation about the digital divide from questions of technological access to those of opportunities to participate and to develop the cultural competencies and social skills needed for full involvement.

That's really the key here, and what I think bears repeating. Those students who do not master these skills will be increasingly denied opportunities available to their more adept peers. Participation in the world of work requires that students master collaborative technology -- already, today. Students unable to navigate participatory media increasingly lock themselves out of full civic participation, as the internet has become the new commons. And corporate culture, straining under the coordination costs of top-down management, is increasingly relying on the tools of participatory media to coordinate projects and disseminate knowledge.

On a more social scale, it's about more than giving our students a leg up over the competition. It's that we share the democratic belief that greater participation leads to greater diversity, greater equity, and better solutions. Participation in society and business is increasingly mediated through these technologies -- when we graduate students who are functionally illiterate in these areas we all suffer a loss: of voices that won't be heard, solutions that won't be found, and connections that won't be made.

I know it's really difficult, that it maybe feels like we are not the best people to teach these skills. But it's really imperative that someone teach these to our students...

Anyway, I'm veering towards rhetorical here, perhaps time to sign off...