A speaker in the Transmedia Hangout cited the idea of “examining user impulse” on the question of encouraging interactivity. I think this idea goes to the heart of not just interactivity as commonly understood but on why collaborations and transmedia engagement should even matter. We want to be able to justly represent, understand, empathize with, enjoy and be impressed, reflect and improve on our lot as sentient, thinking beings.
One thing I found quite compelling about the Scribe video project is how it led to “examining collaborator impulse.” The process of making a community video collaboration can become a means not just to produce quality media products to advance the cause of the organization to external parties. It also functions as organizational therapy, an opportunity for the collaborators to introspect about what their group is about.
From the audience perspective, projects like the Precious Places video series, a project mentioned in the reading about white, working-class neighborhoods and the work of the independent news consortium mentioned in the Hangout give us a glimpse of how much we can deepen our understanding of people outside our immediate social milieu if we can go past the mental images that mainstream media, in its constant rush to simplify and encapsulate for a broad audience, feed us.
So what is now the role of professional media practitioners in this new, complex environment? Should we view ourselves as more facilitators rather than creators? How much is too much interactivity/collaboration that we don’t sacrifice a coherent, aesthetically compelling narrative?
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