In this weeks reading from Spreadable Media, Jenkins speaks at length about the history of participatory culture and how it continues to shape our online experiences and their outward projection and influence in society. Jenkins writes,“Current debates about participatory culture emerge from a much longer history of attempts to generate alternative platforms for grassroots communication”.
Saving the Sierra is an interesting project to look at in the terms of “a past participation project” because we have seen a massive shift towards online grassroots participation since this project was concluded in 2010. To me, it seems interesting that the project developers chose to have an end date for the project, rather than leaving an open means of communication as a platform to continue these discussions in the future. The blog could have been maintained to continue as a platform for audiences to receive important updates and remain a means for ongoing discussions. The issues of conservation in California’s Sierra Nevada’s is not a dead one so I am interested in asking Jesikah what her (as well as other contributors to the project) reasons were for closing off participation in the project after 2010. Was this merely so that they would no longer have to sustain the website and free themselves for the development of new projects? In our research into different reasons for creating a participatory online experience, I have never come across a reason for severing means of future communication on the discussed issue.
Also, I was really impressed by the amount of support for Saving the Sierra’s multi-platform approach to “using stories to promote conversations of sustainability and conservation.” As we have seen in the variety of projects we have discussed and dissected in this class, people are always finding new ways to use grassroots forms of storytelling for large-scale community involvement around a specific issue. This project seems to be on the forefront in terms of community support and funding. Among the support from various partners, the project received a grant from the California Council for the Humanities.
In regards to our own outreach of our group projects, I am interested in asking about how they were able to design this community engagement project to fit the needs of so many project supporters and funders. Did they choose to create a project that would fit the goals of various community supporters? Or did support from these outlets come after the initial proposal to create this project? Also, just in terms of creating our own open-sourced documentary projects, What advice could Jesikah give us about finding the ideal way to create this participation platform. How did they know that an audio platform would work the best for this project?
I wonder if they chose an audio platform because it seems to cut out a lot of extra work that comes with video or print. It seems like the easiest manner in which people can tell their story. Go into a sound booth and hit record. Maybe they did a little editing to the piece, so it’s not that audio is without any work, but it doesn’t require a more involved editing process that comes with video. Maybe I am wrong about it, but it just seems like it was the easiest way for people to have control over some aspect of the production. Obviously, the way in which people can record youtube testimonial type videos is very easy, so maybe my theory is wrong.
There project does seem to live on in some ways though. Isn’t the Sierra Business Council still implementing their projects? I guess the producers of Saving the Sierras aren’t the ones running that show, but it seems like the projects that are happening through the SBC are where the Saving the Sierra project can have lasting effects.
Katelyn,
You ask some killer questions. I’m hoping the answers to your first three are found in Helen’s interview with Jesikah (which I’m planning to watch after I get back from work tonight).
As for the last, I was wondering about that myself. On the one hand, I firmly believe in the power of good audio to tell a story. I’ve written previously about the popularity of digital storytelling programs like The Moth and Snap Judgment, and the fact that the archiving project StoryCorps is still going strong after 10 years is additional testament to at least some publics’ interest in hearing other people relate parts of their own histories.
On the other hand, I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t add some additional visual components as they moved online. Given the project’s focus on land preservation, supplementing participant narratives with a video panorama (or even a photographic slideshow a la CDS) seems to make perfect sense. I couldn’t help but think of what then Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee said changed his mind about drilling in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge): he saw the land itself and realized what was at stake.
You will truly be interested in the interview to find out why they chose, in 2006, to use audio interviews, and why in 2010, Sierra folks were still sharing and spreading those pieces.
She also tells a brilliant story of how she hit on a pretty unique strategy to use CDS style digital storytelling with a group of over 55-year old white male ranchers in an Alpine Valley. That was an amazing discovery, and it all came out of her listening to them and collaborating with them in a space where they were comfortable.
Jarratt and Steven,
I think you both pose great questions. I think that in terms of the Saving the Sierra project, video or photographic content could have made the pieces more poignant for audience members that are not familiar with what these issues look like. Jarratt points out that audio is a very simple way for people to record and share their stories on the subject, but maybe they lost some of the power by not adding in a visual aid. Or rather, maybe they opted for audio due to the fact that audio has far better retaining qualities for audiences.
Helen,
I am very interested in watching the interview to find out more about the unique strategies used in the CDS style of delivery. Thank you for providing such wonderful content for us to view and discuss! So interesting to hear the view of the filmmaker and receive some answers that were raised during our dissection of the project.