Perhaps the biggest recurring question that plagues participatory media is one of, well, who actually gets to participate. Though many of the preconditions for participation may have already been met, the technological know-how might be lacking, leaving the aspiring media maker with a message or story, but no tools with which to spread it. Considering the speed at which technological aptitude skews away from the average user, any project that would claim the label of being truly participatory must also provide its users with the means or avenues to find and develop their own voices.
This warehousing of resources, more than anything else, defines this week’s projects for me. Games for Change, Media Storm, and Still Water not only present compelling content, they also offer tips, links, and training that will enable interested audiences to take the next step and become producers themselves. Still Water stands out in particular with its Pool project, a forum where artists and programmers can post projects for collaborative input. While none of the projects it hosts were explicitly labeled as open source, the “pooled” aspect of the site marks it as a possible seeding ground for free software sites like www.osalt.com.
What do you think? Is it enough for a project to give voice to its subjects, or should it create channels by which those subjects can become storytellers themselves?
I think it has to be a combination of giving voice to its subjects and creating channels to foster potential storytellers because there’s too much potential for something to be missed by just targeting one area. Plus, I think people learn and get involved in a variety of different ways. Only presenting one sort of channel for them to get involved cuts in half the possibility for some sort of change — whether that be an actual social change or that be a change in the way someone thinks about a particular situation.
When I was looking through the MediaStorm site, it seemed like most of the videos were preaching less for you to get involved and more on powerful storytelling. That was particularly effective (for me, at least) because they inspired me to at least think more about tough things to deal with, such as parents who are in the final stages of their lives and the idea that women are powerful and able to affect real change in the world. I know that if these concepts were presented in a way that did not include the great storytelling characteristics but relied more on the idea of the overt message to care and get involved, it would have been less to resonate with me. Of course, other people think differently and the way to get them involved might be to go with a more straightforward message rather than the storytelling.
I think games definitely are walking more along the lines of turning participants into storytellers themselves. Think about how many apps and games allow you to share your progress and successes through social media channels. Game developers are turning participants into promoters of the subjects in the games themselves. You also raised an interesting point about barriers to entry. Games often exclude those without technological know-how and perhaps older generations who didn’t grow up with gaming as such an innate part of their social structure.
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