Participatory Media Culture

Running head: PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
Media is used as a communicating tool that is used for storing data and delivering
information. There are different components of media such as print media, news media,
cinema, publishing, photography, broadcasting which consists of radio as well as television
and lastly advertising. Through different modes of media news, education and movies are
dissimilated 1. Television, radio and newspaper are the old forms of media whereas the
internet, online communities, website as well as blogs; web advertising are all examples of
new media. The essay aims to explain the advantages and the disadvantages of participatory
media culture
According to Jenkins, Henry, and Mark (2008), participatory culture is opposed to a
consumer culture where the public not only acts as consumers but also as producers. It is a
term that is often applied to a kind of published media2. Therefore, according to Bolter
(2000), participatory media culture is a form of media where the audience plays an active role
in the method of collecting, analysing, disseminating, as well as analysing content 3.
Participatory media is a form of new media that includes blogs, social bookmarking, sharing
videos, tagging, and creating video blogs 4. All these examples involve the active
participation of the people to develop a value process. Participatory media consists of the
involvement of many people that were not possible with the old press comprising of
television and radio.
1 Havens, Timothy, and Amanda Lotz. Understanding media industries. Oxford University Press, 2017.
2 Jenkins, Henry, and Mark Deuze. "Convergence culture." (2008): 5-12.
3 Bolter, Jay David. "Remediation and the Desire for Immediacy." Convergence 6, no. 1 (2000): 62-71.
4 Stollfuß, Sven. "Between television, web and social media: On social TV, About: Kate and participatory
production in German Public Television." Participations 15, no. 1 (2018): 36-59.

2
PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
Participatory media culture has several advantages. Firstly, participatory media
culture assists the media producers in their marketing strategies. According to Carah et al.,
(2018), the marketers of media can utilise their consumers from the perspective of a creative
approach to advertise their product as well as services 5. This commonly happens in viral
marketing. It means sharing of data through different platforms of social media. An
advertisement is considered to be viral when it gains a lot of attention from the public.
Secondly, as Fletcher et al., (2018) states, participatory media allows people to form their
views as well as opinions on a particular topic of concern 6. On the other hand, Liu et al.
(2016) state that participatory media is disadvantageous as an interaction between people can
lead to negative consequences. People can be exploited on the social media platform 7.
Yochai Benkler (2016) mentioned that participatory media is a network of information
economy from where the media can be communicated. It allows the audience to communicate
with each other using devices that are inexpensive and require the user to be efficient in
handling the computer 8. The capacity to circulate a small piece of information within a short
period helps in creating a culture. However, according to Lutz, Christoph and Christian
(2017), participatory media has created a lot of threat to the old media. Most of the
5 Carah, Nicholas, and Daniel Angus. "Algorithmic brand culture: participatory labour, machine
learning and branding on social media." Media, Culture & Society 40, no. 2 (2018): 178-194.
6 Fletcher, Richard, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. "Are people incidentally exposed to news on social
media? A comparative analysis." New media & society 20, no. 7 (2018): 2450-2468.
7 Liu, Katrina, Richard Miller, and Kyung Eun Jahng. "Participatory media for teacher professional
development: Toward a self-sustainable and democratic community of practice." Educational
Review 68, no. 4 (2016): 420-443.
8 Benkler, Yochai. "Peer production and cooperation." In Handbook on the Economics of the Internet.
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016.