CMS202 Essay: Participatory Media Culture Analysis

This essay critically examines participatory media culture, a form of media where the audience actively participates in content creation, analysis, and dissemination. It explores the advantages, such as enhanced marketing strategies for media producers and the ability for individuals to express their opinions, alongside the disadvantages, including the potential for misinformation, negative social interactions, and threats to traditional media. The essay draws on various academic sources to analyze how participatory media, encompassing blogs, social media, and online platforms, influences information flow, consumer behavior, and societal trends. It also discusses the impact of hashtags, the role of platforms like YouTube, and the challenges of maintaining credibility in the digital age, concluding that understanding the benefits and limitations of participatory media is essential for navigating the contemporary media landscape.

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

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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.

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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.

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PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
information is altered before reaching the audience 9. The reliance on print media like the
newspaper has rapidly decreased that was more authentic and credible than the participatory
media culture. According to Kim et al. (2019), the modern form of participatory culture in the
form of a hashtag is recognised as a diverse practice of tagging that has a high potential of
becoming a communication channel for many organisations as well as corporations that
would be interested in interacting with one another10. It is generally a sign that is used to
identify a common topic and a trend that connects various individuals. It is mostly used for
campaigning for a social or political cause to bring about a change regarding a particular
situation or law. On the contrary, according to Gilkerson, Nathan and Kati (2017), the
activism of hashtag can lead to negative consequences like people may start supporting the
wrong cause as it becomes a trend11. It may also destabilise a society such as the recent
#MeToo movement.
Furthermore, according to Manovich (2001) in a participatory media culture, the users
can get a piece of information without depending on the professionals. Many news channels
too conduct panel discussion that is also known as a form of participatory media 12. For
instance, according to Li and Lea (2016), CNN had created an ireport platform where the
9 Lutz, Christoph, and Christian Pieter Hoffmann. "The dark side of online participation: exploring
non-, passive and negative participation." Information, Communication & Society 20, no. 6 (2017):
876-897.
10 Kim, Woo Bin, Dong Seob Kim, and Jisoo Park. "The Effects of Hashtag Type on Evaluations of
Influencer and Fashion Information and Consumer Responses." Journal of the Korean Society of
Clothing and Textiles 43, no. 1 (2019): 1-16.
11 Gilkerson, Nathan, and Kati Tusinski Berg. "Social media, hashtag hijacking, and the evolution of an
activist group strategy." Social media and crisis communication (2017): 141-154.
12 Manovich, Lev. The language of new media. MIT Press, 2001.

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PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
public could get access to and give their personal input regarding a natural disaster13. But as
stated by Ashktorab, Zahra, and Jessica (2016), participatory media can give rise to pointless
debate and encourage various types of discrimination amongst people 14. Earlier people had to
depend on old media like television, radio and newspaper to get information about a specific
subject but they had to wait for a long time to gain access to the report. However, with the
rise of participatory media, people can instantly use technology to get a piece of information.
On the other hand Valenzuela et al., (2019) states that participatory media culture can also be
used to circulate false information about natural calamity or political unrest that would lead to
chaos in the society 15. As reported by Burgess and Joshua (2018), YouTube is considered to
be the largest platform for participatory media where people can get access to videos and
news through which they can get information that will help in creating the benefit of
influence16. However, Thomas et al. (2016) believe that YouTube has allowed users to create
their own content to make a profit for themselves. Therefore it is seen that people to gain
money makes new content that is false17.
13 Li, You, and Lea Hellmueller. "A longitudinal study of CNN’s integration of participatory
journalism." The Routledge companion to digital journalism studies (2016): 335.
14 Ashktorab, Zahra, and Jessica Vitak. "Designing cyberbullying mitigation and prevention solutions
through participatory design with teenagers." In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 3895-3905. 2016.
15 Valenzuela, Sebastián, Daniel Halpern, James E. Katz, and Juan Pablo Miranda. "The Paradox of
Participation Versus Misinformation: Social Media, Political Engagement, and the Spread of
Misinformation." Digital Journalism 7, no. 6 (2019): 802-823.
16 Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green. YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. John Wiley &
Sons, 2018.

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PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
Therefore to conclude, it must be noted that participatory media culture has both
advantages as well as disadvantages. It shows a clear connection between the producers as
well as the consumers. The audience needs to understand the credibility and authenticity of
the news that they receive to avoid future problems and inconvenience. Further one needs to
understand which content is monetised and what news is real. If participatory media culture is
freed from all its limitations, then it can be a great tool to bring about a social as well as
political change.
17 Thomas, Kurt, Rony Amira, Adi Ben-Yoash, Ori Folger, Amir Hardon, Ari Berger, Elie Bursztein,
and Michael Bailey. "The abuse sharing economy: Understanding the limits of threat exchanges."
In International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses, pp. 143-164. Springer,
Cham, 2016.

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PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
References
Ashktorab, Zahra, and Jessica Vitak. "Designing cyberbullying mitigation and prevention
solutions through participatory design with teenagers." In Proceedings of the 2016
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 3895-3905. 2016.
Benkler, Yochai. "Peer production and cooperation." In Handbook on the Economics of the
Internet. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016.
Bolter, Jay David. "Remediation and the Desire for Immediacy." Convergence 6, no. 1
(2000): 62-71.
Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green. YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. John
Wiley & Sons, 2018.
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.
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.
Gilkerson, Nathan, and Kati Tusinski Berg. "Social media, hashtag hijacking, and the
evolution of an activist group strategy." Social media and crisis
communication (2017): 141-154.
Havens, Timothy, and Amanda Lotz. Understanding media industries. Oxford University
Press, 2017.
Jenkins, Henry, and Mark Deuze. "Convergence culture." (2008): 5-12.

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PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURE
Kim, Woo Bin, Dong Seob Kim, and Jisoo Park. "The Effects of Hashtag Type on
Evaluations of Influencer and Fashion Information and Consumer
Responses." Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles 43, no. 1 (2019):
1-16.
Li, You, and Lea Hellmueller. "A longitudinal study of CNN’s integration of participatory
journalism." The Routledge companion to digital journalism studies (2016): 335.
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.
Lutz, Christoph, and Christian Pieter Hoffmann. "The dark side of online participation:
exploring non-, passive and negative participation." Information, Communication &
Society 20, no. 6 (2017): 876-897.
Manovich, Lev. The language of new media. MIT Press, 2001.
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.
Thomas, Kurt, Rony Amira, Adi Ben-Yoash, Ori Folger, Amir Hardon, Ari Berger, Elie
Bursztein, and Michael Bailey. "The abuse sharing economy: Understanding the
limits of threat exchanges." In International Symposium on Research in Attacks,
Intrusions, and Defenses, pp. 143-164. Springer, Cham, 2016.
Valenzuela, Sebastián, Daniel Halpern, James E. Katz, and Juan Pablo Miranda. "The
Paradox of Participation Versus Misinformation: Social Media, Political Engagement,
and the Spread of Misinformation." Digital Journalism 7, no. 6 (2019): 802-823.