The Positive Side of Participatory Culture and New Media

As I went through this week’s readings, I could not help but think about how easy it is to become published these days.  Most web users are published authors, having posted on forums, social media sites, blogs and elsewhere.  In the past, being published was a difficult process involving a great deal of luck, some capital, and the talent to be among the selected few that would become memorialized onto the pages of a book.  In my early thirties, I went on a book writing craze, but I was never lucky enough to get out of the slush pile.  I lacked a network of people to help facilitate in having my work seen by someone in a position to make a decision.  Today, I write freely on blogs and social media sites, discussion posts and forums.  I am well-published on the web.  More importantly, the ability to have my voice heard is even more important that the audience who reads what I have to say

Without the Internet, or Internet access, I would not be able to voice my opinions and have my say about local and national events on the web.  With the web, I can advocate for animal rights, gay rights, national health care, all from the comfort of my favorite chair and desk at home.  In addition, I am able to post pictures of my children, the places I visit, and I can share media that I feel strongly about.  As a full participant in the hype of new media on the web, and part of the “networked public,” I believe that these changes are positive and will continue to provide new methods of communication between people across the globe.

Author Varnelis cites Geert Lovink who “suggests that these networked publics follow a nihilist impulse against moral absolutes and objective truths, which in media terms translates into a growing distrust for commercial news organizations and their product” (2008 pg. 5).  This is extremely important to note as it represents the end of news monopolies and the beginning of common individuals as newsmakers.  Recently, there was a story where 50,000 people protested against austerity in Great Britain, and BBC News refused to publish the story (ellenrr, 2014).  If it were not for social media, the voices of the 50,000 individuals speaking out would have gone unheard.  This did not happen, however, and the lack of coverage by BBC became extremely suspect as they made an overt attempt to suppress big news in Great Britain.  This is just one recent example of how social media has brought to light news from around the world that has brought us closer as a global population, and more aware of the plights of others in our day to day lives.

As I’ve mentioned, one of my favorite ways to communicate online is to blog.  I don’t have much of a following, but enough to keep me writing.  “Blogs are another kind of collective intelligence in which individuals pool their fact finding capabilities to gather knowledge that can challenge the authority of the professional press (Varnelis, 2008 pg. 6).  One of my blogs is about how I quit smoking.  I am not a doctor or a known authority on the subject, but I was able to offer my readers an alternative to other methods in an intelligent yet caring way (How I Quit Smoking, 2012).

According to the Varnelis text, “The result is that a good deal more that human beings value can now be done by individuals, who interact with each other socially, as human beings and as social beings, rather than as market actors through the price system” (Russell, Ito, Richmond & Tuters, 2008 pg.46).  This is truly momentous in the history of our world.  The authors continue, “by reshaping long-established standards of production and consumption, amateurs, file sharers, and bloggers challenge existing institutional and professional authority. Today we see the first glimmerings of what a fully networked public culture might look like (Russell, et al, 2008 pg 49). There are vast educational implications in the changes that are occurring as new media and new literacies impact the way that people learn and how they are exposed to knowledge, and become creators of knowledge.

According to authors Durant & Green, (2000):

In an age of burgeoning new media of communication, information and representation, there are more and different technologies available. These are increasingly deployed in working and playing with texts, in the practice of new and different literacies. Indeed, we are now able to recognise and acknowledge that, for schooling and education, print is simply one of a range of available technocultural resources. Accordingly, account needs to be taken of a profound media shift in literacy, schooling and society--a broad-based shift from print to digital electronics as the organising context for literate-textual practice and for learning and teaching.

Following is Green’s chart (2000):

Green & Durant explain the ‘3D’ view of literacy-technology learning:  “it brings together three dimensions or aspects of learning and practice: the operational, the cultural and the critical. Rather than simply focusing on `how-to' knowledge, as it usually is understood--that is, technical competence and so-called`functional literacy'--it complements and supplements this by contextualizing it, with due regard for matters of culture, history and power. All dimensions need to be addressed simultaneously, in an integrated view of literate practice and literacy pedagogy.

In response to Durant & Green, I do understand the new role of the user as a code breaker in a socially conscious and culturally competent model.  In addition critical analysis gains in importance as we are exposed to new avenues of knowledge making and knowledge consumption.

When I think about the readings for this module, I become excited about the possibilities that are presented to web users today, and the technologies that will allow for even more freedom to become creators of knowledge and information in the future.  I am happy to see the downfall of the few corporations who control all of the information.  Their day is over, and the day of the people, the individual voice, has just begun.

Reference

Durrant, C., & Green, B. (2000). Literacy and the new technologies in school education: meeting

the l (IT) eracy challenge?.

Elenrr. (2014, June 22). Thread Information - Democratic Underground. Retrieved from

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=thread&info=1&address=12529693

How I Quit Smoking | Yadablahblog by Molly [Web log post]. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://yadablahblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/how-i-quit-smoking/

Russell, A., Ito, M., Richmond, T., & Tuters, M. (2008). Culture: Media Convergence and

Networked Participation. In Networked Publics (pp. 43-76). Boston, MA: The MIT Press.

Varnelis, K.(Ed.).(2008). Networked Publics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

http://networkedpublics.org/