" We are all media creators" - Henry Jenkins
e.g uploading photos/videos/texts through blogs/facebook/twitter on iPhones/tablets/laptops/desktops.
"participatory culture is in which members believe their contribution matters and feel some degree of social connections with one another" for example: uploading and sharing images on Instagram a huge and ever growing social networking site - thinking that sharing a picture of your dinner or day in London matters to other people. People have become self conscious and aware of what other people think - this is shown through editing posts once they are posted/deleting images or posts if you feel there isn't enough likes etc.
We are: CREATORS - we create our own online presence.
CONSUMERS - we take in other peoples lives on social media.
MULTIPLIERS - we share and retweet/repost other peoples posts and image.
An example of this would be posting a series of images on Instagram, scrolling through your newsfeed - taking in other people's images and either liking or scrolling past and also reposting a photo from another account, or even tagging other people in an image - promoting them as their own creator therefore keeping the cycle running. People can be more of one category than the others or equal in each category for example I often post images on Instagram everyday and share videos on Facebook. But with sharing posts on Facebook I also scroll through my newsfeed meaning whist I am a multiplier I am also a consumer within this process.
Context/History
Delwiche and Henderson, 2013
(4 phases of participatory culture)
1 - EMERGENCE - 1985 - 1993
During this time period PC's became popular in households meaning individuals had more access to their own creations. The zine subculture also emerged, a popular zine being 'Forced Exposure' a music inspired zine.
2 - WAKING UP TO THE WEB - 1994 - 1998
During this stage big websites such as Yahoo (1994) Amazon (1994), eBay (1995) and Google (1996) started up. Their initial look was very different to modern internet styles where the fonts are more stylistic and clearer layouts whereas previously the fonts were 'clunky' often in text boxes.
1996
2015
3 - PUSH BUTTON PUBLISHING - 1999 - 2004
This is the interaction period for example Facebook was founded in 2004 meaning people could talk and interact over the internet. Despite this being seen as a positive and fast advance to the technological world - has it become an obsession? have people become so reliant on computer conversations that face to face talking is a rarity? Progressing 11 years on from the first launch of Facebook, twitter and other networking sites have become available encouraging people to become creators and share their life, thinking it impacts other people's lives. Also there has become an expectation of people to have accounts on Facebook and follow the mainstream way. You can access Facebook on laptops, tablets and phones meaning anywhere at any time you can get in contact with people, this leads into the last and final stage of Delwiche and Henderson's 4 phases...
4 - OBIQUITOUS CONNECTIONS - 2005 - 2011
This is the period in which the iPhone came in (2007) and people could continuously and immediately contact other people.
A more recent example is Snapchat - people create and produce their own media by posting images either onto their story for everyone to see or to individuals, therefore forcing the viewer to be a consumer. The consumer then has the choice to either create and send an image back or not. Therefore I feel Jenkins ideas fit in well with Delwiche and Henderson's 4 phase's of participatory culture as without being a creator or consumer these stages wouldn't exist. Phone companies have also fed into the idea of obiquitous connections due to contract deals in which you pay a certain amount a month for a set amount of texts/minutes and data - allowing people to connect with other people whenever and wherever providing they have 3G or wi-fi.
However I think consumers can participate in different ways either actively or passively. Passively meaning aimlessly scrolling through feeds and refreshing pages hoping for something interesting to arise where as actively consuming means purposely looking and engaging with peoples creations.
Crowd Sourcing
For crowd sourcing to occur it needs lots of participants for example:
threadless.com is a t-shirt designing compay in which is uses the public to create t-shirts.
1. register and download templates
2. create own design
3. upload design to gallery
4. all designs are rated for one week and the most popular designs then enter a forum in which the staff decided to be the best one and is then mass produced and available to buy.
The systems works because it relies on public participation as they basically do all the hard work and the staff simply choice what they think is the best design and then produce it therefore participants doing a companies labour for free. The idea of winning and having your design mass produced is enough for people to join in because even if they don't win they havent wasted any money on entering a competition.
Constructions of value in participatory culture...
We put our own value on items based on a symbolic or sentimental value rather than financial.
For example, Ebay - we bid higher on items which have more meaning to us either because it is something we want or need and therefore the higher we bid the more symbolic meaning it has to us as individuals.
'Appraisal' - you decide something is worth more than the other person.
residual - retro - meaning old materials - have a new value in which we attach not from the material itself.
Marinia Abramovic is a perfomance artist in which her shows exist as a live show and then is gone and also states we have now become consumption junkies.
Jenkins states that youtube acts as an after life - it films live shows and also people to watch or re watch live performances feeding into what Abramovic says about a culture becoming consumption junkies, the videos are also free which encourages people to watch and re watch videos as there is no financial barrier. Again individuals appraise videos therefore deciding what to watch/share/comment on. This gives us an insight into capitalism and the illusion that we are in control when in reality there are people who regulate us and what we are presented with instantly. for example if you search something on google, on the right hand side a box with pictures of the specific item and websites come up - these websites sponsor google in order to get their products and companies promoted. Also when you look on certain websites then go on Facebook or youtube for example - adverts appear in columns of items you have recently viewed - through repetition we are more likely to purchase these items of interest.
Foucault - the panoptic gaze
based on an architectural design.
in the centre is the watch tower where the power is held and superiors watch the prisoners from and the outer wall is the cells in which the prisoners are based and have a constant paranoia of being watched and therefore act differently as they fear being watched and have learnt to self0regulate their behaviour.
Sousveillance
the idea that there is a power shift between superior and prisoners
e.g if a police officers breaks the law and is caught on camera by viewers, there has been a shift in power as the superior has evidence against him.
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