Participatory Media

What is participatory media?

Participatory media is:

• any media in which the audience can also be the broadcaster

• any media “whose value and power derives from the active participation of many people. Value derives not just from the size of the audience, but from their power to link to each other, to form a public as well as a market.”(Rheingold, 2008).

• any media which facilitates the emergence of public voice and dialogue through active engagement with citizens of a community

Why is participatory media important?

Participatory media allows participants to express their voices, explore their identities, and connect with other members of their communities; all elements of active citizenship. (Rheingold, 2008). The ability of citizens to be able to communicate with each other helps promote democracy and good governance through the emergence of public dialogues.

Dialogue is defined as “the ongoing civil project of building collective norms and values through the broad exchange, articulation and dissemination of knowledge... dialogue has the ability to bridge asymmetries in democratic practices, by building collective norms, values and governance among diverse sectors (or “stakeholders” in the modern parlance of government) of Canadian society.” (Naylor and Dale, 2005).