Week 8 - Response to Content

Indeed it takes two to tango and two hands are better than one but when it comes to creativity I believe in the saying ‘the more the merrier’ and that’s where participatory culture comes in. Participatory culture is artistic content generated by a community of people to achieve a common goal (Jenkins H 2006). This means collaborating to achieve a result that one couldn’t do on one’s own. I used to be really guarded when it came to playing my guitar and writing music. I wasn’t so keen on sharing any of my creativity with anyone. It was more the fear of being judged and told that what I had done wasn’t good enough but I didn’t look at it from the perspective of how much I was actually missing out on when it came to sharing my music with the world along with giving and getting ideas. We must always be passing our knowledge on to avoid it going stale within us. What participatory culture brings to the table is another realm of expression. It allows online communities to come together and express themselves with the use of theirs and other people’s material. We learn in many ways from others and from working together our ideas expand. From participation comes growth. Sharing and contribution opens a whole new world of learning.

References:

Jenkins, H 2006, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century, Massachusetts Institute of Technology