Clay asked me, what my working definition of Participatory Media is. Since I didn’t think he would like my riff on his jello and nails comment, I came up with this:
Broad definition:
A participatory medium is one which encourages audience participation in the creation, distribution and consumption of itself.
My specific spin:
A medium with similar properties to mass media (audio and video) with the addition of social interaction interwoven into the creation, distribution and consumption of it.
Even better might be how Wikipedia defines it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_Media
I suppose that after having taught a course called “Producing Participatory Media” a couple of times, a definition should just roll off of my tongue. Fortunately, the concept itself has changed and grown quite a bit since then (ahh, the sweet pace of change in this interwebbed world).
Perhaps one of my former students would be better at answering this question?
Participatory media, for me, is about anticipating what somebody might be want to do within a medium and providing them with the means to do it. The accuracy of that prediction might lead to a higher quality participatory experience. It’s about empathizing with the audience while breaking down that separation between audience and producer.