This article describes the current condition and relationships between media and information. It typifies the type of culture we are currently in: parcipatory.

“A participatory culture is culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices.” Basically this identifies the internet community of many forums and blogs.

He goes on to identify four different types of participatory cultures: affliations which require membership. Expressions dabble in creating new forms of material. Collaborative problem solving is pretty self-explanatory and Circulations— Shaping the flow of media (such as podcasting, blogging).

There are also some issues that arrise in the advent of a participatory culture:

• The participatory gap – unequal access to this culture due to social constraints
• The transparency Problem – the inability to discern the wealth of information in a digital media society
• The Ethics Challenge – traditional ways of training have changed form and thus create difficulties in creating ethical norms in the internet communities

Further Inquiry:

These issues are relative to today’s problems. The gap in participation is relative to the ideas of affirmitive action. the Transparency problem seems the same as the average person who engulfs everything that is seen on TV. What would be curious to find out is the solution to this problem. Since there is so much information available on the internet, what is the recourse for knowing what is not only reliable, but also truthful. Everyone has an opinion.

Interest:

What I find interesting is a quote: “According to a 2005 study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life project, more than one-half of all American teens—and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet—could be considered media creators.” It shows the possibilities that a participatory can have. This more than doubles what may have been figured before. It shows the growing relationship between technology and innovation and education.