0:00:05.058,0:00:07.993
Today, I'm going to talk to you [br]about participatory culture

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which is a concept [br]that I've been exploring and developing

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over the last 20-something years.

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So, I was writing [br]about participatory culture

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before the internet, or at least[br]before the internet

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hit most people's lives.

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And, for me, I always draw a distinction[br]between participatory culture

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and participatory media or technologies.

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In this talk, I'm going to be talking [br]very much about that concept

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in relation to new media literacies,[br]but also, and primarily, in relation

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to civic engagement.

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This is work that's been funded [br]in recent years

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by the MacArthur Foundation, [br]by the Knight Foundation,

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and, most recently, by the Annenburg [br]School of Journalism and Communication.

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I'll begin with a story. [br]And, this is the story of Peter.

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And, Peter lives in New York.[br]So, he's a resident not too far from here.

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He lives with his aunt and his uncle.[br]

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Peter considers himself to be a master[br]of the webs, and he's involved

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in a great deal [br]of adolescent identity play.

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He's got multiple identities, [br]multiple ways of seeing himself

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and acting upon the world.

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Peter uses social network sites[br]to connect with his friends

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including people [br]at a nearby private academy

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that he has strong ties to.

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And, he's also an amateur photographer[br]

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whose begun posting[br]his photographs online.

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His photographs have been so good[br]that they've gotten the attention

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of the local newspaper, and he's beginning[br]to publish his photographs there.

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He also is deeply invested [br]in his community

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and takes action,[br]both individually and collectively

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to make the world around him [br]a better place.

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His uncle is fond of noting [br]that he has in his hands

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more power than any previous generation[br]could have imagined.

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And, with great power [br]comes great responsibility.

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By now, you've probably guessed [br]

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that my Peter, in this case, [br]is Peter Parker,

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better known as Spiderman.

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And, I've framed the beginning of my talk[br]in that way to make a point,

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which is that in our imaginations,[br]we readily accept the idea

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that young people do things in the world[br]that matter,

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that young people can take responsibility[br]and change the world around them,

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that young people are [br]active social agents,

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and that young people need space to pursue[br]those interests,

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and those interests [br]need to be taken seriously.

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I've also begun the story this way,[br]because I want to illustrate

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the ways we can use popular culture[br]as tools and resources to think with

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and to think about [br]the changing environment around us.

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So, one of the things that changed [br]about Peter Parker

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in the time [br]that I've been a comic book fanboy,

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is that Peter Parker once needed to be[br]deeply embedded in a newspaper.

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Indeed, all superheroes were tied[br]to systems of large-scale communication

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in order to get access to information[br]with which to make sense

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of the world around them,[br]to identify problems and act upon them.

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And, increasingly, they've been dispersed.

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Peter has lost his job recently[br]at the newspaper.

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He doesn't need it any more.

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He's got access to the internet,[br]and indeed, more and more Peter Parker

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gets his information about the world[br]streaming through

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digital technology channels.

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The second thing about Peter Parker[br]is that Peter Parker belongs in a society

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where adults and young people relate [br]to each other as equals.

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There's a lot of talk [br]about digital natives

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and digital immigrants.

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For me, the important point is, in fact,[br]the really successful stories

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are places where young people and adults[br]meet each other on equal footing

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based on common interests.

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And, it's a good thing [br]that Peter's not judged by his age.

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Given that Thor is [br]about 400, 500 years old,

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all of us look young by the standards [br]Thor sets.

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And, Peter makes mistakes.[br]

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His aunt looks after him [br]and follows up behind him,

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but he's able to take risks[br]and pursue interests with an adult

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that watches his back,[br]doesn't snoop over his shoulder.

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This is all part of [br]what I call a participatory culture.

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So, for a white paper I wrote [br]for MacArthur about 4 years ago,

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I got interested in the fact

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that the Pew Center [br]for Internet and American Life

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was showing at the time that about 58%[br]of American teens had produced media.

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Today, the number's about 65% [br]of American teens.

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About a third of those teens have shared[br]that media they've produced

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with a community[br]larger than friends and family.

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So, there's a communication shift[br]that's going on

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as more and more young people are becoming[br]participants in their society.

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Now, we didn't accept the premise [br]that we should just take

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a laissez-faire attitude,[br]that these should be feral children

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of the internet and they should be raised[br]by the wolves of Web 2.0.

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(Laughter)

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Instead, we suggested that there were[br]basic skills and knowledge[br]

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they still needed to acquire.

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We identified 12 social skills [br]and cultural competencies,

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in this white paper, [br]needed to fully participate

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in this new environment.

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Now, this is the way we normally represent[br]these sets of social developments,

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through technologies.

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This chart shows us 3 phases[br]of technological development.

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The logic of that argument is [br]that a participatory culture

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somehow grows out of [br]those technological platforms.

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I want to take us back to Web negative 10.

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(Laughter)

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The 1850s, young people were using[br]toy printing presses

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to publish what we would now call zines,[br]which were circulating around the country.

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There was a national circuit, [br]the Amateur Press Association.

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These teens developed codes and initials,[br]phrases like LLL, that they would use

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because they had to hand-set the type[br]in printing out these publications.

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And, many of the terms we now use [br]in the internet

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trace their history back to that period[br]of time,

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these social networks, [br]these virtual communities

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that existed around print.

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We could carry the notion [br]of participatory culture forward -

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this is only one [br]of many multiple histories

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of participatory culture - [br]to the amateur radio operators

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of the 1920s, where schools, [br]boy scout troops, churches

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operated their own radio stations,[br]and young people took ownership

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of communication resources[br]in their own community.

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We could carry it forward[br]through the science-fiction community,

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which began, by about the 1930s,[br]to be publishing its own zines,

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providing cultural criticism,[br]speculating about the limits

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of science and technology,[br]and forward still to the underground press

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of the 1960s, which became the key voice[br]of the counter-culture,

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or forward to Super 8 [br]and camcorder activists,

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who were using those technologies[br]to build social networks again

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and make a difference in the world,[br]and forward to the indie movement

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which used radio and the web to, again, [br]create alternative channels

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of communication.

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That's the history [br]I think we should pay attention to,

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not the history of technologies,[br]because what we see here

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is this community, these people, [br]participatory culture, took advantage

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of every new technology, [br]as it was presented, as a vehicle

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by which to participate, [br]to engage with the world,

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to make a difference in their community.

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Now, through the MacArthur work,[br]I make the case

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that participatory culture is a rich site[br]of informal learning.

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Because there are low barriers[br]for engagement,

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strong support for sharing creations[br]with others,

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informal mentorship, members believe[br]their contributions matter.

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They care about each others' opinions[br]of self and worth.

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These are key ideas.

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Now, by the way, the slide illustrates[br]the idea of participatory culture,

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because a couple of years ago,[br]I punched that phrase into Google search,

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and up came this slide.

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Someone had taken my white paper,[br]turned it into an image

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better than the one I would have used,[br]and so ever since, I've used it

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in my presentations. (Laughter)

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And, that's precisely [br]how participatory culture works.

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We throw ideas out into the world.

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We bring them back in an improved way

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because of our engagement [br]with communities.

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So, a couple of years ago, I was in Chile[br]and met this guy,

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who's a senator, Fernando Flores Labra,[br]who looks, as you can see,

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like a Latin-American senator.

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But, the difference is that he's [br]an absolute passionate player

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of World of Warcraft and believes[br]that World of Warcraft holds the key

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for thinking about the future [br]of Latin America. (Laughter)

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He believes that young people[br]connecting on line with each other,

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collaborating, forming teams,[br]developing leadership skills,

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that work with people around the world,[br]who they may never know face-to-face,

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holds the potential for inserting [br]Latin America more decisively

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into a global conversation.

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Now, we can think about [br]what he has to say

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about World of Warcraft [br]with what Rober Putnam told us

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about bowling.

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That is, Robert Putnam tells us,[br]in the 1950s,

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the bowling league was the center[br]of civic life

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in small-town America.

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People gathered to bowl,[br]but they also had a range

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of other conversations that took place[br]around that practice.

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And, the social network that emerges [br]from that becomes key

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to political engagement in the period[br]that is to follow.

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Now, he has a kind of dire, [br]downward-turned look at these things,

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but I think we want [br]to revisit his arguments,

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not in terms of television, [br]but in terms of the internet.

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And I would argue that whatever [br]is going on in World of Warcraft,

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it's not bowling alone.

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This group of people, [br]like the group of bowlers before,

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is a community which has taken[br]mutual interest in each other,

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extending beyond what's in the game[br]to larger parts of their lives.

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This becomes a meeting point[br]and a place of exchange,

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only it's an exchange [br]not rooted geographically,

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but rooted on a global scale.

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What we've seen is that games[br]are an enormous platform

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for various forms of civic and political[br]activism

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whether it's the Ron Paul movement[br]using World of Warcraft

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to this massive protest that took place[br]in one of the multi-player games in China,

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a protest [br]that probably couldn't take place

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in physical space, [br]at least post-Tiananmen Square,

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but can take place [br]in a virtual environment.

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Games have become a platform[br]by which people are expressing

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their political concerns.

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This is part of a larger picture.

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Many of you have seen the studies[br]that show that young people

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get more of their information [br]about the world

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through popular culture,[br]including comedy news shows like these

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rather than [br]through traditional journalism.

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And, as someone in a journalism department[br]who cares greatly about the future

0:10:05.678,0:10:07.156
of journalism, this worries me.[br]

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As someone who cares[br]about the future of civic engagement,

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it doesn't worry me nearly as much,[br]because these shows often represent

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alternative perspectives [br]that are not in the mainstream news.

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They critique the frame of news.

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They dig into the archive [br]and present images

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and contextualize things in ways[br]that traditional news has not.

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As platforms for thinking about the world,[br]they're doing really important work,

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and they're a part of this larger way[br]in which the line

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between participatory culture[br]and public participation

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is starting to break down.

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Now, this is not new.

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Again, thinking historically, we can argue[br]that previous generations' ideas

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about democracy were also shaped[br]by popular culture.

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Here we see Norman Rockwell's covers[br]for Saturday Evening Post

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and Frank Capra's[br]Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,

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as earlier forms of popular culture[br]that taught people things about democracy.

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It embedded the logic of democracy[br]into the practices of their everyday life.

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And, we can go backwards and forwards[br]in time,

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forwards to rock music [br]and underground comics,

0:11:06.032,0:11:08.858
backwards to the Tea Party, [br]the original Tea Party,

0:11:08.858,0:11:12.284
where people were playing dress-up[br]and dumping tea in the harbor,

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building on carnivalesque traditions[br]from old Europe.

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And, we can go forward [br]to the present moment

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where, in fact, we're seeing[br]the mobilization of participatory culture

0:11:21.992,0:11:24.897
by groups like Move On[br]around the Obama campaign,

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and to sort of think about[br]where did the people get the skills

0:11:27.851,0:11:31.287
that allowed them to produce videos[br]for Obama that circulated on YouTube?

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And, in many cases, it may have been[br]people learning

0:11:33.729,0:11:35.489
how to film themselves skateboarding.

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It may have been gamers using machinima.

0:11:37.940,0:11:40.295
It could have been any number [br]of popular culture,

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participatory culture practices[br]that taught them their skills.

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Just as in a hunting society, we play[br]with bows and arrows,

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in an information society, we play[br]with information.

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In a mediated culture, we play with media,[br]and that play, in fact,

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becomes a powerful form of teaching.

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Now, that play is now being harnessed[br]by new kinds of political organizations,

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like this one: The Harry Potter Alliance.

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The founder, a 20-something[br]named Andrew Slack,

0:12:06.804,0:12:09.328
starts with the premise[br]that Harry Potter is the story

0:12:09.328,0:12:12.503
of a young man who questioned authority[br]and changed the world,

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that he lived in a world [br]where the newspapers lied

0:12:15.046,0:12:16.267
about what was happening.

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The government refused [br]to acknowledge real problems,

0:12:18.742,0:12:20.812
and his school suppressed [br]political speech,

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but he organized his classmates [br]into the Dumbledore's Army

0:12:24.164,0:12:25.832
and went out and changed the world.

0:12:25.842,0:12:28.139
That's a powerful image [br]for young activists.

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So, if we had a Dumbledore's Army today,[br]what would they do?

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Who would they work with?

0:12:32.139,0:12:34.998
And, he works with both fan groups,[br]like wizard rock groups.

0:12:34.998,0:12:36.426
This is Harry and the Potters.[br]

0:12:36.426,0:12:39.813
He works with free press [br]and Amnesty International.

0:12:39.933,0:12:43.271
He's organized around human rights issues,[br]around worker rights issues,

0:12:43.271,0:12:44.588
around gay marriage.

0:12:44.748,0:12:48.235
Most recently, he wrote me this morning [br]to say they'd raised enough money

0:12:48.235,0:12:53.533
to support 3 cargo planes to Haiti,[br]named Hermione, Harry, and Ron.

0:12:53.533,0:12:54.969
(Laughter)

0:12:54.969,0:12:58.653
They're delivering supplies down there[br]to make a difference in that community.

0:12:59.003,0:13:03.485
He's got now 100,000 young people [br]around the world who are involved

0:13:03.485,0:13:06.095
in civic activism in the name [br]of Harry Potter,

0:13:06.475,0:13:08.407
a pretty remarkable set of developments.

0:13:09.197,0:13:12.777
We're seeing that popular culture leads[br]to new kinds of political awareness.

0:13:12.777,0:13:16.552
This group, AANG Ain't White, [br]now known as Racebender,

0:13:16.552,0:13:20.452
organized in response to the filming [br]of a version of Nickelodeon's show,

0:13:20.452,0:13:24.149
Last Airbender, in which all [br]of the people of color were recast

0:13:24.149,0:13:25.337
by white actors.

0:13:26.007,0:13:30.182
And, they've organized to call attention[br]to the whitewashing of characters,

0:13:30.182,0:13:32.910
the sort of racial politics of casting.

0:13:33.330,0:13:36.095
This has extended from a focus [br]on one anime series

0:13:36.095,0:13:37.844
to a whole variety of issues.

0:13:37.844,0:13:40.796
And, these are teenagers and young adults[br]educating themselves.

0:13:40.796,0:13:42.343
about race in America.

0:13:42.783,0:13:44.520
It can come right through your door.[br]

0:13:44.520,0:13:46.857
This is a group called [br]The Living Room Rock Gods,

0:13:46.857,0:13:51.028
who try to duplicate the keyboard skills,[br]the drumming skills

0:13:51.028,0:13:53.839
of their favorite rock performers,[br]put it out on YouTube.

0:13:53.839,0:13:57.329
But, predictably enough, if they [br]get close enough to the original,

0:13:57.329,0:13:59.633
the technology tries [br]to see if they're pirating

0:14:00.053,0:14:01.163
and shuts them down.

0:14:01.163,0:14:03.494
It's a point of pride, [br]but also a point of anger.

0:14:03.494,0:14:06.936
So, they've organized this group,[br]Tribute is not Theft, to call attention

0:14:06.936,0:14:10.409
to the politics of copyright, [br]take-down notices, and so forth.

0:14:11.249,0:14:13.774
This is a more traditional group, [br]Invisible Children.

0:14:13.774,0:14:17.316
It's an activist group concerned [br]with Uganda, but it's taking the language

0:14:17.316,0:14:21.193
of popular culture, participatory culture,[br]and works to engage young people

0:14:21.193,0:14:22.497
with political change.

0:14:22.497,0:14:25.407
So, it borrows from Michael Jackson,[br]from High School Musical,

0:14:25.407,0:14:27.011
from reality television.

0:14:27.011,0:14:30.576
It produces what Stephen Duncombe [br]would call ethical spectacles

0:14:30.576,0:14:34.803
that are participatory, transparent,[br]playful, but mobilize people

0:14:34.803,0:14:37.677
on an ongoing basis, not just to give[br]their time and money,

0:14:37.677,0:14:41.316
but to actively engage in a relationship[br]with the developing world.

0:14:41.936,0:14:44.834
Now, we've seen signs of the start[br]to leak out of this.

0:14:44.834,0:14:48.728
This image up here of the Joker Obama[br]originated on a site in a community

0:14:48.728,0:14:51.532
called 4chan that, in fact, [br]just spit out lots of variants

0:14:51.532,0:14:54.298
on the Joker tied [br]to different political figures.

0:14:54.298,0:14:56.323
For them, it was a game.[br]Can we make mimes?

0:14:56.323,0:14:58.914
Can we spread them out[br]to a larger population?

0:14:59.234,0:15:01.929
This one got picked up, has been[br]on the national news.

0:15:02.159,0:15:05.272
It's sort of become a rallying point[br]for conservatives in America.

0:15:05.492,0:15:09.521
But, what it does is translate politics[br]through a language of popular culture.

0:15:09.811,0:15:12.103
It gets us out [br]of the policy wonk discourse

0:15:12.103,0:15:14.465
and into something that's[br]much more engaged

0:15:14.465,0:15:16.673
with things people already know[br]and care about.

0:15:16.983,0:15:19.198
Now, what comes around goes around.

0:15:19.398,0:15:22.718
We can see during the campaign[br]that supporters had depicted McCain

0:15:22.718,0:15:26.774
as the Penguin and Obama as Batman.

0:15:27.304,0:15:29.785
We've seen that there were images[br]during the campaign

0:15:29.785,0:15:32.341
that made Obama into Spock. (Laughter)

0:15:32.961,0:15:37.335
We've seen that the comic book world[br]has connected Obama in a variety of ways

0:15:37.335,0:15:39.368
to the figure of the superhero. (Laughter)

0:15:39.758,0:15:44.480
And, we see that, in fact, Obama himself[br]has sort of played around (Laughter)

0:15:44.480,0:15:45.405
with that analogy.

0:15:45.805,0:15:50.168
So, the language of the superhero, [br]of comics, and of science fiction

0:15:50.168,0:15:55.176
has become a way that we make sense[br]of our fanboy-in-chief. (Laughter)

0:15:55.196,0:15:56.885
Now, this is the global phenomenon.

0:15:56.885,0:16:00.183
Some of you saw the other day in the news[br]a protest march in Palestine

0:16:00.373,0:16:03.146
where people dressed up like the Na'vi[br]from Avatar.

0:16:03.146,0:16:06.565
And, in fact, across many parts [br]of the world, there have been already

0:16:06.565,0:16:09.950
protest marches similar to this one[br]where people paint themselves blue.

0:16:10.930,0:16:14.482
On Twitter, we paint ourselves green,[br]but it's more or less the same thing.

0:16:14.642,0:16:19.800
It's the idea of using the language [br]of James Cameron's films to speak back

0:16:19.800,0:16:20.543
to power.

0:16:20.543,0:16:23.779
This is a protest march in Singapore[br]where there are prohibitions

0:16:23.779,0:16:26.778
on public gatherings, and so people came[br]one by one

0:16:26.778,0:16:30.331
and plopped down an action figure [br]to stand in for them

0:16:30.331,0:16:31.804
as a figure of protest.

0:16:32.074,0:16:36.386
And, that over there, believe it or not, [br]is a rally about Pop Idol in India.

0:16:36.846,0:16:40.844
Around the world, we've seen Pop Idol[br]become a centerpiece for debates

0:16:40.844,0:16:42.315
about democracy.

0:16:42.315,0:16:45.944
I hear a lot about more young people voted[br]for American Idol than voted

0:16:45.944,0:16:46.958
in the last election. [br]

0:16:46.958,0:16:50.371
Not true, by the way. More votes cast.[br]But, if you could speed-dial

0:16:50.371,0:16:53.656
in the last election and vote[br]as many times as you wanted,

0:16:53.656,0:16:57.112
there would've been a lot more votes[br]in American politics. (Laughter)

0:16:57.112,0:17:00.453
But, what's interesting is that, [br]around the world, Pop Idol has become

0:17:00.453,0:17:02.750
a franchise that sparks debates [br]about democracy.

0:17:02.750,0:17:04.297
So, why hasn't it happened here?

0:17:04.297,0:17:07.714
That may say more about our culture[br]than it says about the franchise.

0:17:07.714,0:17:09.100
So, where does that leave us?

0:17:09.100,0:17:11.828
These groups are mobilizing [br]skills kids have,

0:17:11.828,0:17:14.934
knowledge they care about, [br]passions they have toward new causes.

0:17:15.164,0:17:18.127
But, our schools are locking out [br]many of these practices.

0:17:18.397,0:17:21.909
Our schools are turning down Wikipedia,[br]shutting off YouTube,

0:17:21.909,0:17:24.240
blocking social network sites.

0:17:24.740,0:17:27.829
And, this, I think, is a challenge [br]for those of us in this room.

0:17:27.829,0:17:31.175
If we think what I described here works[br]on an organizational level

0:17:31.175,0:17:34.867
to mobilize citizenship, shouldn't we[br]bring it into our classrooms?

0:17:35.497,0:17:37.010
So, I end there.

0:17:37.010,0:17:41.101
(Applause)