Participatory Media and ‘Co-Creative’ Storytelling

Abstract

Distinguishing critical participatory media from other participatory media forms (for example user-generated content and social media) may be increasingly difficult to do, but it nonetheless remains an important task if media studies is to remain relevant to the continuing development of inclusive social political and media cultures. This was one of a number of the premises for a national Australian Research Council-funded study that set out to improve the visibility of critical participatory media, and to understand its use for facilitating media participation on a population-wide basis. The term ‘co-creative’ media was adopted to make this distinction and to describe an informal system of critical participatory media practice that is situated between major public, Indigenous and community arts, culture and media sectors. Although the co-creative media system is found to be a site of innovation and engine for social change, its value is still not fully understood. For this reason, this system continues to provide media and cultural studies scholars with valuable sites for researching the socio-cultural transformations afforded by new media and communication technologies, as well as their limitations.