Participatory Culture:
A Convergence of Opportunities and Challenges in the Library
Introduction
Henry Jenkins’ theory on Participatory Culture postulates that the common people now have greater power to contribute their ideas and skills because of the proliferation of technologies, especially the Internet. However, upon careful examination, I found out that there are issues that would bar people from doing so. This paper investigates these issues and will attempt to answer the following questions: What is the impact of Participatory Culture in the library? What can libraries do to capitalize on the opportunities as well as deal with the challenges brought about by a culture of participation?
This paper presupposes that when the library embeds Participatory Culture, opportunities and challenges will be encountered. Understanding them ahead will make the …show more content…
In an interview with The Futurist, he maintained that the Internet does not inspire trust as it has no gatekeepers that review data and correct information (Tucker, 2008). Thus, Participatory Culture, with the overabundance of amateurish and free, user-generated content threatens the culture we are in. Not only because they undermine the traditional media platforms and providers, but also because of the presence of content providers that are uninformed and inexperienced. Furthermore, the “wisdom of the crowd” is usually unreliable as it is not necessarily trained, educated or experienced (Tucker, 2008). He cited how unreliable Wikipedia is. Yet, a study conducted by Jim Giles of Nature suggested that in terms of its science articles, Wikipedia did not really fall behind in the accuracy meter (Giles, 2005). From this investigation, we can assume that inaccuracies are common in both sources of information. However, I would reiterate that the investigation should not be taken as the sum of its whole. In order to make accurate conclusions, further periodic studies should be
A Convergence of Opportunities and Challenges in the Library
Introduction
Henry Jenkins’ theory on Participatory Culture postulates that the common people now have greater power to contribute their ideas and skills because of the proliferation of technologies, especially the Internet. However, upon careful examination, I found out that there are issues that would bar people from doing so. This paper investigates these issues and will attempt to answer the following questions: What is the impact of Participatory Culture in the library? What can libraries do to capitalize on the opportunities as well as deal with the challenges brought about by a culture of participation?
This paper presupposes that when the library embeds Participatory Culture, opportunities and challenges will be encountered. Understanding them ahead will make the …show more content…
In an interview with The Futurist, he maintained that the Internet does not inspire trust as it has no gatekeepers that review data and correct information (Tucker, 2008). Thus, Participatory Culture, with the overabundance of amateurish and free, user-generated content threatens the culture we are in. Not only because they undermine the traditional media platforms and providers, but also because of the presence of content providers that are uninformed and inexperienced. Furthermore, the “wisdom of the crowd” is usually unreliable as it is not necessarily trained, educated or experienced (Tucker, 2008). He cited how unreliable Wikipedia is. Yet, a study conducted by Jim Giles of Nature suggested that in terms of its science articles, Wikipedia did not really fall behind in the accuracy meter (Giles, 2005). From this investigation, we can assume that inaccuracies are common in both sources of information. However, I would reiterate that the investigation should not be taken as the sum of its whole. In order to make accurate conclusions, further periodic studies should be