Answers to "Democratizing Television? The Politics of Participation"

- All Answers by: James Wrona

1) What is the Current network and how does it aim to democratize television? How does this relate to convergence culture?

- The Current network is the new form of a network that has been created by citizen journalists. It aims to democratize television by allowing everyday people the oppurtunity to have a say in what is shown on television. That relates to the convergence culture by making everything interactive and encouraging participation which is what convergence is all about.

2) The “critical pessimists” focus primarily on the obstacles to achieving a more democratic society, namely the power of big media. While the author acknowledges that media concentration is a real problem, is there still hope for a more participatory media culture?

- I definitely feel like there is still hope for a more participatory media culture. In the world of today, everyone wants to have their voices heard. People create accounts with the intention of getting people to listen to what they say, so everyday people will continue to strive to have their voices heard.

3) While we don’t have any models for what a mature, fully realized knowledge culture would look like, the author describes some prototypes. Describe one or two of the prototypes that you find of interest and explain why you think these are good examples (global frequency, smart mobs, adhocracies, long tail, subscription-based).

- My absolute favorite one was definitely the long tail prototype. That one definitely gives us, the consumers, the biggest sense of a voice out of all of them. The success of that particular network will be completely based upon how we feel about their content and what they are providing us. Naturally, that will force the companies to listen to their consumers' reviews and will allow for us to have a real voice in what is produced.

4) Why is Wikipedia a good example of an adhocracy (or knowledge culture) and how is this approach different than the intellectual property of the mass media?

- Wikipedia is a good example of an adhocracy because anyone can provide information on a topic and post it to the website. This is different than the intellectual property of the mass media because, in that, the only people who are allowed to post on a given topic are people who are certified as knowing what they are talking about in that particular area.

5) Where does the power of participation come from, why is it an important political right, and do we still have a participation gap as a society?

- The power of participation comes from our human nature. We all want to talk to one another and communicate with our fellow man as much as possible. It is an important political right because our country is based on the principles of free speech and free press. The new press is the Internet so you should have the freedom to post whatever you wish and be protected by the government. There is still a participation gap as a society for many reasons some of the biggest ones including age and motivation. Some older people are not aware of how to use the Internet to its full potential and some people are simply not motivated enough to go out and make their voices heard.