Following my last post on trends in blog usage I had an idea for a research project that I want to explore at some point. This post will briefly try to flesh out the underlying idea and questions to address so I can come back to them later. Expect many changes to this post as I continue to think through the idea.
Increasingly members of the mainstream media (MSM hereafter for short), and newspapers in particular, have leveled criticisms against the social media culture regarding the notion that the sources of content creation are disproportionately originating from small pockets of usage as opposed to a uniform flow across the board. The New York Times for example recently targeted the fact only 5% of the 133 million blogs tracked by Technorati have been updated in the last 120 days. Meanwhile other publications such as the BBC have seized hold of recent research findings out of Harvard that indicate 10% of Twitter users are responsible for 90% of Tweets. Their implications seems to be that participatory culture isn’t so participatory after all.
All this begs the question, on what basis is the mainstream media declaration founded that says these statistics reveal the “public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled” as the Times said, and that the culture has fallen short of utopia. What is their definition of success? What is their definition of failure? Certainly they seem to have concluded that participatory culture in practice isn’t what was promised in the travel brochure – and that these statistics are somehow indicative of this – however without a clearly articulated point of reference, evaluation framework and criteria set, I fail to see how they can confidently make these assertions.
Comparison required
I think any discussion on trends in participatory culture must include a comparison with the way things were prior to its existence. I have never seen the MSM make a comparison between the ratio of producers to consumers in participatory culture with those in traditional forms of media. For example, what is the proportion of journalists to readers of newspapers, or television stations to television viewers, or book authors to book readers. If the 10%-users-to-90%-tweets statistic in Twitter usage, and 5% active versus 95% neglected statistic in blogging are each so significant, why has a similar statistic not been examined to measure mainstream media usage?
In order to assess the relative impact or success of participatory culture on society, we must include a fixed point to compare it with and define what success actually looks like (both quantitatively and qualitatively).
Research Required
Herein is where the research comes in to play I think. For example, the efforts of Technorati and the Harvard research study have given us statistics on usage of blogs and Twitter respectively. However these statistics only provide us with figures on the initial creation of blog posts and Tweets. In order to gain a holistic perspective we must consider other modes of engagement, and how the wider community interacts with posts, tweets, articles, audio files and videos (and importantly, with their authors). This will include active engagement (discussion, commenting), synthesis (reblogging, reflecting), and more passive forms of interaction (reading, viewing (videos), lurking and legitimate peripheral participation). There may be additional forms of engagement that I’ve omitted here; a proper investigation of the many forms of engagement is necessary as well.
Likewise the relevant forms of media will need to be identified. These would include text-based content (journals, news articles, blogs, Tweets, wiki articles), audio-based content (podcasts, traditional radio, online radio, live streaming), video-based content (television, movies, streaming video, live video, collaborative video). The question of where discussion forums fit in the research project will need to be determined as well.
Having done this, statistics will need to be gathered for both cultures – traditional media culture (MSM), and participatory media culture, followed by an analysis and interpretation of the results.
Qualitative Assessment
As valuable as comparative statistics will be in measuring uptake and usage, they can only go so far in measuring qualitative factors. Designing a means of measuring these will need to be established. I believe it is here that the contributions of participatory culture will become the most visible, since elements of culture arguably include more esoteric factors than quantifiable ones. These might include a sense of belonging or involvement, a realisation and/or negotiation of one’s identity, the feeling of making a contribution to the greater good, and learning opportunities that emerge in the development of connections and networks.
Literature Review
Almost certainly there will be a pool of literature and research findings from similar studies that can be called upon for insight and existing data. These will need to be located and consulted with early on. If anyone has suggestions or resources to offer please do so.
Moving forward
In looking at what I’ve just written, I’ve articulated a fairly broad and comprehensive research project here. Anyone who is willing to pitch in and assist, offer suggestions or point out holes in the methodology is welcome and encouraged to do so.
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