This week, we were asked to re-read our first blog post for Intro to Civic Media, and to reflect upon whether or not our views have changed.
What remained the same?
My definition was “Any medium that creates information flow to a community or communities in order to foster participatory spirit in decision making.” The last part of my definition “to foster participatory spirit in decision making” was meant not only to mean government decision making, but any decisions an individual or community will face. I still agree with this definition, as I have learned the types of media covered in this course have been extremely broad.
What Changed?
In the beginning of the course, I didn’t think that the act of participating was a required part of my definition of civic media, and my definition of Civic Media was more focused on “spirit” than action. However after fourteen weeks of this course, I have come to see that activism and action are central to the field of civic media.
What frameworks do you find most compelling?
We looked at civic media through several different lenses, including public sphere theory, networked counterpublics, and radical media. We also discussed civic media within comparative and historical contexts. I think it’s always important when analyzing something to look at it from at least two frameworks.
Being a history major, I found the historical development aspect of civic media within communities to be the most compelling framework. I think using communities’ histories, looking at what has worked for communication and what hasn’t worked (learning from failure!), and looking towards what could be developed are all good ways of developing civic tools that work.
In order to find tools that work, looking comparatively is also a compelling framework. For example, looking at and comparing different civic tools on a local, state, national, and international level can yield interesting discussion and new innovations. Also, looking internationally can have the same results. However, for effective developments to be made, these comparisons must be done within the context of their communities.
What are the key spaces for intervention in the future of Civic Media?
Computer use and moving towards online databases is really exciting, and will create more efficient communication. However, there are serious problems with ICT availability and digital inequalities exist throughout most of America and the world. One of my favorite pieces we read this semester was“Technology and the Geography of Inequality in Los Angeles” by Modarres and Pitkin. They say the spread of the Internet has followed “traditional patterns of social and economic isolation.” I fear this will become a major issue in the future, and might be an issue that is overlooked by elites at academic institutions.
Acknowledging and celebrating differences is one challenge developers will face, whether or not those differences are about digital inequalities, income, race, gender, sexual orientation, location, culture, age, education level, etc. Tool building was something I was not familiar with at all before taking this course. I think it is very important in the years going forward to build tools to serve different types of communities and cultures. There is not a one size fits all model of a community website, media organization, etc. that can be implemented in a community.