Rethinking participatory video in the times of YouTube

Abstract

Participatory video emerged in the late 1960s with a view to harnessing video technology in order to promote community building and develop critical awareness. It involves a wide range of practices that revolve around non-professionals collaborating in the task of making a facilitated, collective video in the topic of their choice. Consensual decision-making and iterative cycles of filmmaking alongside reflection and analysis represent milestones of traditional PV practice. Over the last 50 years, PV has fostered a heterogeneous community of practice that includes NGOs, scholars, and a number of social transformation collectives in the field of communication for development. This article examines the ways in which the PV community of practice has negotiated the emergence and hegemony of digital video-making, video equipped smartphones, and online video platforms. Methodologically, the text departs from an extended survey among experienced practitioners and focuses on case-studies involving perceived key actors within the PV community in relation to digital culture. The article also critically discusses the role of YouTube as the epitome of contemporary, digital participatory cultures. The overarching hypothesis that pervades this research foregrounds the concern that digital technology might actually be contributing to the transformation of participatory cultures into merely expressive exercises.