Towards Participatory Video 2.0

Abstract

Participatory video (PV) is an established practice for enabling communities to "speak truth to power" and has been widely used by local, national and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). However, the digital media landscape has changed dramatically since PV became widely accessible with the rise of the camcorder in the 1980s. Current media practices have evolved considerably since, yet PV remains essentially unchanged. We report on an investigation of current PV practices and reflect on these in terms of what the future for PV holds. We conducted interviews with staff at a global humanitarian network who directly and indirectly engage in community story capture; and explore their reflections on the potentials and barriers to PV use. We propose a new vision for PV that draws on current visual media production, consumption and distribution technologies and practices, and propose principles on which PV 2.0, a new generation of Participatory Video can be founded.