thestig, 3/8

The notion of a participatory culture is one that I am convinced can have impact in this world. “You are the agent to creating change.” As mentioned in my previous post, this enables the “little guy” to create a film or radio project that can be distributed for relatively cheap. The biggest problem that I foresee with this is, though cheap, its ability to really reach a wide audience. Mainstream media is so influential because there are always millions of people tuned in. You don’t have to go to “it,” “it” comes to you. We are immersed in advertisements for mainstream media tv shows, so we know it’s there, and when we can “get it.” The grassroots movement does not have money to advertise or be a part of the mainstream broadcasting schedule. They can put their movies or radio project up online, but in order to see it, the user has to be looking for it. But honestly, how many times have we sat down at our computer “goggling” some grassroots organization to watch a film about it?



I think a few things need to happen for grassroots to become successful. First, there needs to be a “youtube” portal for grassroots organizations. The advantage to youtube is that it’s free. The disadvantage, as mentioned above, is that no one is likely to find you. This grassroots tube would be a video portal reserved for grassroot films. There should be a fee, a small fee, to have one’s video put on this web site, but there are advantages to this: the money can be used to advertise the grassroots tube, which will hopefully provide more exposure to small organizations. Instead of trying to market your own grassroots organization, do it with others: build a coalition. This grassroots tube would have leverage, and could possibly buy airtime on a major network once, twice, several times a week. Eventually – hopefully – this will get the people caught on to good causes. The second is within us. The people need to get caught on to these good causes. Many people are reserved with their money and with their time, but once they realize how much fun it can be for you, and how much it can mean to someone else if you spend some time of your day to help out a cause, change will happen.