Participatory Content Research Articles

The Creation of a Field Manual for Community Health Workers to Teach Child Health and Development During Home Visits: A Case Study of Participatory Content Creation.

Community health workers (CHWs) play a crucial role in improving child health and development in underserved populations. However, CHWs often face challenges in accessing appropriate guidance and materials for their home visits, hindering their ability to deliver accurate and relevant information to families. Extensive searches for existing resources were conducted to search for established field manual guidebooks for CHWs, however, no suitable material was found, highlighting the need for this case study. The exercise aimed to develop a comprehensive field manual guidebook and animated videos to support CHWs in the Amazon of Peru during their home visits. A multidisciplinary team of specialists was assembled to develop the material. The material development process employed a design thinking methodology, incorporating participatory content creation workshops with CHWs and experts in health topics relevant to the Amazon. This approach ensured cultural relevance and sensitivity in conveying information. The team created a list of 38 essential health and early childhood development messages for Amazonian communities. Infographics were designed for each topic, accompanied by easy-to-understand language and images to assist CHWs in conveying information effectively. To provide additional support, seven animated videos were created based on health behavior theory, covering topics such as anemia, healthy diet, diarrhea, breastfeeding, clean water, child-caregiver bond, and early childhood stimulation. The videos were designed for CHWs to share with caregivers during home visits, enhancing information transmission. The resulting guidebook, infographics, and animated videos were presented to CHWs in Loreto, Peru for feedback. Updated versions were printed and distributed to CHWs in seven communities in Loreto.

Can a Negative Representation of Refugees in Social Media Lead to Compassion Fatigue? An Analysis of the Perspectives of a Sample of Syrian Refugees in Jordan and Turkey

Negative, tragic, traumatic and suffering representations continue to dominate the discussions and content on social media in the stories and content related to Syrian refugees. The public, while browsing social media, finds that this representation is the dominant one that dominates the image of refugees. Thus, there is a potential risk that the public’s compassion will be negatively affected after repeated exposure to the dominant representation in light of the inability to put an end to that situation. This study discusses the perspectives of Syrian refugees living in Jordan and Turkey on whether they feel such repeated negative and tragic content about their stories and news on social media could affect the empathy of the audience in hosting communities with them, especially since social media is an open-source platform that all people at any time and from any place can post, re-share, comment and create content by adding texts, photos and videos, not like traditional media, which are controlled more than social media platforms for open participatory content. This study aims to explore how a vulnerable population, such as Syrian refugees in Istanbul and Amman, sees the effect of negative representation on themselves and their image in the hosting communities and does not aim to examine or offer any conclusion as to whether the public in Jordan and Turkey have experienced compassion fatigue. This study provides and extracts some useful insights, but proves no hypotheses or conclusive evidence regarding the occurrence of compassion fatigue in the public; thus, the study opens the door for the debate on the role that social media plays as a source of compassion fatigue among citizens towards refugees, mainly when they are repeatedly exposed to such negative stories and content, as well as calls for an in-depth and extensive study on the topic from the point of view of the public and citizens in the hosting countries, after examining, understanding and analyzing the opinions and their dimensions of the sample of refugees in this study.

Facing the challenges of metaverse: a systematic literature review from Social Sciences and Marketing and Communication

The metaverse is the conjunction and optimization of the possibilities of the Internet and technology at their best. It is a consequence of the development and evolution of digital society. Technological innovation, fundamentally oriented toward virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed realities, contributes significantly to the creation of a solid foundation on which to build an entire universe of virtual worlds. This is a universe that, in turn, requires the creation of backbone content for narratives that attract and retain users by capturing their attention to promote a specific ecosystem that transfers the activities of the real world to a virtual one, either projected or recreated. This research is based on a systematic review of 402 articles and a qualitative analysis of 125 publications. It examines the trends in technology, application, and methodology pertaining to the metaverse in the social sciences field, namely marketing and communication and neuroscience, areas that contribute to the understanding of the social dimension of the metaverse phenomenon. Although there is abundant academic literature on the metaverse in computer science, this is not the case in the aforementioned disciplines. Given that the metaverse is destined to become the next Internet revolution, there is a race among countries and brands to position themselves within it, which is expected to intensify in the coming years. The metaverse can contribute to a wide variety of applications of a social nature, which is why it is a highly competitive tool for nations, companies, and academia, as well as the public and private media. The results indicate a technological transformation proposing a future that includes neuro-technologies based on brain–computer interfaces and the metaverse as the setting. This will occur alongside the solidification of the virtual ecosystem thanks to the emergence of digital natives and Gen Z, as well as the convergence of many different technologies and immersive and participatory content, in which the consumer is the provider, owner, and beneficiary.

La néphrologie 2.0 : communication avec les patients connectés et les professionnels de santé

Web 2.0 is characterized by the development of the Internet from its initial static content to a dynamic and participatory content, and by the large place taken by social networks. The growing interest of health actors for information and communication via these new media is gradually but lastingly modifying the practice of nephrology. These developments require nephrologists to understand the issues, rules and risks associated with these digital tools. The present article summarizes the main practical aspects of communication with patients and health professionals and addresses the important issue of the digital identity of the caregiver in the new field of connected nephrology.

Psychological perspectives on participatory culture: Core motives for the use of political internet memes

Political Internet memes significantly contribute to discourse around contemporary events. By studying memes, scholars understand these ‘units of culture’ as forms of participatory content that can fulfill political functions. To explore whether users ascribe memes a political role and consider them an alternative to or supplement of traditional political participation, this study provides a user-centered perspective focusing on core motives of meme use. Via a Delphi method interview approach, participants discuss uses and gratifications of memes in political contexts. A qualitative content analysis provides insight into the role and impact of memes in social movements and everyday politics. The findings show that users perceive memes as a tool for easy, effortless engagement in the public sphere driven by the interplay of self-expression, social identity, and entertainment motives. Participants also discuss potentials and limitations of memes in political contexts, concluding that political memes can only support other efforts. The study contributes to our understanding of memes from a psychological perspective and establishes a basis for further research on deliberative political practices from a user perspective.

An Augmented Reality Children’s Book Edutainment through Participatory Content Creation and Promotion Based on the Pastoral Life of Psiloritis

Augmented reality (AR) provides excellent learning potential, especially in a school environment. Multiple students can share the virtual scene and interact with it using the mobile interface as a hand-held display in AR children’s books. Students’ participation is an essential element of learning, and one of AR’s greatest strengths is its ability to promote collaborative experiences. An augmented reality children’s book edutainment through participatory content creation and promotion based on the pastoral life of Psiloritis has been recommended through this study, highlighting the features of AR to reveal educational values unique to AR and studying approaches for incorporating these characteristics into the typical education curriculum.

Participatory Design of Space

Complexity of the 20th century society, along with strong professions' specialization, led to separation between all participants in the developing processes, especially in public spaces design. Lack of cohesion and consensus along with poor communication between professions, citizens, government and business sector, resulted in new participative and interdisciplinary trends emerging in the 21st century to bring sectors back together. Students' education must follow these trends, as their orientation in shaping the desirable futures.
 Elective course ‘Participatory design of space’ (POP) is planned as a faculty-based fieldwork workshop that gives students the opportunity to become acquainted with participatory methods in space design. In this way, the user's opinion is included in the cognitive fund when drafting the conceptual solution of a small-scale task in the public space or in any area of interaction. Students learn to identify and critically evaluate participatory content, to generate the conceptual level of planning — intent, to discuss it with users, to translate it directly and recognizably into a viable solution, to present it successfully, and to participate in the realization.

Exploring participatory journalistic content: Objectivity and diversity in five examples of participatory journalism

This article presents a content analysis of five very different examples of participatory journalism. The goal of this study is to examine the, largely untested, assumptions that news organizations and journalists have about audience input (audience material for instance being trivial, personal, emotional and sensational). We systematically ask how the contents of the five projects might be characterized in relation to conventional quality journalism as a particular genre by examining the contents against two criteria that have been critical to this genre: ‘objectivity’ and ‘diversity’. Second, given the core role that a notion of professional ‘control’ plays in discussions on participatory journalism, we examine whether these manifestations on objectivity and diversity are associated with the degree to which professional journalists have control over the participatory content published within these projects. By doing so, we aim to better understand what the participating audience produces in order to get an idea of what, according to participants, ‘counts’ as journalism and to determine whether and how this differs from conventional quality journalism. The results are explained in terms of ‘boundary work’.

Responding to media convergence: Regulating multi-screen television services in Thailand

This study examines how Thailand’s convergence regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), regulates digital television’s transition and new audiovisual services. In addition to document analysis, this study interviewed stakeholders (e.g. NBTC policymakers, broadcaster and cable TV operators). The socio-technical analyses show that the NBTC prioritized digital television transition and imposed substantive government/policy support. Comparatively, Internet Protocol television (IPTV) and mobile TV which are driven by the industry/market subsystem have sluggish regulatory advancements. The interview results show that the NBTC is likely to regulate multi-screen TV services’ contents and platforms separately as a result of complexity. Hence, this study recommends a platform-neutral approach to regulate audiovisual media categorized by socio-cultural impact and content production/aggregation model. It suggests that Thailand’s TV-like services which can reach a mass market and produce/aggregate contents/services via a gatekeeping mechanism should be subject to strict content regulations and licensing schemes. However, light-touch regulations in content and licensing are suitable for governing emerging TV-like services which utilize a participatory content model with less socio-cultural impact. Finally, net neutrality is recommended in facilitating cross-platform content innovations and distribution.

Los derechos de participación de las personas extranjeras en el nuevo marco estatutario andaluz

El tránsito de España y de la Comunidad Autónoma andaluza de una sociedad de emigrantes a una receptora de inmigrantes ha puesto sobre la mesa la cuestión del estatuto ciudadano de la población extranjera residente en nuestro territorio. Este artículo defiende que la ciudadanía no se reduce a su dimensión formal, como sinónimo de nacionalidad, y reivindica más allá de ésta su contenido participativo. Defiende asimismo que éste no se reduce a la titularidad de derechos de participación política stricto sensu, definida en el artículo 13.2 CE, sino que abarca el acceso a mecanismos de participación en sentido amplio. En él se argumenta que la Constitución española y el nuevo marco estatutario andaluz respaldan una aproximación sustantiva a la ciudadanía que permite integrar a toda la población residente, nacional o extranjera, en una diversidad de provisiones participativas en sentido amplio, cuyo contenido va más allá de la expresión estricta de voluntad política de quienes son titulares de la soberanía (artículo 13.2 CE). Este artículo sostiene, en fin, que una comprensión sustantiva, participativa e incluyente de la ciudadanía es la única constitucionalmente coherente y debe prevalecer más allá de los límites que impone su definición formal.

‘The fruits of my own labor’: A case study on clashing models of co-creativity in the new media landscape

This article deals with the engagement of new media users in specific forms of participatory content production, focusing on productive and labour aspects in co-creative endeavours. We present a case analysis of a community-based filmmaking software, Moviestorm, focused on a specific set of practices – modding – and following the controversy that took place when a shift in the company’s business model altered the rules that tacitly constituted modders’ practices, particularly the notion of control over their own labour. We pay attention to motivations and expected rewards expressed by both modders and the company as a part of a negotiation process around the ownership and the affective and economic value of user-generated content. Our central argument is that through the analysis of practices, particularly in moments of conflict and change, we can acquire a more subtle understanding of an economy of affections in co-creative processes as well as observing the clashing models of co-creativity, with different approaches to peer production and hierarchy.

Driving Web 2.0 Tool Adoption in Agricultural Education

The new opportunities for collaboration, participatory content creation and communication offered through the advancements of Web 2.0, such as social networking, blogs, wikis, video sharing and other, are creating new learning models. In turn, tutors cannot ignore this trend and have to bear the responsibility of incorporating Web 2.0 tools in formal, informal, work-based and vocational education and approach their students in a very familiar and favourable way. In this context, this paper tries to highlight the need for enhancing tutors’ skills and drive Web 2.0 tool adoption in educational practice. Thus, it draws upon the successful example of a European project regarding agricultural tutors’ training on Web 2.0 tools. The challenge for all agricultural tutors is how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into current curricula and education.

The Lower Niger River dredging and indigenous wetland livelihoods in Nigeria: the Anam communities in Ugbolu, Delta State, as a case study

The article explored systemic tendencies for state-led development projects in Nigeria, such as the recently concluded Lower Niger River dredging, to compromise indigenous livelihoods. Development research methods were sensitized with James Ferguson’s antipolitics machine critique and used to elicit participants’ perspectives of the structuring role of the Niger River on their livelihoods, their evaluation of the participatory content of the project and potential project effects on their livelihoods. Participants claimed the Niger River system singularly structures their livelihoods by facilitating recession farming and fishing. In relation to the participatory content and (un)anticipated effects of the dredging project, key informants insisted that it was undemocratically conceived and executed; that the project will reduce the annual Niger River flood, opportunities for recession farming and fishing, impoverish them, induce involuntary migration, and inter-community conflict. Consequently, an inverse relationship was inferred between technicist development programmes or projects conceived and managed by agents of the Nigerian State and the alleged beneficiaries’ versions and experience of structural change. The author also found that the project was exploited by Nigerian development elites to redefine complex regional underdevelopment challenges as infrastructural deficit and relocate discursive blame for underdevelopment from the state and multinational corporations to riverside communities, their cultures and wet ecologies.

Open content creation: The issues of voice and the challenges of listening

This article explores the potential role of participatory or open content creation for development. It does so by examining ideas around voice and listening, and their relevance to the field of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). It first explores participatory development and the idea of open ICT4D before elaborating on issues of voice as process, and as value. Research findings from a project in Asia that experimented with participatory content creation are discussed in relation to notions of voice. The research was concerned with the ways in which processes of voice might lead to wider social action and change. Findings are explored, and discussed in relation to the importance and challenges of ensuring that voice is valued through listening, and the implications of this for ICT4D.

Participatory content creation: voice, communication, and development

This article uses the example of a mobile mixed-media platform – a converted three-wheeled auto-rickshaw – in Sri Lanka in order to explore whether and how content-creation activities can enable marginalised communities to have a voice. It draws upon research into participatory content-creation activities conducted in 15 locations across India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The main findings are: the need to pay attention to context when thinking about what might be locally appropriate, relevant, and beneficial in terms of participatory content creation; the benefits that can be gained from creatively reaching out to and engaging marginalised groups and encouraging a diversity of voices; the usefulness of locally produced content for generating local debate around local issues; and the benefits of encouraging participation at all stages of content creation, so that content is locally meaningful and might lead to positive social change.

Web 2.0: A new dynamic in information services for libraries

AbstractThe Internet is transforming users from information consumers into interactive information generators. The growth of Web 2.0 and social computing has been phenomenal. The web has extended beyond a search tool to become a mechanism for participatory content creation and dissemination. We investigate the extent of awareness of the phenomenon among undergraduate and graduate students, the usage of Web 2.0 and social computing sites, and the role of librarians under this new paradigm.

The rhetoric of participation re-examined: The state, NGOs and water users at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

People's participation is usually regarded as a sine qua non for the success and sustainability of development projects. Yet in practice, it raises a number of questions. Who are the ‘people’? Why is their participation sought, and how or at what level, is such participation desired? This paper seeks to examine the rhetoric of participation in the implementation of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) at Varanasi, in the north-eastern State of Uttar Pradesh, India. Launched in 1985, the GAP is the first major attempt to systematically control and monitor the pollution of a significant river in the country. In addition, it claimed to be a ‘people's programme’ because of the powerful and deep-seated cultural and religious meaning associated with the Ganga. Varanasi, however, is indicative of its failure to deliver this promise — the GAP is only acceptable to authority because it does not challenge the existing institutional order, and its participatory content is symbolic rather than substantive. Non-govemental organisations, traditionally viewed as intermediary actors between the micro and macro levels, work within the socio-political framework of the city. In the process, water-user groups such as the washermen who derive an economic livelihood from washing clothes in the Ganga, are literally excluded from the definition and process of ‘participation’.