Is Partcipatory Video a Conversational Process?

Ideas and connections are coming thick and fast so need to get them down - it also makes a nice change to long blog posts!

Having done the VLOG post earlier in this blog a reference to 'participatory video' caught my eye with its action research orientation/approach to following a line of inquiry in a very visible dialetic way. Indeed the Fogo Process certainly lead to further dialogue ... and government intervention..... after the production of videos, in addition to the island inhabitants own visual debate with the issues and problems they faced.

"Participatory video is a set of techniques that involve a group or community in shaping and creating their own film, in order to explore, solve and communicate their issues. It started in 1967 by Canadian advocate Don Snowden, who changed the lives of Newfoundland's Fogo Islanders. By watching each other’s films, the different villagers on the island came to realise that they shared many of the same problems and that by working together they could solve some of them. The films were also shown to politicians who lived too far away and were too busy to actually visit the island. As a result of this dialogue, government policies and actions were changed. The techniques developed by Snowden became known as the Fogo process. Its chief power is that the video is edited by its participants." (Wikipedia)

All of this also makes me think about the recent film 'The Class' which I hightlighted as a possible example of a current/topical social critical approach to education in my 'Course Design for Effective Learning' module. Actual students of Francois Begaudeau (who also plays himself) were also involved in the film... This review of the film seems to allude the Fogo Process too by recognizing, after film production, the seemingly contradictory ideas that while other nations and cultures have their own histories, concerns, traditions and values, it is also true that, people are people [with the same problems/facing the same issues?]

There are obvious parallels too with some of the YouTube activity as described by Michael Welsch in his video:



An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube'