Civilmedia 08 – „Cultures – Participaton – Dialogue”: The Civilmedia is an annual international UnConference, organised by Radiofabrik Salzburg in co-operation with VFRÖ. This year it took place at the end of the “European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008” from 4th to 6th of December. In bringing together international and national alternative media practitioners, researchers, policy makers, activists, and community development workers, Civilmedia08 reviewed the importance of community media and Web 2.0 for intercultural dialogue in Europe. More details at. http://www.civilmedia.eu/

Contribution:
Participatory Media and discourses of quality (Nico Carpentier)

The participatory process and its outcomes are sometimes linked to amateurism and the lack of quality. Often, professional media production, aesthetic and narrative quality standards still prevail. This presentation starts with a reception analysis of YouTube-like video clips, to show how audience members discredit these (indeed poorly-made) short films on the basis of mainstream media quality standards. In a second part, two alternative models for quality (within participatory media) are developed. First, democratic quality emphases the importance of the participatory-democratic process as a criterion for quality. Second, negotiated quality looks at the concept of quality itself, detaching it from a canon-based definition. The process of establishing what quality is seen as contextualised dialogue and an intrinsic part of the participatory-democratic process.
Pointpoint presentation Participatory media and discourses of quality @ UnConference CivilMedia08, Salzburg Nico Carpentier

http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/temp/Unconference_Salzburg2008_Carpentier.pdf

Chapter “Coping with the agoraphobic media professional. A typology of journalistic practices reinforcing democracy and participation” by Nico Carpentier (this chapter gives an overview of the 12 dimensions of democratic quality) from Reclaiming the media. Communication rights and democratic media roles. http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/pdfs/9781841501635.157.pdf

Chapter “The reception of the “produsers’” films on a participatory website. Ordinary young people and the politics of banality” by Nico Carpentier (this chapter analyses the focusgroup discussions on the 16plus films) from Young Citizens, ICT’s and Democracy.