“Participatory Video: Images that Transform and Empower”, Edited by Shirley White
November 19th, 2007Those who do not have power over the stories that dominate their lives, power to retell them, rethink them. deconstruct them, joke about them, and change them as times change, truly are powerless because they cannot think new thoughts. Salman Rushdie
Shirley White, the editor and primary author of the book “Participatory Video: Images that Transform and Empower” (2003), has taught participatory video methods since the 1970s. She is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communications at Cornell University.
For a youngster like myself, I find it hard to fathom participatory video in the days before cheap and easy to operate digital cameras, digital video tape that costs about 5-cents per minute, digital editing programs that are free on most computers, and instant connection to millions of viewers for free through online video sharing sites. You have to hand it to Professor White. If you are looking for a book that can provide you with first-person experiences of participatory film, “Participatory Video: Images that Transform and Empower” does just that. The book is mostly descriptive and focused on the use of participatory video as a community development strategy in resource-poor environments.
However, as a researcher and as a person immersed in a very different technological world, I found myself a little disappointed. Although the book was published in 2003, there is really no mention of the changes that I mention above–changes that are monumental in the world of participatory video and changes that result in millions of non-professionals around the world engaging in digital storytelling. Just this month, people in Burma broadcast videos from mobile phones and cheap cameras, effectively leaping over the media black out and revealing human rights abuses to the world. The same is happening in Pakistan. And in China. And the United States. Recognizing this new and nearly global use of technology, Witness launched HUB–the first participatory media site for human rights.
Professor White, a participatory video champion during much more challenging time, nostalgically confesses: “I am still using my decade-old VHS camera and editing system.” Wow!
And, now, I will have to admit my graduate student bias around rigor and research. “Participatory Video: Images that Transform and Empower” makes many claims about participatory video, most of which I agree with whole-heartedly, but it is not enough to say that it is “transformative” and “empowering.” As a student of science, my ability to believe has been forever ruined by this mantra: Prove it. Professor White and her colleagues do not spend much time referring to practitioners, philosophers, or scholars who spent most of their lives exploring, defining, and analyzing these concepts–people like Paulo Freire and his ideas around empowerment. And they do not spend much time describing what exactly they mean by, for example, empowerment. This word is used a lot in everyday conversations, among people fighting oppression, in political contexts, nearly everywhere… But, what does it mean? What does it not mean? Does empowerment mean that you are a better person? Does it mean that you are free from the constraints of oppression? Does it mean that you are DOING something to change your world? What does it mean to say that participatory video empowers? And, does it really? If so, then show me because my unimaginative scientific brain is dying to see the evidence! If so, then this is one of the biggest breakthroughs, well, ever. If the evidence already exists, then I can retire my dissertation project now.
Professor White’s book is an incredible contribution to practitioners of participatory video. It is one of perhaps 3-4 books written on this subject; an early adapter extraordinaire that is sure to be followed by a flood of books on participatory video in the coming years! Professor White’s book reminds us that we are arriving at a truly miraculous era of participatory media and culture. We have a lot to be thankful for because it has never been easier to collaborate, produce, and distribute videos with communities across the globe.