Conclusion

Lévy suggests that the ‘emerging power to participate serves as a strong corrective to those traditional sources of power’ (Jenkins, 2006: 245). This essay has attempted to argue that same thesis. In terms of blogs, participatory culture has impacted the public sphere by shifting old paradigms of power and entrenching new mechanisms of control in a number of ways. Blogging has enabled the shift of power in the public sphere from old elites – such as media tycoons, gatekeepers and professional journalists – to citizens. In this way, blogging and participatory culture have re-engaged citizens into the public sphere, even where blogs are not overtly political, such as gossip blogs. Jenkins suggests that participation is an important political right that can, in effect, be considered the right to participate in a democratic culture ((Jenkins, 2006: 257). Participation is democratic in the way that it allows people to participate more fully in the democratic process – discussion in the public sphere – and it expands access to the means of media production, thus allowing different agendas to be discussed in the public sphere. However, here lies on mechanism of control: the information haves have power over the information have-nots. A participation gap means that the power in the public sphere is in the hands of those who can and will participate, as exemplified in Jarrar’s choice to shut down the ability for audiences to comment. Jarrar had the power to silence voices that were not direct contributors to his site. Furthermore, there is also currently tension between the old and new sources of power in the public spheres. As media audiences gain more control, so do the media corporations and this has led to battles over the use of intellectual property. This is an example of a new mechanism of control that corporations are using in attempt to silence others’ voices. Perhaps the most significant point to argue about participatory culture is that it has created tension between media producers and media consumers, and it shall be interesting to see how that tension develops and resolves.