Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The little way.

When I was in high school I was in the Free the Children club and we organized a fundraiser to raise money to build a school in a third world country. My high school also adopted two children in a third world country and each year we would raise money for their wellbeing through the coins for Jesus drive. My high school’s patron saint was St. Theresa of Lisieux. Her motto was help in “the little way.” This meant that each person could do something so simple and so little that would have such a great impact on someone else’s life or another situation elsewhere. It does not matter what faith you believe or what life you lead, you should still be able to contribute to society in one-way or another. This contribution, in relation to media and culture, is called participatory culture.

Participatory culture involves the act of giving knowledge back to a community through a medium or a text. Perhaps you called a friend and helped them with course selection. Perhaps you wrote a letter to a multinational corporation. Perhaps you follow online discussions and message boards and contribute to hot topics. Perhaps you were interviewed on Breakfast Television or on the radio. You can participate in your culture any way you’d like.

Thanks to the Internet, participatory culture is easier and more common now a days than it ever was. I participate in our culture in many different ways. The most current and timely participation is this very blog. Every week I try to update my posts with certain topics that have been pre-determined by my professor and write the blogs with a piece of me attached to them. I write about various topics like net neutrality, fake news, and mass media but I add a sprinkle of Leviana to each one. My blog posts are both researched and opinionated enlightening society on information regarding certain topics. I also contribute to two online discussions for my English Reading and Writing Effectively course and my Internet Survey and Research class. Though each piece is opinionated, they are most likely backed up with certain researched examples or personal experience.

I like writing blogs and keeping online discussions. Not only do I practice my writing skills, I am putting myself out there. I am on Google. People can find what I have to say—whether they disagree or agree with it is entirely their opinion. I have stepped foot into the great world of knowledge, media, and culture. With a few short paragraphs every week or so, my name is out there. I may not be walking down the red carpet but someone has come across my work somewhere out there in that big world of cyberspace.

Just like we give back to the earth through recycling, taking public transit, and preserving energy we ought to contribute knowledge to the thriving minds that continue to populate our world. Culture is a dense topic but adding a little piece of you makes it that much more intriguing.

1 comment:

I. Reilly said...

"I like writing blogs and keeping online discussions. Not only do I practice my writing skills, I am putting myself out there. I am on Google. People can find what I have to say—whether they disagree or agree with it is entirely their opinion. I have stepped foot into the great world of knowledge, media, and culture. With a few short paragraphs every week or so, my name is out there. I may not be walking down the red carpet but someone has come across my work somewhere out there in that big world of cyberspace."

this totally justifies the academic blogging component of the course. this is precisely what i had hoped you would come to realize.

keep writing,
i.