The Participatory Cultures Handbook

How did we get from Hollywood to YouTube? What is the difference between Wikipedia and a traditional encyclopedia? Has blogging truly transformed journalism? The Routledge Handbook of Participatory Cultures engages these and other pressing questions related to the seismic shift in our media landscape as digital technology has fostered the rise of "participatory culture."Media creation, distribution, and exhibition was once monopolized by a handful of institutions (e.g. newspapers, television stations, movie studios), but today many of these tools are readily available to the general public, and people are using this technology--in just one example--to create or remix fan-generated entertainment on video sharing sites like YouTube.The Routledge Handbook of Participatory Cultures will help students and scholars navigate this rapidly changing media and cultural terrain. Composed of newly commissioned essays from contributors across disciplines, this handbook will introduce students to the concept of participatory culture, explain how researchers approach participatory culture studies, and provide original examples of participatory culture in action. The wide range of topics explored in participatory culture include crowdsourcing, citizen journalism, fanfiction, wikis, video games, video sharing, transmedia storytelling, and much more.