Fun, engaging, and easily shareable? Exploring the value of co-creating vlogs with citizens from disadvantages neighborhoods
Nicole Goedhart is lead author on a paper about co-creating citizen video blogs (vlogs) that is published in the Action Research Journal. It is part of a special issue on artfulness in organizing. Nicole writes:
“What is the value of the new hype of vlogs in participatory action research (PAR)? Can vlogs facilitate the engagement of citizens living in vulnerable circumstances? Have vlogs the potential to reach a wider audience and thereby transcend the local characteristics of PAR?
These are the questions we asked ourselves when we got involved in two small-scale participatory studies in which we co-created vlogs in Amsterdam with adolescents and women from disadvantaged neighborhoods respectively. With the adolescents the vlogs were about their perspectives on health and health promotion. The vlogs with the women were about their (lack of) digital skills.
Together with the vloggers, other community members, and professionals we reflected in detail on the added value of the vlogs and the co-creation process. The results show a tension between the participatory objectives – an inclusive process in which shared learning is central – and the desired outcomes: a popular, fast, fun and shareable vlog. As the associate editor Rob Warwick of the special issue ‘Artfulness in the organizational Playground’ commented:
“There was an illuminating tension between the work and the benefits that the participants gained and how it came to be understood and appreciated (or not) by the commissioners – I think there is a lot to be learnt here.”
We conclude that it is difficult to create a synergy between the participatory objectives and a vlog that goes viral. The result, however, also shows that vlogs could reach the wider community and evoke action if they are spread in more local ways. Spreading vlogs locally in this way seems to be more a promising focus for further research than buying into a dream of vlogs that are created at the margins and go viral.
View the full paper here is the Action Research Journal: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14767503211044011
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