ABSTRACT
Humans share their joy, sorrow, knowledge and experiences with others through storytelling. Storytellers have intimate knowledge of their audience and the spaces they inhabit. Myths and legends include familiar places, cultural artifacts and characters inspired by the surrounding flora and fauna. Storytelling is important to both the maintenance of culture and everyday interaction in Pacific island communities. Environmental communication is an emerging discipline within communication studies. Traditional and folk media forms include face-to-face communication in either small or large groups such as oral narratives, performance and arts and crafts. Smartphone technology has accelerated participatory culture by allowing the individual to create content using web 2.0 applications with a simple smartphone. This chapter provides a pragmatic approach to engaging communities in participatory media by discussing the process of production. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.
