ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an understanding of participatory media pedagogy and practice – the undergirding principles, the tools, the methods – and its potential within the field of environmental communication. It demonstrates the power of participatory media as a dialogical tool by including case studies of the ways communities have used media to raise awareness of, and find solutions to, environmental challenges. The chapter provides a step-by-step explanation of the participatory production process – choice of project, the process of message creation, and how engagement in participatory process invites diversity, strengthens networks and fosters agency in participants. Participation can be used to gain power, not only over one's own life, but over the lives of others. Barriers to participation can come in many forms. Both participants and project planners should establish what reciprocal arrangements exist between parties for the exchange of knowledge and resources. The diversity mapping creates a visual representation of the forms of diversity one would find in different contexts.
