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According to the author, 'My students and I have been making participatory documentaries for some years in my course Transient Spaces (part of the Master of Communication Degree at RMIT University, and an elective in other programs). This cookbook attempts to codify my practical experience of making participatory documentaries using social media. It is light on definitions and theories, and more focussed on techniques and (hopefully) shortcuts.

My approach relies on entry level domestic media technology and free, or very cheap, online services. It is aimed at people with basic skills (in photography, social media and desktop publishing, for example). While many people are ‘beguiled by video’, it is not necessary.

This cookbook is not aimed at professionals, and the projects that are presupposed are of a small scale. However the principles presented may be of wider interest. Professional media makers need to harness the media empowerments now enjoyed by ordinary people through social media, both to make and disseminate engaged and ethically responsible documentaries.

The style of documentary making codified in this cookbook is an emergent genre. It is allied to a broader media movement which often goes by the name of transmedia, but as the word ‘documentary’ suggests, it is focussed on real world issues. It is also a type of digital storytelling (see Digital Storytelling Overview by Amy Goodloe for definition, research and pedagogy). What makes it a particularly interesting form is its engagement with people — both in the making and the dissemination — which it achieves partly by radically incorporating social media. Participatory documentary using social media faces the same issues of cohesiveness and authorial voice as participatory documentaries have faced in the past. If you are predisposed to a particular point of view, you will struggle with this type of documentary practice.

Participatory documentaries bring with them their own ethical and political conundrums which each producer must face. However, this practical guide will only obliquely refer to them.'

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