Participatory Innovation The Culture of Contests in Popular Science Monthly, 1918-1938

AbstractBy analyzing the contests that appeared in Popular Science Monthly from 1918 to 1938, this article discusses the rhetoric of public engagement with technological innovation, and the magazine's construction of a readership community. A close analysis of these contests reveals a burgeoning participatory culture within the context of the popularization of science and technology in the mass-circulation press of early twentieth-century America. Significantly, the contests frame their public as an active participant in the development of science and technology, in sharp contrast to the passive, diffusionist model of science popularization that dominated the interwar period in the United States.Keywordsmagazines, contests, innovation, participatory cultureSince its debut in 1872, Popular Science Monthly has covered the latest innova- tions, as well as the practical applications of science and technology. An 1885 ad for the magazine described its mission:Leaving the dry and technical details of science, which are of chief concern to the specialists, to the journals devoted to them, the Monthly deals with those more general and practical subjects which are of greatest interest and importance to the public at large.1The magazine featured news articles, interviews, advice columns, and, starting in 1918, a series of contests that asked readers to invent new devices, find solutions to mechanical problems, and share their best ideas on home improvement or automobile maintenance. This article analyzes the ways in which the contests sought to stimulate public engagement with science and technology, and, simultaneously, to reinforce the magazine's construction of its readership as a community of industrious and neigh- borly home improvers.Magazines and the Construction of CommunityAs a particularly conversational medium, magazines are adept at engendering a sense of community among their readers, and molding a set of core values that readers iden- tify with. Several studies have examined this audience engagement process; however, as Johnson notes, few have discussed the magazines within cultural or historical con- texts, or properly considered their function in shaping or reflecting specific cultures.2 Building on Anderson's notion of "imagined communities,"3 Reader and Moist ana- lyzed the construction of community values in two alternative magazines. The authors examined the role that letters to the editor play in shaping and reinforcing community values, and noted that the construction of reader communities is even stronger in the case of niche or alternative magazines, which include hobby-oriented periodicals.4 Sivek similarly emphasized the community aspects of hobby magazine readership in her study of Make magazine's engagement strategies. According to Sivek, the maga- zine encouraged its readers to engage in physical "making" projects as a path to self- actualization, while simultaneously appealing to larger ideologies of technological aspiration and nostalgia.5 In another particularly relevant study, Webb examined how Reiman magazines functioned as a shared social space for suburban middle-class white women, "binding readers into a community by voicing a shared lifestyle and self-image."6 In line with the reader-centered model of Reiman publications, the mag- azines relied heavily on contributions submitted by its readers, and Webb suggests that this participatory engagement appears to stimulate reader agency and strengthen feel- ings of belonging and identification.7Henry Jenkins defines a participatory culture as one which has "relatively low barri- ers" to expression and engagement, "strong support for creating and sharing one's cre- ations with others," "some type of informal mentorship," and members who "believe that their contributions matter" and "feel some degree of social connection with one another."8 Jenkins' perspective is guided by an emphasis on communities rather than individual consumers. …