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16
than medium-specific. Livingstone notes that understanding the contemporary media
environment requires a broad conceptual framework, such as that related to literacy.
She writes:
[Literacy] is pan-media in that it covers the interpretation of all complex,
mediated symbolic texts broadcast or published in electronic communications
networks; at the same time, because historically it has been tied to particular
media forms and technologies, literacy foregrounds the technological,
cultural, and historical specificity of particular media as used in particular
times and places.26
The analysis presented in this project moves beyond the understanding of literacy as
a set of skills toward literacy as a way of being. As such, an essential part of the
theme of literacy is the recognition of the roles race, class, gender, and ability play in
the definition of literacy. Literacy is an important determinant of cultural capital, and
is inextricably linked from the issues of consumption, access, and production
outlined above. Becoming literate requires the development of complex set of skills
and dispositions within (or, in some cases, despite of) the context of one’s cultural
and educational environment. Becoming literate is neither a natural nor an instructed
process. It needs to be cultivated as a normal part of childhood for all children,
regardless of socioeconomic status or ability.
Participation
As I use it here, the theme of Participation encompasses production, access,
and citizenship. Access is an essential part of the theme of participation. Despite the
increase in youth media production, important questions regarding access remain. In
addition to technical constraints on access, media production takes a great deal of
Object Description
| Title | Kids as cultural producers: consumption, literacy, and participation |
| Author | Stephenson, Rebecca Herr |
| Author email | rherr@usc.edu; bhs@hri.uci.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Communication |
| School | Annenberg School for Communication |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-25 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-10-17 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Banet-Weiser, Sarah |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Gross, Larry Seiter, Ellen |
| Abstract | This dissertation looks closely at the practice of digital media production within a group of special education students and their teachers. Using ethnographic methods of extended participant observation and semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, and parents, along with textual analysis of students' media projects, this work examines the types of learning that emerge from making media at school and the ways in which that learning relates to media and technology use in everyday life. Over the course of one school year (2005-2006), the students who are the focus of this dissertation undertook eight different multimedia production projects, ranging from designing PowerPoint presentations to digital video production and stop-motion animation. Through media production, the students found opportunities to practice traditional and digital literacy skills as well as to explore issues of identity and self-expression.; This dissertation provides empirical support for recommendations made by several media literacy scholars to include media production as part of critical media literacy curricula and contributes a unique case study -- one situated in special education -- to a growing body of work on digital literacy. Three interdisciplinary themes--consumption, literacy, and participation -- are used to organize the description and analysis of the students' media production activities. These themes connect the specific production that took place in the classroom to larger discourses about youth, media, technology, education, and access, working to complicate existing constructions of young people as either helpless victims of manipulative media or naturally savvy media and technology users. Instead, this research emphasizes that the relationships kids have with media and technology are complex, dynamic, intrinsically linked to their identities as consumers and participants in society. Media literacy is thus theorized as a tool for understanding and controlling consumption, participation, and the construction of young people as both current and future citizens. |
| Keyword | media literacy; media production; special education; middle school; digital media |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Los Angeles |
| Coverage date | 2005/2006 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1674 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Stephenson, Rebecca Herr |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Stephenson-2393 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume29/etd-Stephenson-2393.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 21 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 16 than medium-specific. Livingstone notes that understanding the contemporary media environment requires a broad conceptual framework, such as that related to literacy. She writes: [Literacy] is pan-media in that it covers the interpretation of all complex, mediated symbolic texts broadcast or published in electronic communications networks; at the same time, because historically it has been tied to particular media forms and technologies, literacy foregrounds the technological, cultural, and historical specificity of particular media as used in particular times and places.26 The analysis presented in this project moves beyond the understanding of literacy as a set of skills toward literacy as a way of being. As such, an essential part of the theme of literacy is the recognition of the roles race, class, gender, and ability play in the definition of literacy. Literacy is an important determinant of cultural capital, and is inextricably linked from the issues of consumption, access, and production outlined above. Becoming literate requires the development of complex set of skills and dispositions within (or, in some cases, despite of) the context of one’s cultural and educational environment. Becoming literate is neither a natural nor an instructed process. It needs to be cultivated as a normal part of childhood for all children, regardless of socioeconomic status or ability. Participation As I use it here, the theme of Participation encompasses production, access, and citizenship. Access is an essential part of the theme of participation. Despite the increase in youth media production, important questions regarding access remain. In addition to technical constraints on access, media production takes a great deal of |
