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29
Chapter 2: Media Literacy, Production, and Critical Consumption
In each of the interviews with students from CMS, we asked about money.
We usually began by asking the student if he or she received an allowance. Those
who did, we asked what s/he spent it on. The answer was usually the same: “junk
food.” The following excerpt comes from my interview with Justin, a twelve-year-old
African-American sixth grader, and his mother, Christina:
Becky: And so how do you spend your allowance?
Christina: Yes, Justin [how do you spend your allowance?]
Justin: Oh I go buy chips.
Christina: Speak up!
Justin: I go buy junk food.
Christina: Yep. Junk food.
Becky: Let me guess, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos?
Justin: Yeah.
Christina: How’d you know?
Becky: All of the kids [in Justin's class] are obsessed.
Christina: Really? Oh my Gosh, I thought it was just him.
It was the truth that the kids in Justin’s class (and, in fact, most of the students at
CMS) were “obsessed” with Hot Cheetos. As Justin put it later in his interview,
"Those Cheetos are famous! Everybody likes ‘em." Justin was absolutely correct;
during the time of my fieldwork, Hot Cheetos were not only the snack food of choice
at CMS, but also became a larger “kid food” phenomenon (possibly even rivaling the
popularity of the tater tot). In May of 2006, National Public Radio reported on the
popularity of the snack food, enthusiasm for which was particularly high in
California and Texas schools. Calling Hot Cheetos a new “red menace sweeping the
nation” in its introduction, the package featured interviews with a Southern
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 34 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 29 Chapter 2: Media Literacy, Production, and Critical Consumption In each of the interviews with students from CMS, we asked about money. We usually began by asking the student if he or she received an allowance. Those who did, we asked what s/he spent it on. The answer was usually the same: “junk food.” The following excerpt comes from my interview with Justin, a twelve-year-old African-American sixth grader, and his mother, Christina: Becky: And so how do you spend your allowance? Christina: Yes, Justin [how do you spend your allowance?] Justin: Oh I go buy chips. Christina: Speak up! Justin: I go buy junk food. Christina: Yep. Junk food. Becky: Let me guess, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? Justin: Yeah. Christina: How’d you know? Becky: All of the kids [in Justin's class] are obsessed. Christina: Really? Oh my Gosh, I thought it was just him. It was the truth that the kids in Justin’s class (and, in fact, most of the students at CMS) were “obsessed” with Hot Cheetos. As Justin put it later in his interview, "Those Cheetos are famous! Everybody likes ‘em." Justin was absolutely correct; during the time of my fieldwork, Hot Cheetos were not only the snack food of choice at CMS, but also became a larger “kid food” phenomenon (possibly even rivaling the popularity of the tater tot). In May of 2006, National Public Radio reported on the popularity of the snack food, enthusiasm for which was particularly high in California and Texas schools. Calling Hot Cheetos a new “red menace sweeping the nation” in its introduction, the package featured interviews with a Southern |
