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76
and in conflict with the dominating and manipulative forces of the market. In
contemporary consumer culture, however, “agency (or more properly subjectivity) is
increasingly constructed by producers, rather than being deployed against them.”11
Schor continues,
…in the contemporary period, consuming has become the privileged form (or
site) of identity construction. If we accept the view that individual agency is
now central to the operation of consumer society (in contrast to an earlier era
in which there was more overt social conformity), it is the companies who
figure out how to successfully sell agency to consumers that thrive. In this
formulation, subjectivity does not exist prior to the market (à la neoclassical
economics) but is a product of it. This does not make subjectivity “false” as
in earlier critiques, but it does imply that subjectivity is constrained and
market driven. After all, only certain forms of subjectivity are profitable. So
while consumers have gained one kind of power (market innovations begin
with them), they have lost the power to reject consumption as a way of life…
it becomes nearly impossible to construct identity outside the consumer
marketplace.12
Various institutions related to the market--for example, advertisers, television
networks, or websites—offer consumers subject positions. Consumption practices
and consumer identity form a part of one’s habitus, and thereby influence and are
influenced by other activities and structures.
One aspect of consumer citizenship is the idea that everyday acts of
consumption can be politically motivated. Lizabeth Cohen describes this type of
participation as associated with the subject position of the “purchaser consumer,”
which was solidified in American culture during the early part of the 20th century,
motivated by the Great Depression and New Deal reforms. She also identifies a
category of consumers she calls “citizen consumers,” which also emerged in the New
Deal Era. She writes:
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 81 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 76 and in conflict with the dominating and manipulative forces of the market. In contemporary consumer culture, however, “agency (or more properly subjectivity) is increasingly constructed by producers, rather than being deployed against them.”11 Schor continues, …in the contemporary period, consuming has become the privileged form (or site) of identity construction. If we accept the view that individual agency is now central to the operation of consumer society (in contrast to an earlier era in which there was more overt social conformity), it is the companies who figure out how to successfully sell agency to consumers that thrive. In this formulation, subjectivity does not exist prior to the market (à la neoclassical economics) but is a product of it. This does not make subjectivity “false” as in earlier critiques, but it does imply that subjectivity is constrained and market driven. After all, only certain forms of subjectivity are profitable. So while consumers have gained one kind of power (market innovations begin with them), they have lost the power to reject consumption as a way of life… it becomes nearly impossible to construct identity outside the consumer marketplace.12 Various institutions related to the market--for example, advertisers, television networks, or websites—offer consumers subject positions. Consumption practices and consumer identity form a part of one’s habitus, and thereby influence and are influenced by other activities and structures. One aspect of consumer citizenship is the idea that everyday acts of consumption can be politically motivated. Lizabeth Cohen describes this type of participation as associated with the subject position of the “purchaser consumer,” which was solidified in American culture during the early part of the 20th century, motivated by the Great Depression and New Deal reforms. She also identifies a category of consumers she calls “citizen consumers,” which also emerged in the New Deal Era. She writes: |
