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78
environment. What is problematic about consumer citizenship in this case (and what
has been criticized) is that consumption often takes the place of other interventions
that are more aligned with traditional notions of citizenship. If citizens believe that
they are participating adequately by purchasing certain products or donating a dollar
at the checkout to the cause of the month, it removes some of the urgency from other
forms of civic participation--voting, debate, or protest, for example.
For kids, this instantiation of consumer citizenship builds upon the existing
understanding of kids as a powerful three-in-one (current, future, and influence)
market.15 Whereas kids cannot vote or participate in much of traditional civic life,
they can make choices regarding consumption; they can also influence the
purchasing decisions of others (like family members). Moreover, they will continue
to make consumption choices throughout their lives, making them important targets
for cultivating brand loyalty.
Commercial media is another important force in constituting consumer
citizenship. Particularly within the contemporary media landscape of participatory
culture and media saturation, marketing and branding practices can be powerful
ways of defining a “community” around a particular product or brand with which
consumers can affiliate and identify. Other times, it is the media itself that forms the
basis of the community. Such is the case of the children’s cable network
Nickelodeon, as Sarah Banet-Weiser describes. Nickelodeon, like many other media
entities has built its brand around certain notions of citizenship and empowerment
that are unique to the network. The kind of rights offered to citizens of Nickelodeon
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 83 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 78 environment. What is problematic about consumer citizenship in this case (and what has been criticized) is that consumption often takes the place of other interventions that are more aligned with traditional notions of citizenship. If citizens believe that they are participating adequately by purchasing certain products or donating a dollar at the checkout to the cause of the month, it removes some of the urgency from other forms of civic participation--voting, debate, or protest, for example. For kids, this instantiation of consumer citizenship builds upon the existing understanding of kids as a powerful three-in-one (current, future, and influence) market.15 Whereas kids cannot vote or participate in much of traditional civic life, they can make choices regarding consumption; they can also influence the purchasing decisions of others (like family members). Moreover, they will continue to make consumption choices throughout their lives, making them important targets for cultivating brand loyalty. Commercial media is another important force in constituting consumer citizenship. Particularly within the contemporary media landscape of participatory culture and media saturation, marketing and branding practices can be powerful ways of defining a “community” around a particular product or brand with which consumers can affiliate and identify. Other times, it is the media itself that forms the basis of the community. Such is the case of the children’s cable network Nickelodeon, as Sarah Banet-Weiser describes. Nickelodeon, like many other media entities has built its brand around certain notions of citizenship and empowerment that are unique to the network. The kind of rights offered to citizens of Nickelodeon |
