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Josh Kun has described the concept of “audiotopias,” which he defines as
“small, momentary, lived utopias built, imagined, and sustained through sound,
noise, and music.”49 Audiotopias describe spaces (real, symbolic, and imaginary)
made through the practice of listening to music. In this way, music can provide an
opportunity for identity work that is shaped by different influences and subjectivities
than in other parts of everyday life. Kun theorizes audiotopias as a space for
preserving diversity and fighting back against political oppression and cultural
assimilation. He writes:
Music in American life is the story of racial and ethnic difference; it is the
story of both nation formation and de-formation, the audible soundtrack to a
nation as it continually packs and unpacks itself. The song of America is not
singular or pretty or triumphant, but endlessly hybrid, multiple,
heterogeneous, and enriching--an always available site of psychological
reward, nourishment, and survival for populations who have been taught over
and over again that their lives do not matter.50
By expanding the range of possible subject positions and creating a space for safe
and enjoyable construction and reflection on identity, music can have a profound
influence on the formation of identity. Using Kun’s notion of audiotopia, the
importance of allowing the kids to play music during work periods in the classrooms
is highlighted. Playing music they chose, liked, and related to created a safe space for
undertaking challenging thinking about identity and difficult literacy and production
skills. Through music, students created a space in which they felt some ownership of
the project and the skills they were working to develop, as well comfort and power in
the form of reinforcing (or approving) other aspects of their identities.
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 135 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 130 Josh Kun has described the concept of “audiotopias,” which he defines as “small, momentary, lived utopias built, imagined, and sustained through sound, noise, and music.”49 Audiotopias describe spaces (real, symbolic, and imaginary) made through the practice of listening to music. In this way, music can provide an opportunity for identity work that is shaped by different influences and subjectivities than in other parts of everyday life. Kun theorizes audiotopias as a space for preserving diversity and fighting back against political oppression and cultural assimilation. He writes: Music in American life is the story of racial and ethnic difference; it is the story of both nation formation and de-formation, the audible soundtrack to a nation as it continually packs and unpacks itself. The song of America is not singular or pretty or triumphant, but endlessly hybrid, multiple, heterogeneous, and enriching--an always available site of psychological reward, nourishment, and survival for populations who have been taught over and over again that their lives do not matter.50 By expanding the range of possible subject positions and creating a space for safe and enjoyable construction and reflection on identity, music can have a profound influence on the formation of identity. Using Kun’s notion of audiotopia, the importance of allowing the kids to play music during work periods in the classrooms is highlighted. Playing music they chose, liked, and related to created a safe space for undertaking challenging thinking about identity and difficult literacy and production skills. Through music, students created a space in which they felt some ownership of the project and the skills they were working to develop, as well comfort and power in the form of reinforcing (or approving) other aspects of their identities. |
