Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

12.8.08 | by Patricia G. Lange and Mizuko Ito

The availability of digital media tools combined with greater access to dispersed, networked publics of people who share similar interests has spawned diverse forms of creative media production among kids, including personal media making, remixing, and creating original videos and podcasts. By examining social network profiles, anime music videos, rap music, YouTube videos and video blogs, and Harry Potter fan creations, we found that young people are using digital and networked media to develop new forms of media expression and literacy.

In their everyday social communication, young people are exchanging personal media and links to online media; this media ecology encourages casual messing around and remaking of media in the form of MySpace profiles creation, modifying and sharing photos, or editing personal videos. With the help of family and friends, young people are routinely engaging in these forms of media making and sharing.

In addition to these forms of creative production that are widely distributed among youth, some youth turn to niche and online networks for more specialized media interests. Media making is greatly enabled by kids’ ability to connect with other creators and mentors in milieu such as online communities and after-school programs. Unlike schools, in which kids perform to standardized requirements, these settings encourage youth to develop targeted expertise and delve into esoteric and niche domains of knowledge that are personally meaningful and self-directed. Kids’ creative production tended to thrive when they had ready access to creative communities that offered organized sources of help, expertise, collaborative partners, and opportunities for obtaining feedback from audiences and fellow creators.

Online spaces and in-person gatherings also provided opportunities for youth to interact with adults as peers, moving out of the age-segregated contexts of school. Engagement in specialized domains enabled kids and youth to explore new creative genres, experiment with kid-adult peer relationships, and interrogate cultural forms rather than reproducing existing ones. Their engagement with creative production demonstrated how media literacies change as youth shift from being consumers to media producers in social contexts that encourage their individual voices, creativity, and agency.

Web Comic. Reprinted from http://www.snafu-comics.com with permission from David Stanworth.