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Tuesday 17th October 2006 4:23 pm

Henry Jenkins: Youth Are So Media Savvy They Don’t Need Any Media Education (A Misconception)

Many adults believe youth know more about new media culture than they do. So what’s the need for media education?

According to a 2005 study, more than half of all American teens—and 57 percent of teens who use the internet—could be considered media creators. So why do they need adult help? Many youth actually do know more about new media than their parents and teachers: they don’t need someone looking over their shoulders but they may need someone watching their backs.

Here’s why

1) There are fundamental inequalities in access to these new media technologies and the opportunities for participation they represent. What about the 43 percent of American youth online who are not producing or distributing their own media content?

2) Youth are often not reflecting on those media they use everyday. Every media structures the information it presents us in distinctive ways and if we do not understand how these media works, we can’t think critically about their role in our lives.

3) Youth face vexing ethical challenges as media makers and participants in online communities. Historically, we trained high school journalists for their future roles as media producers. Today, significantly more youth are expressing their own perspectives through blogs, podcasts, and online journals but are receiving no advice about the choices they are making and their potential consequences.

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Comments

Mel Chua
 Posted on October 20 2006 5:08 AM

I’ve found the best way to get students to reflect on material (including usage patterns and societal and ethical implicatons of it) is to have them, with proper mentoring and guidance, teach it (possibly to some of those supposedly less media-savvy adults out there, or to the teens who don’t already self-publish online content for whatever reasons).

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