MAIN > SPOTLIGHT ARCHIVE > Howard_Rheingold (Dec 07)

Thursday 7th December 2006 8:53 am

Howard Rheingold on participatory media, public voice, civic engagement

Can participatory media literacy be an effective channel for introducing young people to civic engagement?

Teaching young people how to use digital media to convey their public voices could link youthful interest in identity exploration and social interaction with direct experiences of civic engagement. Learning to use blogs, wikis, podcasts, and digital video as media of self-expression, with an emphasis on “public voice,” should be considered a pillar - not just a component—of 21st century civic curriculum. 

Participatory media that enable young people to create as well as consume media are popular among high school and college students. Many youth teach themselves and each other to use new media production and distribution tools. However, introducing the use of these media in the context of the public sphere that undergirds democracy is an appropriate intervention for educators precisely because the rhetoric of democratic participation is not necessarily learnable by self-guided point-and-click experimentation.

I have started a wiki to provide an open-ended collection of resources for educators.

Category: Civic-Engagement

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