'Writing' Media: an Investigation of Practical Production in Media Education by Secondary School Students
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'WRITING' MEDIA: AN INVESTIGATION OF PRACTICAL PRODUCTION IN MEDIA EDUCATION BY SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. BY JULIAN SEFTON-GREEN Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment ofthe requirements for the degree ofDoctor ofPhilosophy in Education Institute ofEducation, University ofLondon January 1998 Abstract Chapter 1 provides an historical analysis ofthe role ofpractical production in media education in England. It discusses its varied educational aims. The need to consider practical work as a form of writing is advanced. Traditional notions of media education have possessed few theories of language and learning and have failed to conceptualise a relationship between critical understanding and making media. Discussion of 'media literacy' and 'visual literacy' is followed by an exploration of models of the writing process and the limits of the metaphor ofliteracy when applied to forms of media production. Selective accounts of theories ofwriting instruction (drawing upon models of the writing process), conclude that there are problems with the metaphor of media literacy. By contrast Cultural Studies has conceptualised creative productions by young people in terms that evoke notions of the written. The central research question is formulated in Chapter 2: what sense can we make ofmedia production using theories of writing; and thus by implication what change to such theories might be made using data drawn from educational research on media production? In Chapter 3 discussion of methodological questions draws attention to two traditions: Cultural Studies work on media audiences. and classroom based action research. Different methods of textual analysis are applied to media productions by young people in the next four chapters (4-7) within the specific histories of several classrooms in North London schools. Drawing together the argument of these case studies Chapter 8 describes findings from the research and discusses five key themes: the relationship between reading and writing, or media consumption and production; the role ofgenre and production technologies; the concepts of level and audience; the role of meta-language within the production process; and the pedagogic implications ofthe study. Finally the thesis suggests the need to develop a social theory of writing. 2 Contents Preface 5 1. Practical Media Production and Media Education 11 2. Literacy and Writing 53 3. Methodological Questions 110 4 Writing as Reading: the Case ofPonyboy 132 5. Writing Photo-Stories 159 6. Modes ofCritical Writing 195 7. Learning to Write - in Digital Media 237 8. Conclusion 275 Bibliography 303 Appendix 1 339 PlazInvestigations Appendix 2 355 Illustrations for Chapter 5 Appendix 3 358 Illustrations for Chapter 6 Appendix 4 362 Illustrations for Chapter 7 3 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: CONJOINT WORK Certain of the chapters in this thesis incorporate work which was undertaken by the candidate and the supervisor in the context of collaborative research projects. Material from these chapters (Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7) has been previously published under our joint names. Material from Chapters 4, 5 and 6 is included in David Buckingham and Julian Sefton-Green Cultural Studies Goes to School: Reading and Teaching Popular Media (London: Taylor and Francis, 1994); while material from Chapter 7 is included in David Buckingham, Jenny Grahame and Julian Sefton-Green Making Media: Practical Production in Media Education (LOndon: English and Media Centre, 1995). We can confirm that in all of the above cases, the data were gathered by the candidate working alone; the candidate was responsible for devising appropriate theoretical approaches to the data, and undertaking the analysis; and for writing the first draft of the published versions. The versions included in the thesis incorporate a substantial amount of further material; and these versions were of course also written by the candidate with advice from the supervisor. Signed ;;~ Sefto.. vh~-Green.·.. ~ ~andidate) . J. 4 Preface This thesis has its origins in a number of interrelated debates about: - the pedagogic purpose of media production (sometimes described as practical work) in media education; - the conceptual nature of media literacy; - young people's understanding and use of, a range ofcontemporary media; - the position of popular culture within the school curriculum. In particular, it will explore the theoretical ramifications implicit in the use of the term 'media literacy' through an attempt to describe various examples of media production by young people made in media education classrooms. It will investigate what it might mean to see these productions as forms ofwriting. The enquiry will seek to establish an educational perspective from which it will be possible to view writing media as an integral part of the spectrum ofcompetencies that comprise a progressive definition of contemporary literacy. It aims to achieve this objective through an account of classroom based research in two London comprehensive schools. The research will detail the use of a range of media technologies in both individual and group media productions. The argument will be advanced through systematic analysis of both the social process of media production and the artefacts made by the students, with particular attention to their structural features. The students' reflections upon, and attitude towards these products will 5 also be taken as part of the communicative dimension implied by considering them as forms of writing. Contexts There are therefore a number of contexts which inform the purpose of this thesis: - changing definitions ofliteracy in modern society, especially the debate and controversy surrounding both the concepts and practices of reading and writing; - the development of formal education in popular culture (media education) and the need to identify- learning and progression; - the tradition of action research in media education and the growth of the media curriculum; - the use of media production as a methodology in audience research in Media Studies to determine audience use of, and/or interaction with, media texts; - arguments in media theory about subjectivity and media culture; - speculation about a 'new era' in communications and society as a result of developments in multimedia and digital technology. 6 Organisation ofthe thesis The thesis aims to contextualise the research in the first two chapters. The third chapter deals with methodological issues. Chapters 4-7 describe case studies of students' work and the fmal chapter concludes the thesis. Chapter 1 This chapter outlines the wider context of the research by analysing developments in media education in England. It engages in an extensive discussion of the role of media production by students over a forty year period. The chapter concludes by suggesting that the role of practical work within the subject raises important questions about the nature of contemporary literacies. In particular it argues that, given the emphasis within the subject on reading the media, valuable insights into the literacy metaphor can be pursued through a consideration of media production as a form of writing. Traditional notions of media education have been unduly restricted in this respect; they have possessed few theories of language and learning and have failed to conceptualise a relationship between critical understanding and media production. Chapter 2 There are four interlinked concerns to this chapter. First, it seeks to question the value of theories ofliteracy within existing paradigms; thus notions of 'media literacy' and 'visual literacy' are located within broader models of language and learning. Secondly, it explores models of the writing process and the limits of the metaphor of literacy when applied to forms of media production, focusing particularly on tensions between the sociological and psychological traditions. Thirdly, it selectively describes theories of writing instruction (of course drawing upon models of the writing process), concluding that although there are problems with the metaphor of media 7 literacy the emphasis within the subject is almost always on the reading halfofthe dyad. Fourthly it explores the ways that theorists ofyouth culture have conceptualised creative productions by young people in terms that evoke notions ofthe written. It thus poses a double question: what sense can we make of media production using theories ofwriting; and thus by implication what change to such theories might be made using data drawn from educational research on media production? Chapter 3 This chapter discusses methodological questions. It describes the nature of the empirical work analysed in this study and locates it within several overlapping traditions. First of all, the data gathering is contextualised within the frameworks of action research and case study research in education. Secondly it discusses the variety ofperspectives within the qualitative paradigm which are used to analyse the data. In particular the study draws upon methods of enquiry within recent Cultural Studies work on media audiences. Different methods of textual analysis are applied to media productions by young people within the specific histories of several classrooms in North London schools. Chapter 4 The focus ofthis case study is a relatively conventional piece of media production - a piece of writing - although it is an unusual piece of work. The 14 year old author wrote a long story over a summer vacation heavily and explicitly derived from a range of genres, comics,