Inequality in Digital Personas Travis Noakes INEQUALITY IN DIGITAL PERSONAS - e-portfolio curricula, cultural repertoires and social media Travis Noakes Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Humanities, Centre for Film and Media Studies, February, 2018. Supervisor: Professor Marion Walton in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town Co-supervisor: Professor Johannes Cronjé University fromof theCape Town Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology University of Cape Town, South Africa 3 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town Inequality in Digital Personas Travis Noakes COPYRIGHT The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. As a UCT thesis publication, this document is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. University of Cape Town, South Africa 1 Inequality in Digital Personas Travis Noakes ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis emerged as an accomplished dish from a primordial soup thanks to: Professor Marion Walton identified the broth’s potential and nurtured its lengthy bubbling with the choicest cooking ingredients and advice. Professor Johannes Cronjé shone several lights on my original gumbo dish. With much shaking and stirring, he helped filter its rogue elements into a rich, but not-so-thick, consommé. My wife, Bronwyn, and our son, Thomas, who allowed me to stir for many years… Leon Buchner, the late John Cowan, my research participants and their educators furnished my fieldwork’s lush broth. The National Research Fund provided a grant that supported my field research. I would like to thank the following research groups for their constructive feedback: o CPUT’s Technology in Education Postgraduate Research group; o UCT’s Centre for Innovation and Learning Technology; o and UCT’s South African Multimodality in Education research group. University of Cape Town, South Africa 4 Inequality in Digital Personas Travis Noakes Abstract Digital and electronic learning portfolios (e-portfolios) are playing a growing role in supporting admission to tertiary study and employment by visual creatives. Despite the growing importance of digital portfolios, we know very little about how professionals or students use theirs. This thesis contributes to knowledge by describing how South African high school students curated varied e-portfolio styles while developing disciplinary personas as visual artists. The study documents the technological and material inequalities between these students at two schools in Cape Town. By contrast to many celebratory accounts of contemporary new media literacies, it provides cautionary case studies of how young people’s privileged or marginalized circumstances shape their digital portfolios as well. A four-year longitudinal action research project (2009-2013) enabled the recording and analysis of students’ development as visual artists via e-portfolios at an independent (2009-2012) and a government school (2012-2013). Each school represented one of the two types of secondary schooling recognised by the South African government. All student e-portfolios were analysed along with producers’ dissimilar contexts. Teachers often promoted highbrow cultural norms entrenched by white, English medium schooling. The predominance of such norms could disadvantage socially marginalized youths and those developing repertoires in creative industry, crafts or fan art. Furthermore, major technological inequalities caused further exclusion. Differences in connectivity and infrastructure between the two research sites and individuals’ home environments were apparent. While the project supported the development of new literacies, the intervention nonetheless inadvertently reproduced the symbolic advantages of privileged youths. Important distinctions existed between participants’ use of media technologies. Resource-intensive communications proved gatekeepers to under-resourced students and stopped them fully articulating their abilities in their e-portfolios. Non-connected students had the most limited exposure to developing a digital hexis while remediating artworks, presenting personas and benefiting from online affinity spaces. By contrast, well-connected students created comprehensive showcases curating links to their productions in varied affinity groups. Male teens from affluent homes were better positioned to negotiate their classroom identities, as well as their entrepreneurial and other personas. Cultural capital acquired in their homes, such as media production skills, needed to resonate with the broader ethos of the school in its class and cultural dimensions. By contrast, certain creative industry, fan art and craft productions seemed precluded by assimilationist assumptions. At the same time, young women grappled with the risks and benefits of online visibility. An important side effect of validating media produced outside school is that privileged teens may amplify their symbolic advantages by easily adding distinctive personas. Under-resourced students must contend with the dual challenges of media ecologies as gatekeepers and an exclusionary cultural environment. Black teens from working class homes were faced with many hidden infrastructural and cultural challenges that contributed to their individual achievements falling short of similarly motivated peers. Equitable digital portfolio education must address both infrastructural inequality and decolonisation. University of Cape Town, South Africa 5 Inequality in Digital Personas Travis Noakes Table 1 Software cited Software name Website location Adobe suite* https://www.adobe.com Apple OS** and software suite* https://www.apple.com AutoDesk 3D Studio Max https://www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max/overview Behance (owned by Adobe) https://www.behance.net Black Berry Messenger (BBM) http://bbm.com/en Blender https://www.blender.org Carbonmade https://www.carbonmade.com Chrome https://www.google.com/chrome Corel suite* https://www.corel.com/en-eu Delicious https://del.icio.us/ DeviantArt https://www.deviantart.com/ Diigo https://www.diigo.com Direct X (part of Microsoft’s SDK) https://www.microsoft.com/en-za/download/details.aspx?id=6812 Dropbox.com https://www.dropbox.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com Firefox https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new Flickr https://www.flickr.com Final Cut Pro (owned by Apple) https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro Google suite* https://www.google.com Internet Explorer (owned by Microsoft) https://www.microsoft.com/en-za/download/internet-explorer.aspx Instagram https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en Mahara https://mahara.org Microsoft OS and Office suite* https://www.microsoft.com/en-za MyFolio https://myfolio.com Opera https://www.opera.com Picassa (now Google Photos) https://picasa.google.com Photoshelter https://www.photoshelter.com Safari https://www.apple.com/safari society6 https://society6.com SketchPad Pro https://www.autodesk.com/products/sketchbook-pro/overview Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com Twitter https://twitter.com Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com Vimeo https://www.vimeo.com YouTube https://youtube.com Wavescape https://www.wavescape.co.za We Heart It https://weheartit.com Wix https://www.wix.com Wordpress.com https://wordpress.com * The term suite is an umbrella term, since the website address provided users with more than one software service. For example, Adobe’s website covered Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Where a different trademark was used, this site was listed separately, as in Behance. While this site became owned by Adobe, it was still available as a stand-alone software service. ** The acronym OS refers to operating system software. Both Apple’s and Microsoft’s were also linked to software suites. Where a different trademark to the suite is used, it was listed separately. University of Cape Town, South Africa 6 Inequality in Digital Personas Travis Noakes Keywords stratification, capital, inequality, cultural repertoires, social semiotic spaces, habitus, capabilities, visual art, e-portfolio, infrastructure, digital hexis, templated self Table 2 Search terms and relevant abbreviations used in final recent literature review search* Keyword Abbreviation in thesis Macro-level new media literacies cultural reproduction; assimilation academic cultural capital; institutional cultural capital distinction; cultural omnivorousness; dissonance emerging cultural capital habitus; lifestyles; differentiating practices cultural repertoires: creative industry; fan art; craft; music leisure repertoires: sport; travel social origin: class; race; gender inequality; capability approach academic achievement; achievement shortfalls Micro-level Medias traditional analogue portfolio digital portfolio; online portfolio electronic learning portfolio e-portfolio creative appropriation Content production social semiotic spaces; affinity spaces digital hexis; dimensions of infrastructure digital curation