Write an Intro and Stick It Here, Yo
26
Pedagogy, Civil Society and Strategies of Empowerment:
The Capabilities and Current State of Youth Generated Media Programs in Vancouver, British Columbia
Written by: Katie Raso
Submitted on: April 14, 2008
CMNS 428
Stuart Poyntz
Introduction
As digital culture continues to evolve its contributions to the media landscape, the role of the media user also transforms. This parametric shift changes the ways in which users interact with cultural texts. Where previous media environments encouraged the capacity of the user as an audience, the new media landscape allows potential for this role to include production capabilities (Jenkins, 2006). This new system of users as participants is integral to the proliferation of Web 2.0 culture. Web 2.0 refers to the emergent internet-based information system, comprised of networks, social software sites, and collaborative projects, that depend on participation and contributions of users for their structure and longevity (O’ Reilly, as cited in Jenkins, 2006). This increased ability to create media texts is not limited to the realm of Web 2.0. The development of affordable personal recording devices, such as camcorders and camera phones, has uprooted media production from the studio to the public sphere (Halleck, 2002). These changes in the structure and availability of communication technologies are already recognizable amongst users. According to research from the Pew Internet and American Life project, 57 percent of American teenagers who use the Internet engage in media creation processes (Lenhardt & Madden, as cited in Jenkins, 2006). Similarly, the proliferation of personal recording devices has allowed a wide range of citizens to engage in media creation. Content generated by these amateur filmmakers has strengthened social justice movements by capturing undeniably powerful images of struggle and repression (Seeing is Believing, n.d.).
Within these changes to the media landscape, a new skill set is forming. As noted by the Pew research, young technology users are quickly harnessing the opportunity to create media (Lenhardt & Madden, as cited in Jenkins, 2006). The informal learning processes inherent in developing these media creation skills are often experienced outside of the traditional school system. Sefton-Green (2006) notes that the increased capabilities of informal learning environments to engage youth have created educational experiences outside of the academic structure that are more dynamic than their traditional counterpart.
Such a shift in both the media experience and learning patterns of youth allow participants a greater sense of agency than previously possible. This realm of media creation has become a mechanism with which youth construct identity and distinguish their personal taste (Kline, Stewart, & Murphy, 2006). While this process can be seen as a negotiation between youth and their representations in mainstream culture (Kellner, 2001), the question remains if the capabilities of this process are fully realized. In this format, the individual user gains the ability to shape a multi-textual self-representation. However, these abilities are dependent on the youth’s capacity to generate the requisite skills to achieve breadth in both ability and audience-reach. For young participants, media generation can be employed as a tool of self-actualization, but deeper engagement with these skills is required to reach heightened capacity for the texts created.
As a community organizer in Vancouver, I was interested in understanding how youth generated media programs are used by local nonprofit organizations to both engage youth and contribute to beneficial community change. To understand these capabilities, I interviewed a series of organizations in Vancouver who operate youth generated media programs. Recognizing the need for further development of such programs, I also turned my attention to organizations in California’s Bay Area. The two data set acquired from these surveys provide considerable insight into the current state of youth media creation programs, and the potential for their future development.
Youth Generated Media: Elements and Capacities, and the Role of Community Organizations
Youth Generated Media (YGM) are distinguished from other types of media, as the creative direction and production are youth led initiatives. For the purpose of this project, youth will refer to persons between the ages of fifteen and thirty. The audience for whom media is created does not define YGM; rather, the media creation process determines this status. While YGM must maintain an emphasis on involving youth in media creation, this process can include non-youth acting in the role of facilitator. This is the distinguishing factor between youth generated media and youth targeted media. While youth targeted media may play an integral role in youth communities, it is not the focus of this research. Rather, emphasis is placed on media that is generated by youth. The wide range of formats used for production enhances YGM’s capabilities. Included in this array are traditional media, such as live performance and print-based publication, as well as the new platforms, including blogging, and podcasting. The multi-platform structure of YGM, combined with the aforementioned proliferation of personal technologies and Web 2.0 culture, allows for extensive entry points. Thus, the ability for youth to create media allows for an increased production of texts. While this is an important development, it must be seen as a first step for the potential of YGM. The great strengths of these texts are their ability to project the narratives of youth (referred to as youth voice) that do not exist in mass cultural representations.
Mainstream media portray youth as the root cause for many social ills. The unfounded blame placed on youth by mass media has significant impacts on the opinions of, and actions toward, youth by the general populace (Giroux, as cited in Kellner 2001). Moreover, this stereotyping leads to an exceptional sense of disempowerment amongst young people. Such disempowerment has fluidly translated into disengagement, with youth demonstrating an apathetic lack of political interest (Buckingham, as cited in Poyntz, 2006).
YGM demonstrate great ability to challenge the predominant narrative projected by mass culture, while creating a sense of empowerment in young producers. YGM are capable of providing the mechanisms for engagement of youth within civil society. The ability of youth to exercise agency within such a meaningful context allows for the realization of empowerment (Poyntz, 2006). YGM ‘s fostering of self-actualization extends beyond participants’ articulating identities to understanding the relationship between these identities and society.
In addition to nurturing self-identity, YGM is capable of furthering the empowerment of youth and their communities through contributing to civil society. Downey and Fenton (2003) present civil society as the “mediating space between the private and public spheres in pluralist democracy. A place where individuals and groups are free to form organizations that function independently and can mediate between citizens and the state” (p. 190). With media conglomerates controlling society’s dominant messaging systems, I propose that the media should be seen as a third party in this definition, so that the mediation occurs between citizens, the state, and the mass media. YGM’s contribution to this ongoing process of negotiation is in furthering the capabilities of media education. Through introducing youth to the production processes inherent in media creation, YGM is capable of demystifying the power of mass media (Goldfarb, 2002). While this new level of deconstruction furthers the understanding of media education, YGM also provides opportunity for this discipline to expand its methods. Moving past the objective of deconstruction, YGM allows users to articulate their response to dominant messages. Here, the negotiation between the young citizenry, the state and the mass media is truly enhances by the capabilities of YGM.
While YGM provides a new level of capability media engagement and the negotiation of meaning within civil society, the creation process also advances through this pairing. By aligning the skill set used by youth for media creation with the analytical strength of media education, YGM producers attain critical literacy. Moving beyond the realm of comprehensive skills, critical literacy affords users the ability to appreciate and critique the social and historical contexts of their experiences (Anderson & Irvine, Kretovics, as cited in Goodman, 2005).
Goodman (2005) proposes that there are three central practices for critical literacy: teaching multiliteracies, teaching continual inquiry, and teaching reflection. Although this is a comprehensive outline for the components of critical literacy, the use of the term ‘teaching’ seems almost contradictory. As noted by Goldfarb (2002), the empowerment engendered by YGM is the result of youth demonstrating their expertise. YGM provides a rare forum for such expression, and while learning is an integral part of this process, it does not occur in a formally structured manner. Thus, while I wish to employ Goodman’s three practices of critical literacy, teaching will be replaced by facilitating. Through facilitating multiliteracies, continual inquiry and reflection, critical literacy encourages youth to consider the multi-dimensional aspects of their environment, and their roles within it.
The final area of YGM capacity that I will focus on is that of creating community dialectic as a means of problem solving. As Tufte (2004) notes, media can be used as a context for problem identification, exploring potential contributory factors and solutions. When YGM processes are based on group work, dialogue becomes a vibrant component. Furthermore, the dialogue generated provides a forum for negotiation between youth. This process of creating collective understanding can be seen as a microcosm of civil society, where youth share experiences and narratives. This dialogue helps to generate tolerance and respect for cultural differences between participants (Jenkins, 2006). Thus, the integration of YGM into community programs utilizes the strong creation skill set to benefit the development of youth within the context of the group.
The potential of YGM to enhance the civil experiences of its users is immense. I have outlined five areas in which there is great opportunity for capacity building of YGM participants:
1) Empowering youth against stereotyping in mass media
2) Enhancing the negotiation ability of youth as citizens within civil society
3) Evolving media education beyond deconstruction
4) Fostering the practical development of critical literacy
5) Engaging group dynamics as a method of building tolerance while exploring problem-solving strategies.
The actualization of these possibilities can be greatly enhanced by organizations that promote YGM programs as a component of community development. Through providing programs that engage youth in both media creation, and critical discourse, community organizations encourage participants to cultivate more comprehensive effectivity sets. According to Barab and Roth (2006), effectivity sets are comprised of the competencies, acquired through experience, that one can utilize to optimize her potential within a situation or environment. Not only can YGM programs strengthen the effectivity sets of youth by providing technical media making skills, but also the areas of opportunity listed above offer participants an intricate skill set with capabilities that extend beyond the realm of media creation to participation within civil society.
With the potentials of YGM programs articulated, it is necessary to consider what pedagogical framework best supports their fulfillment. I propose that the Constructionist pedagogy offered by Peppler and Kafai (2007) provides an excellent framework for designing YGM programs. Constructionism “places learners in designer roles and ties together the importance of designing artifacts that are of relevance to a larger community. Constructionism places equal importance on the individual learner and on the role of social participation” (p. 153). Maintaining the importance of the youth as the authority of their own experiences, Constructionism allots positions of agency for the participants. However, this creative control is balanced with the context of interacting and working within the community. Thus, Constructionism can be seen as a pedagogical framework capable of supporting the capabilities of YGM programs.
Networking as a Mechanism for Community Engagement
When considering the potential for community organizations to operate successful YGM programs, it is important to recognize the limitations of organizational capacity. Such limitations may include available staff, workspace, technology, funding, and distribution methods. As many nonprofit organizations are not large institutions (Lohmann, 2007), it is important to consider the implications of these limitations, and the possibility to overcome them. Establishing and maintaining inter-organizational networks allow increased capacity for the organizations involved. Here, it is important to consider organization capabilities in terms of affordance networks: the tools, methods, and practices available for the attainment of a goal (Barab and Roth, 2006). By participating in an inter-organizational network, the affordance network available to an organization becomes exponentially expanded.
Moreover, organizational involvement in networks is a natural reflection of the aims of critical literacy development. Jenkins (2006) recognizes the necessary roles of collaboration and networking for the development of multiliteracy. As it is logical that an organization’s structure should resemble the aims of its programming, the case for inter-organizational networking for YGM programs is based in organic rationale. This rationale is extended by the additional aim of programs which intend to show YGM as a component of a larger structure of media education and/or civic engagement. Recognizing that media creation is only a part of these systems, it is important to also recognize the relevancy of the other components. Similarly, organizations can gain much strength through recognizing the strengths and opportunities for co-development with other agencies. Despite these considerations for the importance of inter-organizational networking, a great deal of hesitancy seems to prevail amongst non-profit organizations about engaging with such structures.
The Effects of Limited Funding Streams
While there may be additional deterrents that prevent organizations from entering into networks, I believe that the greatest implications are the effects of unstable funding. With government contributions to social programs shrinking, competition between organizations for remaining funding streams intensifies (Eikenberry & Kluver, 2004). Not only can this competitive system lead to hostility between organizations, but it can also generate anxiety about the future’s uncertainty. This anxiety may act as a substantial barrier preventing organization’s programs from reaching full potential. Rather than continually developing and improving organizational structure, when funding streams are vulnerable attention is diverted from programming to fiscal management. Furthermore, this uncertainty may prevent organizations from involving themselves in long-term inter-organizational commitments. Thus, organizations that operate without sustainable infrastructure on an uncertain basis of year-to-year, contract-to-contract, or project-to-project funding are unable to demonstrate their full potential within their communities.