[youthradioleaders] Henry Jenkins: Towards a Cultural Theory ofYouTube

[Doug Mitchell]

Hi Jones...I could on about that for days.

But, let me send along a link to some even more interesting reading from
where I sit, working with college media students, undergraduate and
graduate.

http://editorialiste.blogspot.com/2007/05/why-we-need-journalism-school-
rankings.html
<http://editorialiste.blogspot.com/2007/05/why-we-need-journalism-school
-rankings.html> 

 

Finding a development scheme that starts with young people in their
teens and having them grow into working professionals is a huge
challenge considering all the well-placed social, cultural, educational
and especially economic boundaries we have that working to prevent it.  

                Doug Mitchell 
                Project Manager 
                next generation radio 
                NPR 
                http://www.npr.org/nextgen 
                (202) 513-2877 (office) 
       
                "Caminante, no hay camino. 
                Se hace el camino al andar..." 
       
                "Traveler, there is no road 
                You make the road by walking..." 
                  ----Antonio Machado 
       

________________________________

From: youthradioleaders-bounces at lists.prx.org
[mailto:youthradioleaders-bounces at lists.prx.org] On Behalf Of Johanna
(Jones) Franzel
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 11:06 AM
To: Youthradioleaders at lists.prx.org
Subject: [youthradioleaders] Henry Jenkins: Towards a Cultural Theory
ofYouTube

 

Dear Teachers & Leaders, 

 

For those who are interested, it's worth taking a look at Henry Jenkins'
recently posted Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube:
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/05/9_propositions_towards_a_cultu.html.
Jenkins heads up MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program, and does a lot
of great writing and thinking on web culture and participatory media. 

 

I was particularly struck by Jenkins' 8th and 9th propositions - these
seem like cogent points for those of us who are working to support a
culture of young producers. 

 

8. "In the age of YouTube, social networking emerges as one of the
important social skills and cultural competencies that young people need
to acquire if they are going to become meaningful participants in the
culture around them. We need to be concerned with the participation gap
as much as we are concerned with the digital divide. The digital divide
has to do with access to technology; the participation gap has to do
with access to cultural experiences and the skills that people acquire
through their participation within ongoing online communities and social
networks." 

 

Does participation in social networking have a place in teaching youth
radio? And if it does, how would this kind of skill be meaningfully
incorporated? I've heard from a few youth media teachers who are trying
to find ways to build MySpace into their curricula - would love to hear
techniques and ideas from others who are thinking about this. 

 

9. "YouTube teaches us that a participatory culture is not necessarily a
diverse culture. As John McMuria has shown us, minorities are grossly
under-represented -- at least among the most heavily viewed videos on
YouTube, which still tend to come most often from white middle class
males. If we want to see a more "democratic" culture, we need to explore
what mechanisms might encouraged greater diversity in who participates,
whose work gets seen, and what gets valued within the new participatory
culture." 

 

Though this is something which many of us have observed, it's worth
keeping at the forefront. To what extent do apparently democratizing
tools really show diversity of all kinds (race, ethnicity, class, age,
orientation, experience, geography etc.)? Youth-made radio offers far
more diversity than adult-made radio - the challenge is in finding ways,
as Jenkins says, for this work to be seen (or heard) and valued (and
eventually, change the face of radio entirely...). 

 

Food for thought. Thanks to all of you for the inspiring, dedicated,
world-changing work you do! 

 

Jones 

 

Johanna (Jones) Franzel 

Generation PRX Project Director 

PRX Public Radio Exchange 

Ph. 617.230.7311 

 

jones at prx.org 

http://www.generation.prx.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.prx.org/pipermail/youthradioleaders/attachments/20070531/e0a496ee/attachment.html