[youthradioleaders] Henry Jenkins: Towards a Cultural Theory ofYouTube

[Johanna Franzel (Jones)]

Hi Doug,

Super interesting - thanks for sending this!  I share your ambivalence  
- I can't weigh in on whether j-schools should be ranked, but do wonder  
how they can best be accessed by young people.  I'm also curious how  
Jenkins' questions are playing out in j-schools.  Do new media like  
MySpace and YouTube enter into the curricula?  How does citizen  
journalism change a formal j-school education?

You raise a great question that we're often grappling with - how do  
producers transition from working as teens to adults (in j-school, for  
example), given all the factors that make this difficult?  I think we  
could all go on about that for days!

Best best,

Jones


On May 31, 2007, at 11:28 AM, Doug Mitchell wrote:

> 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
>  
> 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
>
Johanna (Jones) Franzel
Generation PRX Project Director
PRX Public Radio Exchange
Ph. 617.230.7311

jones at prx.org
http://www.generation.prx.org
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