Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

Jenkins, Henry, Katie Clinton, Ravi Purushotma, Alice Robinson, and Margaret Weigel. "Confronting

 

                the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century." Confronting

 

                 Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (2005): 1-72

 

 

In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, the authors state that 1/2 of teens have created media content, and 1/3 of teens who use the Internet have shared content with others. This makes them part of a participatory culture. Participatory cultures are exactly what they sound like-- ways in which people participate in an activity together, in this case, an online culture. These cultures have low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing creations, an informal mentorship setup, and an environment in which members feel that their contributions matter to the culture as a whole. The authors state that these participatory cultures are becoming more and more common among students, and instructors need to make sure everyone has access to be a part of them.

 

In this article, I really liked how the authors made a list of online spheres that could be considered participatory cultures-- like Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia-- and made it known that participating in these forums can build skills like play, performance, simulation, networking, advanced cognition, and multitasking. I never thought that Facebooking and doing homework at the same time was improving my cognitive and multitasking skills, but it's good to know. It's also good for instructors to know that they can embrace something that students are doing online, and put it to use for advanced learning in the classroom.

 

I was confused by the fact that the authors stated that development of these skills produced by participatory cultures can lead to a more empowered connection to citizenship-- how so?

 

I'd like to learn more about how responsive teachers would be to buying into this whole participatory culture thing. I know at many high schools, sites like Facebook and YouTube are blocked entirely from school computer networks. Wouldn't this throw a wrench in all their theories?