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Manisha Shelatin luento aiheesta Global Transformers or Captive Consumers: Addressing Complexities in Youth Media ParticipationTRANSCRIPT
Global Transformers or Captive Consumers: Addressing Complexities
in Youth Media Participation
Manisha Shelat, Ph.D.Mediaeducation.now
Helsinki, Finland Nov. 2011
.
The stories we tell about youth and their engagement with media
Why they are important
The Digital Generations: The Two Extremes
AutonomousEmpoweredCreativeGlobalLeaders and transformers
Selfish Hedonist Materialist Wired Captive Consumers
Our response to the stories
HopeCelebrationAdmiration and
Envy
FearDoomCriticism and Control
Reality
Multi hued rather than black and white Complex, nuanced, in flux, dynamic,
difficult to pin down
Why the Hype?
• The rapid expansion of digital media• Global circulation of stories• Importance of children• Mainstream media’s love for sensational headlines• Public preference for simplified generalizations
rather than complexity• Adultism• Problems of research design
How researchers can help tell better stories
• Refrain from making sweeping generalizations and judgments
• Remember that media are just one part of a child’s lifeworld
Importance of Context
Connection between Online and Offline Worlds
• Arab Spring• Wisconsin Protests• India against Corruption
Digital Divide or Digital Inequalities?
Questioning Assumptions
• Potential of new media automatically translates
to practice
Assumptions
Youth of Global South do not have any say
in global agenda
Assumptions
• High media participation is always something good or desirable for youth
Role of Adults
Intruders? We are forcing them to fake identities,
convictions and opinions
Involvement of youth researchers
• Challenges posed by blurring of boundaries
• Language and Meaning
• Asking culturally sensitive questions
Problems of Design and Validity
India
• India is a country full of contradictions
• Difficult to generalize because of huge population huge structural inequalities
Games that Statistics Play
India is ranked 4th out of 185 countries in number of TV receivers and 2nd out of 89 countries in number of broadcast stations
Its rank slides down to 98th out of 160 countries when you look at % of households with TV-32%
The same applies to personal computers, mobile phones and other media
• Less than 30% Indians own a mobile phone so huge growth potential
• China, Indonesia and Brazil also continue to show solid growth in cell phone sales
• A culture of sharing so users do not equal owners
As measured by the new multi-dimensional poverty index, half of the world’s poor are in South Asia (51 percent or 844 million people) and one quarter in Africa (28 per cent or 458 million)
It is easy to forget these sections of
populations when the upper sections generate enough business
Intersectional Analysis
Poor+low caste+ rural+ girl is not equal to poor, low caste, rural, girl
• Media education is still important though its nature and practice have to change to suit the new digital media cultures
• Also include traditional media
With proliferation of new media forms all the time
we cannot be on top we will always be chasing something new; never
done
Enjoy the thrill of the chase!!
I call for research that improves young people’s media experience –use as well as participation
As producers as well as consumers
Acknowledgement
• Alok Brahmbhatt for his India photographs
www.alokbrahmbhatt.info
Thanks!
• Finnish Media Education Society and Finnish Youth Research Society, Maija and Rauna.
• Prof. Sirkku Kotilainen, Dr. Annika Suoninen, Dr. Irma Hirsjarvi and Prof. Samy Tayie
• My research assistants in India: Aasita Bali, Nidhi Shendurnikar, Gopal Kateshiya and Khyati Kharod
• Schools and young people who participated in the research in India
• Prof. Lewis Friedland and School of Journalism and Mass communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Manisha Shelat, Ph.D. School of Journalism and Mass
Communication University of Wisconsin-Madison USA
E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]