Using Participatory Media and Public Voice to Encourage Civic Engagement - Howard Rheingold

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Description

 

As increasing numbers of young people seek to master the use of media tools to express themselves, explore their identities, and connect with peers—to be active creators as well as consumers of culture—educators have an opportunity to encourage young media makers to exercise active citizenship. Might teachers enlist these young people’s enthusiasm for using digital media in the service of civic engagement? I propose one way to do this: help students communicate in their public voices about issues they care about.

The eager adoption of Web publishing, digital video production and online video distribution, social networking services, instant messaging, multiplayer role-playing games, online communities, virtual worlds, and other Internet-based media by millions of young people around the world demonstrates the strength of their desire unprompted by adults—to learn digital production and communication skills. According to a 2005 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “The number of teenagers using the internet has grown 24% in the past four years and 87% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online.” This interest by American (and Brazilian, British, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Persian, etc.) youth in media production practices might well be a function of adolescents’ needs to explore their identities and experiment with social interaction—and can be seen as a healthy active response to the hypermediated environment they’ve grown up in.

Author

Howard Rheingold. Stanford University, Communication Department. 2008