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: shelat@wisc.edu manishashelat@gmail.com