Much of the core thinking shaping media literacy education in American took
shape in the 1970s and 1980s in response to an age dominated by mass media
production and consumption. Over the past several decades, the media
environment has changed dramatically, starting with the shift from young
people understood as consumers of popular culture to young people engaged
as participants in popular culture. What can we learn from looking at young
"artists" working in a range of media -- old and new? How have shifts in
technologies of production and distribution changed the way they think about
their work and created opportunities for them to receive recognition for
their creative contributions? What kind of skills do young people need to
fully participate in an era of media convergence and collective intelligence?
Where are they acquiring those skills and how do we deal with inequalities of
participation, a problem of a different order than more traditional concerns
about inequalities of access? And what new models are emerging from
educational experiments and informal educational communities which might be
leveraged to help kids become fuller, more critically aware, more creative,
and more ethical participants in this new media environment?
About Henry Jenkins:
Henry Jenkins III, the DeFlorz Professor of Humanities and Director
of MIT Comparative Media Studies, has spent his career studying media
and the way people incorporate it into their lives. He is the principle
investigator for the MIT-Microsoft Games-to-Teach project, which is
examining the educational potential of computer and video games. He
is one of the founders and directors of The Education Arcade. He writes
two monthly columns The Digital Renaissance, for Technology Review
Online and "Applied Game Theory" for Computer Games magazine. He testified
in 1999 before the U.S. Senate during the hearings on media violence
that followed the Littleton, Colorado shootings, testified before
the Federal Communications Commission about media literacy, and spoke
to the governor's board of the World Economic Forum about intellectual
property law. His books include Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures
of Popular Culture (co-edited with Tara McPherson and Jane Shattuc,
2003), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (co-editor
with Justine Cassell, 1998), The Children's Cultural Reader (editor,
1998), Science Fiction Audiences: Doctor Who, Star Trek and Their
Followers (with John Tullock, 1995), Classical Hollywood Comedy (co-editor
with Kristine Brunovska Karnick, 1994), Textual Poachers: Television
Fans and Participatory Culture (1992), What Made Pistachio Nuts?:
Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic (1992), and the forthcoming
Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Intersect. Jenkins earned
his doctorate in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin,
Madison and a master's degree in communication studies from the University
of Iowa.
