Digital media and learning

An occasional paper on digital media and learning

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the st 21 Century
Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Katie Clinton Ravi Purushotma Alice J. Robison Margaret Weigel

Building the new field of digital media and learning

The MacArthurFoundation launched its five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations. The initiative is both marshaling what it isalready known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth. For more information, visit www.digitallearning.macfound.org.To engage in conversations about these projects and the field of digital learning, visit the Spotlight blog at spotlight.macfound.org.

About the MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmakinginstitution dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition.With assets of $5.5 billion, the Foundation makes grants totaling approximately $200 million annually. For more information or to sign up for MacArthur’s monthly electronic newsletter, visit www.macfound.org. The MacArthur Foundation 140 South Dearborn Street, Suite 1200 Chicago, Illinois 60603Tel. (312) 726-8000 www.digitallearning.macfound.org

An occasional paper on digital media and learning

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century
Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Katie Clinton Ravi Purushotma Alice J. Robison Margaret Weigel

Table of ContentsExecutive Summary The Needed Skills in the New Media Culture Enabling Participation Why We Should Teach Media Literacy:Three Core Problems What Should We Teach? Rethinking Literacy Core Media Literacy Skills Who Should Respond? A Systemic Approach to Media Education The Challenge Ahead: Ensuring that All Benefit from the Expanding Media Landscape Sources

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2Executive Summary
According to a recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life project (Lenhardt & Madden, 2005), more than one-half of all teens have created media content, and roughly onethird of teens who use the Internet have shared content they produced. In many cases, these teens are actively involved in what we are calling participatory cultures. A participatory culture is a culture withrelatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the leastthey care what other people think about what they have created). Forms of participatory culture include:
Affiliations — memberships, formal and informal, in online communities centered

around various forms of media, such as Friendster, Facebook, message boards, metagaming, game clans, or MySpace). Expressions — producing new creative forms, such as digital sampling, skinning and modding, fanvideomaking, fan fiction writing, zines, mash-ups). Collaborative Problem-solving — working together in teams, formal and informal, to complete tasks and develop new knowledge (such as through Wikipedia, alternative reality gaming, spoiling). Circulations — Shaping the flow of media (such as podcasting, blogging). A growing body of scholarship suggests potential benefits of these forms of...