Henry Jenkins - Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture

Late in 2006 Henry Jenkins published a white paper for the MacArthur Foundation's "Digital Media and Learning" Project.

He argues media literacy is required in schools due to:

- the need for participation in media culture
- the opacity of media languages and motivations
- the need for ethical participation

He also argues for a new set of skills students will require to participate successfully: play, performance, simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgement, transmedia navigation, networking, negotiation. Each is these is outlined in some detail, with practical examples (although not all of these are strictly media literacy activities).

He suggests that there is already a new media culture that young people are actively participating in and that education needs to respond appropriately. He also argues that the focus should be on participatory cultures rather than interactive technologies - because technologies are used in cultural contexts. He suggests that literacy is ultimately not about personal expression, but community involvement.

Jenkins' approach differs to traditional media education because it focuses on the social uses of media. In the past media literacy has tended to focus on the providing individuals with skills and knowledge (eg Masterman's "critical autonomy" approach). The "participation" approach suggests that communities can learn to work more effectively together for the benefit of the whole community and that this can occur in media contexts as much as anywhere.

The focus on ethics has traditionally reflected journalism discourses and education rather than media literacy per se. For example, Ethics education has not been a focus of video production, even when the purpose has been to challenge dominant forms.

The paper perhaps reflects a more traditional media ed discourse in terms of its focus on the "opacity" of media and the need to identify the media’s “hidden” motivations and methods (which perhaps reflects the “demystification” approach). For example, the report borders on being protectionist in its description of the difficulty young people have in identifying online adverts.

However, this is a highly provocative white paper that challenges media literacy educators to re-think the field, particularly in relation to young people's participation with new media. It is essential reading for anyone working in the field.

You can download the document here.