from digital consumption to production and interaction

From digital consumption to production and interaction:A new agenda for digital inclusion and education

IAMCR 2010 Braga, Portugal

David Brake

Department of Media and Communications

http://www.le.ac.uk/mc/ or http://davidbrake.org/

Digital citizenship

• ‘Digital citizenship’ and ‘new media literacies’ emphasize the skills and knowledge needed to be effective in the increasingly social media environment, where the distinctions between producer and consumer have evaporated and the blurring between public and private worlds create new ethical challenges and opportunities for children, young people, and adults. (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009, p. 5)

Key phrases

• ‘Digital citizenship’ and ‘new media literacies’ emphasize the skills and knowledge needed to be effective in the increasingly social media environment, where the distinctions between producer and consumer have evaporated and the blurring between public and private worlds create new ethical challenges and opportunities for children, young people, and adults. (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009, p. 5)

Has consumer producer difference evaporated?• 34% of college educated vs 24% of high

school educated US internet users posted something online (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickhur, 2010)

• 6.9% of school educated internet users in UK had blogs vs 14.8% of graduates (OxIS survey data 2007)

• Developing countries’ figures look much better but this reflects early adopter nature of internet users there

What is ‘effective’ in a social media environment?

Digital literacy education – missing pieces• Understanding the online ‘attention

economy’ – search engine optimisation, the power law

• Navigating the interactional complexities of public online self-expression (Miller & Arnold, 2001; Brake, 2009)

• Not just a matter of knowing the tools but knowing how to use them strategically (van Dijk, J. A. G. M., 2005)

What are the ethical and other challenges? • How and how much should you

reveal social information online about yourself and about others?

• How should you judge others from what you find about them online?

Who are the digitally excluded?

• Children and young people are not the only ones exposed to risks

• Children and young people are most likely to have internet access and to receive digital literacy education to help them realise benefits.

The age divide (in UK)

(Dutton, Helsper, & Gerber, 2009)

Age and online creative expression

Proportion of US internet users who have ever“shared something online that you created yourself,such as your own artwork, photos, stories or videos” (Lenhart, 2010)

Implications of age gap in onlinecreation/self-expression

• Loss of historical perspective online• Loss of experience with political

engagement online (as older people tend to be more politically active)

• Loss of opportunity among older users to build or maintain social capital (Steinfield, Ellison & Lampe, 2008)

Research & policy overlooks over-18s• Young people (especially university

students) get most research attention

• Risks from inappropriate disclosure online are common to all age groups

Social media risk for non-youth

cross-tab. (2010). Online Reputation in a Connected World. Retrieved from http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx

• Older people may have more to lose from inappropriate disclosure and don’t have tacit adolescent licence to experiment

Further Questions? Comments?

Contact details:David Brakedbrake@gmail.comhttp://davidbrake.org/

Thank you for coming!