Critical media literacy through making media: A key to participation for young migrants?

Abstract

Young migrants – particularly refugees – are commonly the object of stereotypical visual media representations and often have no choice but to position themselves in response to them. This article explores whether making young migrants aware of the politics of representation through media literacy education contributes to strengthening their participation and resilience. We reflect on a media literacy program developed with teachers and 100 students at a Dutch “International Transition Classes” school. The educational program focuses on visual media production using smartphones, raising critical consciousness and promoting civic engagement. Ethnographic data analyzed include field notes, a focus group with teachers, in-depth and informal interviews, student-produced footage, and a 10-minute ethnographic film. In our increasingly polarized mediatized world, better recognition of how the needs of certain young people diverge depending on how they are situated in racialized, gendered, and classed structures of power is needed to work towards inclusive media literacy education.

Practicing critical media literacy education with/for young migrants: Lessons learned from a participatory action research project

“…Safeguarding their safety, dignity and voice are imperative (Block et al, 2012). MMM builds on a long established collaboration with Ithaka ISK, and the team combines expertise as filmmakers, visual anthropologists and media researchers; a social justice engagement as well as for example shared experiences and being an insider to the community under study (we discuss this dynamic at greater length in Leurs et al, 2018). We see ourselves as media literacy education facilitators.…”

“…Drawing on our evaluative experiences in 2017 (Leurs et al., 2018), we revised our curriculum. Rather than one half day per week for 10 weeks, in 2018 the training was intensified over five full school days in April, which respectively thematically focused on (1) introducing media and film principles, (2) news, fact and fiction, (3) digital identity, (4) representation, and (5) presentation.…”

“…Our intervention is inspired by Theresa Redmond’s understanding of ‘media literacy as mindful practice’, to focus on how students may become ‘aware’ and ‘reflect on the meaning’ of media messages to be able to make ‘informed choices that are most consistent with their own values’ (2016: 1–2). We combine a focus on visual media, media-making with smart phones students already own and raising critical consciousness (Leurs et al., 2018).…”

“…Inclusion, capacity-building and agency are key commitments as we aim to co-create a curriculum for and with young migrants and their teachers. However, in the first year of developing the program with 100 students and their teachers, we realized these are sometimes contradictory ideals (Leurs et al., 2018). Our empirical analysis draws on a triangulation of participant observations of working with 2 classes of 50 students in total and their 4 teachers, in-depth interviews with 3 teachers and 19 students, the revised curriculum as well an 18-minute film reflection (MMM, 2018).…”

Urban Influencers: An Analysis of Urban Identity in YouTube Content of Local Social Media Influencers in a Super-Diverse City

“…This diversity of voices, in turn, may help these adolescents construct and negotiate their identities, and serve as a form of validation (Valkenburg and Peter, 2008;Cover, 2012). This may be done by comparing and contrasting themselves with existing identities, as well as through countering existing narratives (Leurs et al, 2018). Identity construction through social media may also hold difficulties, as it is more difficult to separate various audiences (Boyd, 2014), and may cause a decrease in self-concept unity (e.g., Matsuba, 2006;Davis, 2013).…”