The importance of audience and agency for representation: A case study of an urban youth media community

Abstract

Purpose-Urban youths' agency to represent their realities through media has been largely unexplored in the youth development literature. In this qualitative case study of an after-school youth media program in the Bay Area, expressions of youth agency and the role of audiences are explored during the process of producing videos for public consumption.Methodology-As participant observer of 14 ethnically diverse youth participants aged between 15 and 18 years over 18 months, I documented (a) the kind of agencies participants engaged in and (b) the impact of live and imagined future audiences on youths' creative processes. Analyses of field notes, semi-structured interviews, and media projects were conducted using thematic analysis to inductively generate emerging categories.Findings-Themes included an agentive sense of self-efficacy, commitment, and responsibility, as well as perceived contributions to local audiences and an emerging collective identity. The youth demonstrated their increased sense of a social or civic duty to realistically represent youth of color to familiar and unfamiliar audiences.Implications-This case study demonstrated how one youth media organization fostered agency through youth authorship, production, distribution, and local community dialogue. By documenting the impact of audiences from conception to public reception, this study provides valuable insight into the agentive process of publicly "performing" a commitment to complete a social change video project.Contribution-This chapter underscores the value of performance within youth development programs and the critical component of audiences as one form of authentic assessment in order to foster individual and collective agency.I feel that sometimes adults don't give young people a chance to speak and I think that's what this program allows -youth literacy or being able to communicate our ideas effectively through film.-Kristine, Youthscapes 10th grader In this case study of a youth media context, I document how the presence of two audiencesthe local neighborhood community as well as the emergent peer community of participants in an after-school program -cultivated a sense of agency among predominantly minority urban youth from low-performing schools. Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain (1998) describe human agency as the power of individuals to act with purpose and reflection, to be able to reiterate and shape the world they live in, both as social producers and as passive social products. Recognizing that exercising one's voice is integral to developing agency, Hull and Greeno (2006) advocate empowering youth through development of voice, which is defined as the "ways in which individuals present and represent themselves to others and to themselves, thereby authoring and coauthoring their identities in the social worlds in NIH Public Access

Learning strategies for engagement and retention of young audiences

“…The Centre's programme is an example of how Kolb's (2013) culture participants' needs to produce culture are considered. As Buckingham and Harvey (2001) and Charmaraman (2010) reported about youth media production, when adolescents are given the chance to produce rather than consume media, they experience an active process of meaning-making as well as motivation.…”

Congregating to create for social change: urban youth media production and sense of community

“…Growing numbers of alternative youth media communities offer greater local access to all levels of media-making, giving voice to disadvantaged viewpoints and honoring the diversity inherent in local communities (Charmaraman 2008, 2010; Halleck 2002; Hull and Katz 2006; Soep and Chàvez 2005). In recognition of the hegemonic effects that mainstream media can have on young people, I conducted a case study of a community-based youth media program designed to give voice and empowerment to young people through hands-on production and opportunities for distribution in the local community and broadcast television.…”