Forming The Guild

This paper expands on Gee’s (2004) notion of “affinity spaces” by placing them in the context of games, media stars, and their fans and combining cultural studies and new literacies approaches. The Guild, a web series about the misadventures of MMO-players, written by and starring actor, writer, producer, and gamer Felicia Day, is examined. On WatchTheGuild.com, fans of The Guild enact literacy practices, particularly those that align with Day’s activities and star persona, such as media production and critique. These literacy practices are constrained by the limitations of projective identity in the context of star-based affinity spaces. Taking on projective identities within The Guild’s affinity space, individuals are faced with the impossibility of fully achieving the star’s – Day’s – successful identity as simultaneously gamer and media producer. The imbalance in cultural power allows the professionally manufactured star image to remain forever unattainable. This paper proposes reconsidering projective identity to move beyond the affinity space to develop one’s own sense of mastery outside the context of star-based fandom.

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New Literacies as a Challenge for Traditional Knowledge Conceptions in School: A Case Study from Fifth Graders Digital Media Production

SIMILE Studies In Media & Information Literacy Education ◽

10.3138/sim.8.2.002 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 1-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Leena Rantala ◽

Vesa Korhonen

Keyword(s):

Digital Media ◽

Traditional Knowledge ◽

New Literacies ◽

Fifth Graders ◽

Media Production

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“Language not just as words”: Supporting new literacies through a design project in disadvantaged schools in Chile

E-Learning and Digital Media ◽

10.1177/2042753020982162 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 204275302098216

Author(s):

Patricia Thibaut ◽

Lucila Carvalho

Keyword(s):

High School Students ◽

Literacy Practices ◽

New Literacies ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Phase 1 ◽

School Students ◽

Disadvantaged Schools ◽

Analysis And Design ◽

Digital World ◽

Everyday Classroom

Young people are increasingly connected in a digital and globalized world, but technology-mediated interactions alone do not necessarily lead to a culture of meaningful participation and meaning making processes. Students from disadvantaged contexts are especially vulnerable to this. Drawing on the Activity-Centred Analysis and Design framework this paper discusses a case study situated in disadvantaged schools in Chile. Phase 1 of the study revealed that high school students’ literacy practices in the everyday classroom mostly reflected low conceptual and procedural understanding of new literacies, confirming that these young learners enacted passive forms of technological use in and out-of-school spaces. Phase 2 of the study involved the development and implementation of a digital project at a Chilean school. Results offer insights on how alterations in tools, learning tasks, and social arrangements, led to reconfigured literacy practices. Findings also show that the relationship between access, use and outcomes is not straightforward, and students’ cultural capital varies, even in disadvantaged schools. Implications of the study stress the pivotal role of schools and the potential of well-orchestrated educational designs, for introducing and encouraging meaningful literacy practices, and for leveling up the access to the digital world.

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Unpopularity and cultural power in the age of Netflix: New questions for cultural studies’ approaches to television texts

European Journal of Cultural Studies ◽

10.1177/1367549421994578 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136754942199457

Author(s):

Amanda Lotz

Keyword(s):

Cultural Studies ◽

The Past ◽

Audience Fragmentation ◽

Streaming Services ◽

Cultural Power ◽

Contextual Change

Although Internet-distributed television bears much in common with the television long studied and theorized using cultural studies-based approaches to analysis, several of its features profoundly deviate from earlier television norms and require reassessment and adaptation of theoretical frames. This article focuses on the issue of textual popularity in relation to these services and identifies key challenges to using the same frames of cultural power that have been used for studying television in the past. The underlying problem of audience fragmentation does not originate with streaming services, but this profound contextual change, in concert with industrial aspects that further distinguish internet-distributed television from television’s past norms, must be addressed. The article concludes by identifying several ways the cultural power of streaming services can be investigated despite the challenges that emerging norms of Internet-distributed video provide.

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‘What is the meaning of a safety-pin?’ Critical literacies and the ethnographic turn in contemporary art

International Journal of Cultural Studies ◽

10.1177/1367877912474561 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 (5) ◽

pp. 507-520 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Kris Rutten ◽

An van. Dienderen

Keyword(s):

Cultural Studies ◽

Contemporary Art ◽

Literacy Practices ◽

Ethnographic Methods ◽

Literacy Practice ◽

Symbolic Representations ◽

Art Practices ◽

Critical Literacies ◽

Situated Literacy ◽

Safety Pin

In this contribution we address the concept of critical literacies by analyzing how symbolic representations within subcultures can be understood as an engagement with specific literacy practices. For some time now, cultural studies researchers with an interest in literacy have depended upon ethnographic methods to document how members of subcultural communities mobilize literacy practices to achieve critical ends. But the extent to which ethnography actually grants researchers access to subcultural perspectives on literacy has come into question. In this article, we aim to problematize and thematize the ethnographic perspective on literacy in general – and subculture as a situated literacy practice in particular – by critically assessing contemporary art practices that focus on the representation of subcultural identities. We therefore specifically look at artwork by Nikki S. Lee, who focuses on subcultures in her work through ‘going native performances’.

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Mobile Technologies and Web 2.0

Information and Technology Literacy ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-3417-4.ch082 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 1617-1632

Author(s):

Peggy Semingson

Keyword(s):

Web 2.0 ◽

Social Networking ◽

Literacy Practices ◽

New Literacies ◽

Mobile Technologies ◽

Reading And Writing ◽

Writing Processes ◽

Key Concepts ◽

Prerequisite Skills ◽

Collaborative Literacy

This chapter explores changing definitions of literacy that build on the key concepts of New Literacies and existing Web 2.0 practices such as blogging, social networking, and other shared and collaborative media spaces (Davies & Merchant, 2009). The chapter also describes concrete examples of mobile-based literacy ideas that build on such a framework. The focus on teacher education, and literacy education in particular, examines and considers new definitions of literacy practices with connections to mobile technologies. Although mobile technologies offer possibilities for multi-modal and collaborative literacy practices, it is suggested that we should also stay grounded in some of the principles of print literacies (the prerequisite skills of the reading and writing processes), while also fostering Web 2.0 and New Literacies (as defined and discussed by Lankshear & Knobel, 2003, 2006). Specific examples of Web 2.0 technologies that can be implemented with mobile tools are shared and discussed.

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Let It Go

Information and Technology Literacy ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-3417-4.ch008 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 130-146

Author(s):

Yonty Friesem ◽

Brien J. Jennings ◽

Carol Prest

Keyword(s):

Literacy Practices ◽

Fourth Grade ◽

Media Specialist ◽

Media Production ◽

Library Media Specialist ◽

Library Media ◽

Grade Teacher ◽

Multimedia Production ◽

Support Team

This case study introduces a two-year process in which a fourth grade teacher working with a library media specialist experienced a successful integration of digital and media literacy practices. During that time the fourth grade teacher adopted a less protectionist approach by having her students explore different multimedia production projects to enhance their learning in social studies. This book chapter introduces the process of both the fourth grade teacher as she explored new instructional strategies to incorporate media production and the Common Core State Standards and the library media specialist as a support team member. The standards index and its media production application can help educators integrate media production into their classrooms. This case study can help promote media production activities as they foster 21st century skills in elementary students.

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Let It Go

Advancing Next-Generation Teacher Education through Digital Tools and Applications - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-0965-3.ch013 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 245-261

Author(s):

Yonty Friesem ◽

Brien J. Jennings ◽

Carol Prest

Keyword(s):

Literacy Practices ◽

Fourth Grade ◽

Media Specialist ◽

Media Production ◽

Library Media Specialist ◽

Library Media ◽

Grade Teacher ◽

Multimedia Production ◽

Support Team

This case study introduces a two-year process in which a fourth grade teacher working with a library media specialist experienced a successful integration of digital and media literacy practices. During that time the fourth grade teacher adopted a less protectionist approach by having her students explore different multimedia production projects to enhance their learning in social studies. This book chapter introduces the process of both the fourth grade teacher as she explored new instructional strategies to incorporate media production and the Common Core State Standards and the library media specialist as a support team member. The standards index and its media production application can help educators integrate media production into their classrooms. This case study can help promote media production activities as they foster 21st century skills in elementary students.

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Video Game-Based L2 Learning

Assessing the Effectiveness of Virtual Technologies in Foreign and Second Language Instruction - Advances in Linguistics and Communication Studies ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7286-2.ch009 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 216-237 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Karim Hesham Shaker Ibrahim

Keyword(s):

Virtual Worlds ◽

Video Game ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Literacy Practices ◽

Digital Games ◽

Digital Gaming ◽

Learning And Teaching ◽

Affinity Spaces ◽

L2 Learning ◽

L2 Vocabulary

Video/digital games have grown into sophisticated, realistic, and engaging problem-solving virtual worlds that have their own literacy practices, affinity spaces, and online virtual communities. As a result, various studies have examined theirs to promote L2 learning and literacy. The findings of these studies suggest that digital games can promote multilingual communication, L2 vocabulary development, and situated L2 use. However, promising these findings, to-date little is known about the specific dynamics of gameplay that can facilitate L2 learning. To address this gap in the literature, this chapter will draw on interdisciplinary research on digital gaming from literacy studies, games' studies, and narratology to account for the L2 learning potentials of digital games. To explain their L2 learning potentials, the chapter will conceptualize digital games as dynamic texts, affinity spaces, and semiotic ecologies, and discuss the implications of each conceptualization for game-based L2 learning and teaching.

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“Presenting Our Perspective”: Recontextualizing Youths’ Experiences of Hypercriminalization Through Media Production

Written Communication ◽

10.1177/0741088319827594 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 296-344 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Natalia Smirnov ◽

Wan Shun Eva Lam

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Justice System ◽

Literacy Practices ◽

Racial Profiling ◽

Social Practices ◽

Media Production ◽

Youth Of Color ◽

Multimodal Literacy ◽

Social Actors ◽

Men Of Color

In this study, we examine how youth use media production to represent, (de)legitimate, and reimagine their experiences of hypercriminalization—the pervasive complex of social practices such as racial profiling that position young men of color as “always-already criminal.” We analyze two clips from a youth-produced news show called POPPYN, specifically a 2014 episode focusing on youth and the criminal justice system, using tools from recontextualization analysis and multimodal semiotics, which together allow us to index the substitutions, deletions, rearrangements, and additions of component elements of social practices. Through investigation of linguistic and multimodal processes that represent social actors, actions, and constructions of their legitimacy, this study demonstrates ways that media making can serve as a tool for youth of color to process and rewrite persistent hypercriminalizing positionings in more agentive and hopeful ways. We end by proposing implications for multimodal literacy practices and pedagogies.

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