| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Defining the Pedagogical Value of Youth Media Production

Page history last edited by Richard Beach 1 year, 7 months ago

Fostering Youth Media Production

Young people defined as ages 12 to 25 are increasingly concerned about climate change, knowing that they will have only increased adverse effects in the future. As a result, many young people have assumed activist stances on the need to address the climate crisis to impact their future lives (Beach & Smith, 2020).  8-to-12-year-olds average 4 hours and 45 minutes daily of screen media, while 13-to-18-year-olds average 7 hours and 22 minutes. Time viewing of online videos doubled between 2015 and 2019 to an average of an hour a day for both groups (Rideout & Robb, 2019). Additionally, 45% of adolescents report being online constantly. A 2022 Pew Research survey found that YouTube is the most frequently employ site, followed by TikTok, Instagram, and Snapcht.  

          As youth voice increased concern about the effects of the climate crisis, teachers need to engage students to assume activist stances and roles to address the climate crisis. By adopting these activist stances, youth may challenge status-quote norms and practices leading to changes in institutional practices for addressing the climate crisis (O’Brien et al., 2018).

 Use of Digital Media to Communicate About the Climate Crisis

To communicate their concerns about and need for action to address the climate crisis, young people can employ digital media tools to portray images of flooding, hurricane/severe weather damage, droughts, and forest fires (Beach, 2015; Dunaway, 2015; Newell, & Winters, 2016). Gen Z people (born after 1996) are more likely to communicate online about climate change and assume more activist stances than members of older generations (Tyson, 2021). For example, 56% of Generation Z frequently access references on social media about climate change; 69% of Gen Z social media users experienced being anxious about the future based on social media messages; and 45% have engaged in social media communication about climate change (Tyson, 2021).

          Young people also know that they can connect with a larger local and/or global audience using media as opposed to traditional print media. They can then use media to inform audiences about the need to address local climate change effects in their communities (Beach et al., 2017; Beach & Smith, 2020).

 The Need for Classroom Instruction on Media Production

While students may produce digital texts after-or out-of-school spaces, given these challenges, teachers need to provide students with instruction on effective methods for producing media for achieving uptake from audiences related to fostering change (Beach, 2022; Beach & Smith, 2020). Fostering change entails teachers adopting a “regenerative pedagogy” approach that fosters the need for a “global shift to restore, respect, and regenerate ecological and societal balance” (Milstein, 2020, np).

          Students benefit from generating videos through participation in organizations, universities, or schools that provide video production training and support to communicate their beliefs about the need to address climate change. Research on young people’s participation in video-production and digital storytelling projects involving training, mentoring, and collaborative production documents the value of young people receiving instruction on media production practices (Littrell et al., 2019; 2020; Rooney-Varga, 2014; Tayne et al., 2020).

          Teachers can also draw on students’ out-of-school experiences associated with the use of media interactions with peers or family members. These discussions of the climate crisis with peers or family members are a strong predictor of students’ climate change activism, particularly through their social media interactions (Valdez et al., 2018). Leveraging students’ out-of-school experiences entails the use of an “inside-out” pedagogy “to help learners bring their own inner seeds, sprouts, and blossoms of good intention to stages of external fruition” (Milstein, 2020, np).

          It is also important that teachers provide students with multiple options for media production based on, for example, their extensive use of TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube videos as well as the use of social media for interacting with their peers (Bernier, 2020). This book, therefore, includes chapters from a range of different media for fostering the use of different media—video/digital storytelling, social media, art, music, and the use of writing for producing media and writing for media outlets. 

          While educators across the disciplines are certainly concerned about the value and need for teaching about climate change in their classes, they may need some justification for the relatively time-consuming focus on having students engage in producing media within their curriculum given expectations for covering a range of topics and subjects. In the year prior to the pandemic, 89% of students indicated that they used digital tools a few days a week, and 42% want to use them more often, with 85% of teachers and 96% of principals supporting the increased use of digital tools (Calderon & Carlson, 2019).

          Such justification is particularly needed for environmental science, social studies, and art/music teachers who may perceive critical media analysis and production as the domain of English language arts teachers. This introductory section includes chapters that identify and formulate the value of youth engaging in producing media related to the need to address the climate crisis.

There is also a need to justify the value of media production by drawing on students’ high level of engagement in activities related to their extensive everyday use of media to leverage their media experience for producing their media. While adolescents average about seven-and-a-half hours daily on their screens, only 10% indicated that they enjoy generating their digital content (Rideout & Robb, 2019). This suggests the need for providing teachers with a rationale related to the value of having students engage in production to communicate their concerns about not only the challenge of climate change but also the need to take action to address climate change. 

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.