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Youth Development in Media Literacy
As a Lang Opportunity Scholar at Swarthmore College, I started and ran a youth media program for adolescents in Chester, PA. This program also served as my research site for my senior thesis in Educational Studies and Sociology/Anthropology. This work focuses on youth development in the form of possible self development and the growth and use of social capital among participants in the video program I started in 2009.
My research site for this work was Chester Voices for Change (VFC), a youth film production program in Chester, PA, which I started while an undergraduate.The program ran as a summer institute in 2009 and as an afterschool program in the fall of 2010, but this research only involves the 2009 participants. The main focus of VFC was to develop young change agents in Chester through training in video production and opportunities to engage with the community.
Included here are the presentations and publications that highlight the findings of this research about youth development in media literacy programs. Please be in touch if you have any further questions or want to discuss any ideas with me further.
My research site for this work was Chester Voices for Change (VFC), a youth film production program in Chester, PA, which I started while an undergraduate.The program ran as a summer institute in 2009 and as an afterschool program in the fall of 2010, but this research only involves the 2009 participants. The main focus of VFC was to develop young change agents in Chester through training in video production and opportunities to engage with the community.
Included here are the presentations and publications that highlight the findings of this research about youth development in media literacy programs. Please be in touch if you have any further questions or want to discuss any ideas with me further.
Presentation
Most presentations include a slide show of the PowerPoint, a video of the PowerPoint with audio explanations, and PDFs of the slides and any accompanying handouts.
"Cameras Rolling, and ACTION!
Youth Development and Community Change in a Media Production Program" Part of a panel, "Media as a Pedagogical Tool" Teachers, Teaching & the Movies III Conference Vassar College, April 9, 2010. More information including a slideshow and PDF of the PowerPoint are coming soon!
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Video with PowerPoint and audio coming soon!
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Publications
Included here are abstracts for my publications and about youth development in media literacy. My senior thesis provides an in-depth, very detailed look at how this occurred in VFC, while the article from the Journal of Media Literacy Education is a much shorter, overview that still highlights the key ideas of my thesis research.
"Cameras Rolling, and...ACTION! Youth Development in a Media Production Program"
Senior Thesis, Swarthmore College Departments of Educational Studies and Sociology & Anthropology
Advisors: Dr. Diane Anderson and Dr. Sarah Willie-Lebreton
This work focuses on research conducted at the Chester Voices for Change (VFC) Summer Institute, my Lang Opportunity Scholarship project. Over the course of six weeks, I worked with ten African American teenagers from Chester, Pennsylvania in a film production program. By the end of the summer, the teens formed partnerships with community businesses and fully produced a 45-minute film entitled “Through Our Eyes.” My participatory action research on this group focuses on the youth development that occurred in this program. Specifically, it highlights individual development in the form of possible selves, or ideas of oneself in the future, and group identity development. My findings indicated that possible selves in the program took three main paths of development: creating new possible selves, revising previous possible selves, and reaffirming previous possible selves. Furthermore, group identity and membership in the group of teen participants proved to be a new source of social capital for the VFC participants as it gave them protection, provided positive group association within the community, and forced positive peer pressure from other participants. In examining these effects, I also provide an overview of pedagogy that helps to develop learning environments in which such individual and group development can occur.
Advisors: Dr. Diane Anderson and Dr. Sarah Willie-Lebreton
This work focuses on research conducted at the Chester Voices for Change (VFC) Summer Institute, my Lang Opportunity Scholarship project. Over the course of six weeks, I worked with ten African American teenagers from Chester, Pennsylvania in a film production program. By the end of the summer, the teens formed partnerships with community businesses and fully produced a 45-minute film entitled “Through Our Eyes.” My participatory action research on this group focuses on the youth development that occurred in this program. Specifically, it highlights individual development in the form of possible selves, or ideas of oneself in the future, and group identity development. My findings indicated that possible selves in the program took three main paths of development: creating new possible selves, revising previous possible selves, and reaffirming previous possible selves. Furthermore, group identity and membership in the group of teen participants proved to be a new source of social capital for the VFC participants as it gave them protection, provided positive group association within the community, and forced positive peer pressure from other participants. In examining these effects, I also provide an overview of pedagogy that helps to develop learning environments in which such individual and group development can occur.
Joslyn Young - Senior Thesis | |
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"The Other Side of Media Literacy Education: Possible Selves, Social Capital and Positive Youth Development"
Journal of Media Literacy Education, Volume 2, Issue 3, February 2011.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol2/iss3/4/
This research highlights several aspects of youth development that were demonstrated in a media literacy education program in Chester, Pennsylvania in the summer of 2009. Specifically, it focuses on the development of possible selves among youth participants as well as their development of social capital through relationships and interactions during the program. With so much emphasis currently being placed on the ways in which media literacy education works to enhance technical skills and critical thinking, this work emphasizes the “other side” of media literacy education as it points out key connections to youth development.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol2/iss3/4/
This research highlights several aspects of youth development that were demonstrated in a media literacy education program in Chester, Pennsylvania in the summer of 2009. Specifically, it focuses on the development of possible selves among youth participants as well as their development of social capital through relationships and interactions during the program. With so much emphasis currently being placed on the ways in which media literacy education works to enhance technical skills and critical thinking, this work emphasizes the “other side” of media literacy education as it points out key connections to youth development.