Shakuntala is Professor of Media and Culture and Social Change, Director of Graduate Studies and the Programme Director for the Master’s in Media, Communication and Development In the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. She lectures on International Media and the Global South, Film theory and World Cinema, and Critical Approaches to Media, Communication and Development.
As a group, young people in the UK are represented in media and policy as vulnerable to radicalis... more As a group, young people in the UK are represented in media and policy as vulnerable to radicalisation, exclusion or criminality, and as digitally savvy 'partners' and service users. These contradictions between media and policy constructions of young people highlight the problematic frames through which young citizens are imagined and represented. In tandem, mainstream UK media and policy documents identify normative institutional forms of participation as primary arenas for youth engagement. Drawing on extended original thematic analyses of media messages and policy documents about and for young people, and on expert interviews with young activists and youth policy-makers, this paper finds that (1) adults and young people who work in the fields of youth activism and policy have far more precise and critical understandings of young people's needs, contexts and diversity as citizens than media representations or policy narratives; that (2) the nuanced perspectives of young people and of these adults is frequently lost or unheard; and that (3) a diverse repertoire of productive forms of youth active citizenship-which are critical, playful and dissenting-are discouraged, excluded, delegitimised or criminalised. By building consensus amongst powerful adults, media representations and instrumental policies regarding youth thus further widen the chasm between 'accepted' notions of youth active citizenship and how young people enact citizenship in their everyday lives. Rather than retreating from difficult and contentious politics to protect adult authorities, media and policy narratives should acknowledge these as key levers for the productive and critical development of active young citizens in a strong democracy.
Our paper focuses on case studies of artistic, creative and political participation by young femi... more Our paper focuses on case studies of artistic, creative and political participation by young feminists and civil society groups in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the UAE. Central questions uncover the intersecting significance of class, gender and new media in young MENA citizens’ participation; the connections between mediated cultural production and political intervention; and the role of structural barriers for online community and agency. Our conclusions challenge the notion that the democratic ethos of civic participation networks has burgeoned since digitization, and highlights that digital tools and online spaces work more effectively for youth with existing offline economic power and/or cultural capital.
In comparison to questionnaires, statistical analyses, interviews and experiments, ethnography te... more In comparison to questionnaires, statistical analyses, interviews and experiments, ethnography tends to be a neglected method in youth participation research and in understanding political socialization and citizen action. This, we suggest, is very unfortunate. Where the concerns and experiences of researchers do not match those of young people, it is usually the young people's perspectives which remain outside the frameworks and conclusions. Drawing on original data and insights from two ethnographies of youth active citizenship initiatives in the UK-My Life My Say and Momentum-collected during a politically tumultuous 8-month period in 2017, this article argues that ethnography has several advantages over other methods when it comes to understanding the depth and significance of youth civic participation and its links to peer groups and emotions. We contend that critical and reflexive ethnographies allow scholars and researchers to ask and probe young people's perceptions, opinions, actions and behaviours through the use of open-ended questions in settings where civic action is already taking place, thus triangulating findings in natural settings and building a sense of how communities of practice and activism function. In terms of ethics, voice and power, this ethnographic research approach gives young people more control over their own narratives about participation and affiliation in specific political or civic settings than surveys tend to do. KEY WORDS ethnography; youth active citizenship; brexit; civic participation; Momentum We seek interlocutors, not admirers; we offer dialogue, not spectacle. Our writing is informed by a desire to make contact, so that readers may become involved with words that came to us from them, and that return to them as hope and prophecy.
Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2019
, aljazeera.com/indepth/features/islamophobic-roots-population-control-efforts-india-190808085219... more , aljazeera.com/indepth/features/islamophobic-roots-population-control-efforts-india-190808085219969.html
A dearth of media might seem idyllic to urban parents tired of being pestered for an iPad or the ... more A dearth of media might seem idyllic to urban parents tired of being pestered for an iPad or the latest game. But given the increasing focus amongst Western scholars and educators on theorising digital media as a conduit to conviviality, creativity and civic participation, insights can be gained from the lives and narratives of media-rich and media-deprived children in areas of the global south. Using original observations and in-depth qualitative interviews with rural and urban Indian children aged 9–17, this article discusses the media, work, learning and anxieties they face in everyday life. These data are analysed drawing on frameworks developed to understand child work and children’s agency in the fields of critical sociology and social anthropology. Findings suggest the need for a revised analysis of media use and cultural meaning in middle and low income contexts as strongly inflected by children’s social class, their responsibilities, labour, contextual knowledge and embedde...
This rapid evidence review examines adolescents’ access to and use of digital media (especially m... more This rapid evidence review examines adolescents’ access to and use of digital media (especially mobile phones and the internet), together with the associated digital skills and practices, opportunities and risks, and forms of safety mediation, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review is especially concerned with 10- to 14-year-old girls’ digital media uses, although little evidence specifically addressed this group. It is guided by two overarching research questions: 1. What do scholars and practitioners know about how young adolescents are using digital media (computers, mobile phones and other information and communication technologies, ICTs) and the key challenges these children face? What are the opportunities involved in their use of such media and what are most significant gaps in our knowledge? 2. What evidence is there of local, national and international development programmes’ effective use of digital media to target 10- to 14-year-olds (rather than older ad...
In development agendas regarding children in low income communities, both older and emerging medi... more In development agendas regarding children in low income communities, both older and emerging media are typically ignored, taken for granted or assumed to have beneficial powers that will redress social and gender inequality. Taking the field of ICT for Development (ICT4D) as a subfield of communication for development, we build on a recent rapid evidence review on adolescents’ digital media use and development interventions in low- and middle-income countries to critique the often-ubiquitous assumptions about the role and significance of new media in empowering children and adolescents in the global south. From this literature, we examine the contexts of children and adolescents’ access to and uses of information and communication technology(ICT). Noting that only a handful of studies heed the significance of social class and gender as major axes of inequality for adolescents, we subject the gap between the rhetoric of ICT-based empowerment and the realities of ICT-based practice to...
ABSTRACT Does the public expression and performance of shock, distress, anger, frustration and id... more ABSTRACT Does the public expression and performance of shock, distress, anger, frustration and ideological disapproval of particular sorts of politics constitute a form of collective political expression from which individuals can learn about being citizens? When it comes to the expression of feelings of racial and other types of prejudice, has political correctness led to a deepening of entrenched racist beliefs with no channel for discussion? This article engages with such questions through a case study of YouTube responses to "My Tram Experience" a commuter-uploaded mobile-phone video of a racist diatribe on a tram in the UK. Using qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis, it describes how these performed, networked and distributed moments of citizen angst demonstrate a limited but interesting range of civic engagements with and positionings towards racism, immigration, class and nationalism. For one reason or another these are not allowed to occur in other public for a such as the mainstream media or schools. The article argues that these vlogs are both a wide-ranging potentially therapeutic resource for those needing validation for their racist or anti-racist views, or for those who wish to express and garner solidarity for discomfort and pain caused by racism; they are also a significant though currently uncurated resource for citizenship education both formal and informal because of their engagements with technology, social context, emotional context and political rhetoric.
Injunctions for young people to participate in democratic lifebecome more emphatic as voting rate... more Injunctions for young people to participate in democratic lifebecome more emphatic as voting rates in Western democracies decline and a growing disenchantment with traditional political life becomes apparent. In this context, city spaces and private property have been central to representations of the public sphere in which young people enact their participation. Crucially, young people have frequently been framed within televised spaces either as belligerent intruders or as a feral underclass. Theoretically, given the emphasis on information seeking, trust and news consumption as one of the cornerstones of civic life, the links between citizens’ political, social and spatial positioning in relation to news products is of crucial importance. Via an analysis of experiences of news by diverse young citizens, the article decentres the technologies of watching or reading news and repositions the relationships between political news seeking, trust in journalism, meaning-making and socio-economic status within a framework of local experiences of politics and civic life. Crucially, it sheds light on the question of how groups of excluded youth conceptualise their own status in relation to the state, the nation and news media, and their critical comments about representation.
As a group, young people in the UK are represented in media and policy as vulnerable to radicalis... more As a group, young people in the UK are represented in media and policy as vulnerable to radicalisation, exclusion or criminality, and as digitally savvy 'partners' and service users. These contradictions between media and policy constructions of young people highlight the problematic frames through which young citizens are imagined and represented. In tandem, mainstream UK media and policy documents identify normative institutional forms of participation as primary arenas for youth engagement. Drawing on extended original thematic analyses of media messages and policy documents about and for young people, and on expert interviews with young activists and youth policy-makers, this paper finds that (1) adults and young people who work in the fields of youth activism and policy have far more precise and critical understandings of young people's needs, contexts and diversity as citizens than media representations or policy narratives; that (2) the nuanced perspectives of young people and of these adults is frequently lost or unheard; and that (3) a diverse repertoire of productive forms of youth active citizenship-which are critical, playful and dissenting-are discouraged, excluded, delegitimised or criminalised. By building consensus amongst powerful adults, media representations and instrumental policies regarding youth thus further widen the chasm between 'accepted' notions of youth active citizenship and how young people enact citizenship in their everyday lives. Rather than retreating from difficult and contentious politics to protect adult authorities, media and policy narratives should acknowledge these as key levers for the productive and critical development of active young citizens in a strong democracy.
Our paper focuses on case studies of artistic, creative and political participation by young femi... more Our paper focuses on case studies of artistic, creative and political participation by young feminists and civil society groups in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the UAE. Central questions uncover the intersecting significance of class, gender and new media in young MENA citizens’ participation; the connections between mediated cultural production and political intervention; and the role of structural barriers for online community and agency. Our conclusions challenge the notion that the democratic ethos of civic participation networks has burgeoned since digitization, and highlights that digital tools and online spaces work more effectively for youth with existing offline economic power and/or cultural capital.
In comparison to questionnaires, statistical analyses, interviews and experiments, ethnography te... more In comparison to questionnaires, statistical analyses, interviews and experiments, ethnography tends to be a neglected method in youth participation research and in understanding political socialization and citizen action. This, we suggest, is very unfortunate. Where the concerns and experiences of researchers do not match those of young people, it is usually the young people's perspectives which remain outside the frameworks and conclusions. Drawing on original data and insights from two ethnographies of youth active citizenship initiatives in the UK-My Life My Say and Momentum-collected during a politically tumultuous 8-month period in 2017, this article argues that ethnography has several advantages over other methods when it comes to understanding the depth and significance of youth civic participation and its links to peer groups and emotions. We contend that critical and reflexive ethnographies allow scholars and researchers to ask and probe young people's perceptions, opinions, actions and behaviours through the use of open-ended questions in settings where civic action is already taking place, thus triangulating findings in natural settings and building a sense of how communities of practice and activism function. In terms of ethics, voice and power, this ethnographic research approach gives young people more control over their own narratives about participation and affiliation in specific political or civic settings than surveys tend to do. KEY WORDS ethnography; youth active citizenship; brexit; civic participation; Momentum We seek interlocutors, not admirers; we offer dialogue, not spectacle. Our writing is informed by a desire to make contact, so that readers may become involved with words that came to us from them, and that return to them as hope and prophecy.
Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2019
, aljazeera.com/indepth/features/islamophobic-roots-population-control-efforts-india-190808085219... more , aljazeera.com/indepth/features/islamophobic-roots-population-control-efforts-india-190808085219969.html
A dearth of media might seem idyllic to urban parents tired of being pestered for an iPad or the ... more A dearth of media might seem idyllic to urban parents tired of being pestered for an iPad or the latest game. But given the increasing focus amongst Western scholars and educators on theorising digital media as a conduit to conviviality, creativity and civic participation, insights can be gained from the lives and narratives of media-rich and media-deprived children in areas of the global south. Using original observations and in-depth qualitative interviews with rural and urban Indian children aged 9–17, this article discusses the media, work, learning and anxieties they face in everyday life. These data are analysed drawing on frameworks developed to understand child work and children’s agency in the fields of critical sociology and social anthropology. Findings suggest the need for a revised analysis of media use and cultural meaning in middle and low income contexts as strongly inflected by children’s social class, their responsibilities, labour, contextual knowledge and embedde...
This rapid evidence review examines adolescents’ access to and use of digital media (especially m... more This rapid evidence review examines adolescents’ access to and use of digital media (especially mobile phones and the internet), together with the associated digital skills and practices, opportunities and risks, and forms of safety mediation, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review is especially concerned with 10- to 14-year-old girls’ digital media uses, although little evidence specifically addressed this group. It is guided by two overarching research questions: 1. What do scholars and practitioners know about how young adolescents are using digital media (computers, mobile phones and other information and communication technologies, ICTs) and the key challenges these children face? What are the opportunities involved in their use of such media and what are most significant gaps in our knowledge? 2. What evidence is there of local, national and international development programmes’ effective use of digital media to target 10- to 14-year-olds (rather than older ad...
In development agendas regarding children in low income communities, both older and emerging medi... more In development agendas regarding children in low income communities, both older and emerging media are typically ignored, taken for granted or assumed to have beneficial powers that will redress social and gender inequality. Taking the field of ICT for Development (ICT4D) as a subfield of communication for development, we build on a recent rapid evidence review on adolescents’ digital media use and development interventions in low- and middle-income countries to critique the often-ubiquitous assumptions about the role and significance of new media in empowering children and adolescents in the global south. From this literature, we examine the contexts of children and adolescents’ access to and uses of information and communication technology(ICT). Noting that only a handful of studies heed the significance of social class and gender as major axes of inequality for adolescents, we subject the gap between the rhetoric of ICT-based empowerment and the realities of ICT-based practice to...
ABSTRACT Does the public expression and performance of shock, distress, anger, frustration and id... more ABSTRACT Does the public expression and performance of shock, distress, anger, frustration and ideological disapproval of particular sorts of politics constitute a form of collective political expression from which individuals can learn about being citizens? When it comes to the expression of feelings of racial and other types of prejudice, has political correctness led to a deepening of entrenched racist beliefs with no channel for discussion? This article engages with such questions through a case study of YouTube responses to "My Tram Experience" a commuter-uploaded mobile-phone video of a racist diatribe on a tram in the UK. Using qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis, it describes how these performed, networked and distributed moments of citizen angst demonstrate a limited but interesting range of civic engagements with and positionings towards racism, immigration, class and nationalism. For one reason or another these are not allowed to occur in other public for a such as the mainstream media or schools. The article argues that these vlogs are both a wide-ranging potentially therapeutic resource for those needing validation for their racist or anti-racist views, or for those who wish to express and garner solidarity for discomfort and pain caused by racism; they are also a significant though currently uncurated resource for citizenship education both formal and informal because of their engagements with technology, social context, emotional context and political rhetoric.
Injunctions for young people to participate in democratic lifebecome more emphatic as voting rate... more Injunctions for young people to participate in democratic lifebecome more emphatic as voting rates in Western democracies decline and a growing disenchantment with traditional political life becomes apparent. In this context, city spaces and private property have been central to representations of the public sphere in which young people enact their participation. Crucially, young people have frequently been framed within televised spaces either as belligerent intruders or as a feral underclass. Theoretically, given the emphasis on information seeking, trust and news consumption as one of the cornerstones of civic life, the links between citizens’ political, social and spatial positioning in relation to news products is of crucial importance. Via an analysis of experiences of news by diverse young citizens, the article decentres the technologies of watching or reading news and repositions the relationships between political news seeking, trust in journalism, meaning-making and socio-economic status within a framework of local experiences of politics and civic life. Crucially, it sheds light on the question of how groups of excluded youth conceptualise their own status in relation to the state, the nation and news media, and their critical comments about representation.
¿La manifestación pública de sentimientos de conmoción, angustia, ira, frustración y desaprobació... more ¿La manifestación pública de sentimientos de conmoción, angustia, ira, frustración y desaprobación ideológica de ciertos tipos de hacer política constituyen una forma de expresión colectiva que permiten a las personas aprender a ser ciudadanos? En expresiones de prejuicios raciales u otros, ¿es posible que la «corrección política» haya llevado a una profundización de creencias racistas arraigadas? Este artículo interpela estos interrogantes a tfravés de las respuestas en YouTube al vídeo «Mi experiencia en un tranvía», realizado por un viajero con teléfono móvil a partir de una diatriba racista ocurrida en un tranvía del Reino Unido. Tras un análisis cuantitativo de contenido y un análisis temático, se describe cómo momentos de angustia ciudadana –compartidos y distribuidos por la Red– demuestran un rango limitado y a la vez interesante de relaciones cívicas, así como posicionamientos ante el racismo, la inmigración, la clase social y el nacionalismo. Por diferentes motivos, estos posicionamientos no están presentes en otgros foros públicos como los medios y las escuelas. Se argumenta que estos videoblogs son un recurso terapéutico para aquellos que necesitan el reconocimiento de sus puntos de vista racistas o anti-racistas, o para aquellos que desean expresar o provocar solidaridad en momentos incómodos y dolorosos causados por el racismo. Además son un recurso significativo, aunque todavía no considerado, en la educación para la ciudadanía, tanto la formal como la informal, debido a sus compromisos con la tecnología, el contexto social, el contexto emocional y la retórica política.
There has been widespread concern in contemporary Western societies about declining engagement in... more There has been widespread concern in contemporary Western societies about declining engagement in civic life; people are less inclined to vote, to join political parties, to campaign for social causes, or to trust political processes. Young people in particular are frequently described as alienated or apathetic. Some have looked optimistically to new media—and particularly the Internet—as a means of revitalizing civic life and democracy. Governments, political parties, charities, NGOs, activists, religious and ethnic groups, and grassroots organizations have created a range of youth-oriented websites that encourage widely divergent forms of civic engagement and use varying degrees of interactivity. But are young people really apathetic and lacking in motivation? Does the Internet have the power to reengage those disenchanted with politics and civic life?
Based on a major research project funded by the European Commission, this book attempts to understand the role of the Internet in promoting young people’s participation. Examples are drawn from Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—countries offering contrasting political systems and cultural contexts. The book also addresses broader questions about the meaning of civic engagement, the nature of new forms of participation, and their implications for the future of civic life.
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organizations have created a range of youth-oriented websites that encourage widely divergent forms of civic engagement and use varying degrees of interactivity. But are young people really apathetic and lacking in motivation? Does the Internet have the power to reengage those disenchanted with politics and civic life?
Based on a major research project funded by the European Commission, this book attempts to understand the role of the Internet in promoting young people’s participation. Examples are drawn from Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—countries offering contrasting political systems and cultural contexts. The book also addresses broader questions about the meaning of civic engagement, the nature of new forms of participation, and their implications for the future of civic life.