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Social media, and especially popular youth-focused platforms like TikTok, can offer a valuable window into youth experiences, including their perceptions of online learning. Building on a large-scale thematic analysis of 1,930 TikTok videos posted in March-June 2020, this study examines how young people shared their experiences of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicate that youth portrayed online coursework as overwhelming and relentless against the traumatic background of the pandemic. They sought support, empathy, and authenticity from teachers, and both received and provided emotional and educational support to peers on the platform. Students' home contexts emerged as particularly salient, making visible the intersections between young people's home, school and social lives. By facilitating a grounded, bottom-up understanding of students' experiences and perceptions--shared in their preferred spaces and modes of expression--this research stresses the need to attend to youth perspectives to craft more equitable and empowering educational futures.

Given the need for innovative, engaging, and youth-centered approaches to media literacy, as well as the potential of active pedagogies to facilitate youth civic education and efficacy, games emerge as a particularly promising and under-utilized avenue for news literacy education. Our research asks, how might we use game-based learning to tackle fake news and stimulate news literacy among a youth audience? Here, we reflect on the process of designing LAMBOOZLED!, a news literacy game for middle school and high school students, based on a multilevel game design framework that allowed us to articulate learning objectives, consider suitable mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, and integrate relevant instructional principles along multiple learning dimensions. Positioning this work at the nexus of game design and media literacy education, we discuss our key decision points and the larger stakes of adopting a game-based approach to news literacy education in the current political climate.

The article "Expressive citizenship: Youth, social media, and democracy" explores the concept of expressive citizenship among young people, emphasizing the importance of political expression on social media platforms. The authors argue that young people's political expression is creative, personal, and meaningful, shaping their political views and connecting them with others. The emergence of expressive citizenship as a model of good citizenship highlights the role of social media in political socialization and participation among youth, with implications for future research in the field of children and media studies. The article also discusses the challenges and complexities of expressive citizenship, including issues of performative expression, mobilization, and affective polarization in online political discourse. [Extracted from the article]

With the rise of feminist sentiment and the growing awareness of gender equity in China, social media has become an increasingly central space for Chinese feminist expression. However, the complex dynamics of feminist expression in these online spaces—and the role of popular culture in facilitating such discourse—are still to be fully elucidated. Here, focusing on the understudied social media platform Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), we analyze the online discussion sparked by the stand-up comedy acts of Chinese female comedians. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of Douyin videos and related comments, we demonstrate how users employed the platform's creative features to challenge everyday sexism by echoing or building upon the stand-up comedians' gags. At the same time, the analysis also uncovers how Douyin is used to insult and push back against these feminist voices. Our findings shed light on the sophisticated role of Douyin as a platform for digital feminist expression, and the ways in which it can amplify both feminist discourse or, conversely, give voice to misogynistic attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the psychometric properties of a newly tested self-report assessment tool for media literacy, based on the twelve new media literacy skills (NMLs) developed by Jenkins et al. (2006). The sample (N = 327) consisted of normal volunteers who completed a comprehensive online survey that measured their NML skills, media exposure, digital participation, and civic engagement. A factor analysis performed on the survey items yielded 10 NMLs that emerged as significant subscales. A series of multivariate analyses of variance indicate a strong relationship between these NMLs and respondents' exposure to new media forms, their participation in Web 2.0 platforms, and their civic engagement. Specifically, individuals who consume and produce new media extensively had the highest NML levels; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogging emerged as the most significant factors in this analysis. The reliability and scalability of this assessment tool are discussed, in the context of current challenges facing media literacy evaluation.

In this article, we suggest that we are witnessing a challenge to the hegemony of text-based knowledge in academic scholarship, brought about by newly available modes of expression, and a cultural shift in our notions of reading and writing, authorship, and networked knowledge production. The central question we address here concerns the implications of widening our ideas of acceptable forms of inquiry, analysis and representation in academic scholarship. As a collective of scholar-practitioners exploring new modes of expression and working both within and outside the formal structures of academia, we argue for the increasing significance of multimodal research in the contemporary context of academic inquiry. By more equitably valuing different ways of thinking, knowing and communicating, multimodal research can facilitate wider and more diverse participation in the production of knowledge, offer a more nuanced and ethical mode of inquiry, emphasize different ways of knowing and connecting, and make scholarship more broadly accessible beyond academic contexts. Here, we analyze the key opportunities facilitated by multimodal inquiry, as well as the obstacles that stand in the way of a wider adoption of this type of research in higher education.

Based on an in-depth qualitative content analysis of post-election discourse in three online creative communities (Scratch, Archive of Our Own, and hitRECord), we examine the significance of youth political expression in non-political online spaces, and its implications for civic education. We find that these spaces offer a valuable window into the main concerns experienced by youth around the election, which they voice through unique modes of expression. Online spaces facilitate connections between the personal and the political, while highlighting the social aspects of youth participation and learning in regard to civic issues. At the same time, participants exhibit uncertainty regarding the limits of online expression and the potential consequences of speaking out. We argue that online spaces should be acknowledged as a significant channel for youth political expression and socialization, and consider how the practices encountered there could shape our approach to civic education.

This study examines the impact that producing a print newspaper using cell phones had on marginalized students in a high school journalism classroom. Analysis of data from participant observation, artifact analysis and student interviews revealed that a) students negotiated cell phone use for educational purposes, despite school bans on such devices, and b) students manifested emerging, transformative identities that positively influenced their roles in five key areas: as a conception of self, in other academic classes, among peers, with family, and in the community. Our findings point to the significance of media-based journalism production in allowing marginalized students to embrace professional identities by participating in a meaningful community of practice. This research highlights the academic, social and civic benefits of such initiatives, and calls attention to the range of opportunities and challenges that pertain to using mobile devices as learning tools in these contexts.

The proliferation of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has stirred a fervent debate about global access to higher education. While some commentators praise MOOCs for expanding educational opportunities in a more open and accessible fashion, others criticize this trend as a threat to current models of higher education and a low-quality substitute for traditional learning. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review of both academic and popular media sources, this article will explore the impact of MOOCs on the field of higher education, with a particular emphasis on their promise to enhance educational opportunities worldwide. Specifically, the analysis will focus on the four issues that have--so far--proven to be most significant in shaping the future of MOOC as an equalizing force in higher education: credit, pedagogy, internationalization, and, finally, legal and financial aspects.

In contrast to academic and popular accounts that present generational characteristics from the outside, in a top-down manner, we explore how Gen Z constructs, narrates, and projects itself in real-time on TikTok—a prominent social media platform, dominated by Gen Z, that provides a valuable window into youth experience and cultural production. Based on a thematic analysis of 1918 public videos tagged #GenZ, as well as salient comments posted on these videos, we aim to explore inductively how Gen Z collectively portrays itself on TikTok. Our findings illustrate how, via creative processes of both internal and external self-definition, Gen Z portrays itself as a generation of contrasts: powerful and self-assured, yet vulnerable and damaged. Videos embrace a playful self-reflexivity about time that embodies Gen Z's self-awareness, sense of unity, and collective spirit. This research contributes to our understanding of both generational identity and youth social media participation; sitting at the intersection of these two bodies of knowledge, it facilitates a nuanced understanding of youth self-representation, online collective expression, and multimodal communication practices on a critically understudied social media platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory mapping attempts to engage youth in the generation of personalized maps, as a way to both harness the value of individual knowledge about geographic space, and to concurrently empower the research participants by inviting them to take an active stake in the representation and explication of their spatial environment. Engagement in the mapping exercise facilitates a nuanced process of reflection -- often unrealizable through purely textual methods -- and can stimulate youth empowerment by seeding critical conversations around personal safety, mobility and technologies of spatial representation. Findings from a study that implemented participatory mapping in the context of an after-school program for urban high school students are used to demonstrate the potential of this research strategy as a participatory pedagogical intervention, and to extract methodological recommendations for its effective implementation in urban educational settings. (Contains 3 figures.)

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a participatory culture pedagogy in the context of a pilot after-school program at LAUSD's Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. Ethnographic fieldnotes, instructor and student reflections, photographs, video recordings, and student work illustrate the program's culture of participatory learning, characterized by motivation and engagement, creativity, relevance, co-learning, and ecological learning. The program also supported participants' acquisition of digital literacy skills, new media literacies, and social and emotional learning competencies. This experience suggests that relationship-building is integral and foundational to establishing citizenship, both online and offline. (Contains 1 table and 2 footnotes.)

Though news representations of protest have been studied extensively, little is known about how media audiences critique such representations. Focusing on TikTok as a space for media criticism, this article examines how users employ the app to respond to representations of protest in mainstream news media. Content collected in the spring of 2021 illuminated two very distinct foci of discussion about news representations of protest: the Black Lives Matter movement and the Capitol riot. Our qualitative content analysis of TikTok videos and their related comments demonstrates how users employed TikTok's creative affordances to dissect specific news representations, critique the media apparatus, and expand news narratives. These findings shed light on the complex role of TikTok as a platform for media criticism—one that can be used for both democratic and non-democratic ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking to expand the Western-centric scope of media literacy research, this article shines the spotlight on Sudan as a critically underexplored context. Using participatory mapping and in-depth interviews, our research foregrounds urban Sudanese youths' everyday informational resources and practices as a necessary foundation for a culturally responsive approach to media literacy education. We find that young people's information landscapes are heavily molded by the country's political context: Sudan's political instability and economic precarity increase the urgency and speed of information exchanges, while the prevalence of propaganda highlights the need for authentic, trustworthy information. This focus on usefulness and authenticity consequently shapes a preference for interpersonal communication and digital spaces as key informational channels. At the same time, our analysis reveals significant differences in young people's information landscapes, particularly along gender lines. Based on these findings, we outline key implications for culturally responsive media literacy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A powerful visual symbol of social protest and a success story of online organizing, the Pussyhat is a prominent illustration of the revival of craftivism in the current political climate. Analyzing the activity of the Pussyhat Project group within the online craft community Ravelry, this article aims to facilitate a deeper understanding of emerging practices of civic expression and participation, and the ways in which online participation might reflect and support these practices. Our analysis reveals the magnitude and particular characteristics of older women's civic engagement, the function of craft as a gateway to civic expression and participation, and the significance of the online community as a source of practical and socioemotional support. This research thus sheds important light on evolving notions of activism and civic engagement in the digital age and contributes to a better understanding of the participatory practices of older women in interest-based online spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]