PROJECTS

Communities of Practice

Traditionally we contrast public and private spaces, but digital spaces do not fit easily into these categories. Our research on online sites that mediate between private identities and public displays investigates the ways in which kids use the Internet to negotiate their sense of self, identities and interests. Taking seriously the range of kids’ participation in these worlds, we also examine how engagements with digital media, both online and offline, functions as a frame for social interaction and learning. Rather than focus only on the engagement with content, we are investigating the social relations, reputations, and the collateral learning that often accompanies gaming, play and cultural productions more broadly.

Amateur Cultural Production

Mischief Managed: Multimedia Fan Production in the Harry Potter Fandom
Becky Herr

Transnational Anime Fandoms and Amateur Cultural Production
Mimi Ito, Rachel Cody, Annie Manion, and Brendan Callum

The Semiotics of Video Production, Exchange, and Reception on YouTube and Among Video Bloggers
Patricia G. Lange

Youth Hip Hop Digital Music Production
Dilan Mahendran

Networked Public Culture

No Wannarexics Allowed: An Analysis of Online Eating Disorder Communities
CJ Pascoe and Natalie Boero

Teen Sociality in Networked Publics
danah boyd

Gaming and Playworlds

Playing Bully: An Ethnographic Study of Game Play
Matteo Bittanti,Dan Perkel and Mahad Ibrahim

Sporadic Learning: An ethnographic study of the user-generated content in Will Wright’s Spore
Matteo Bittanti, Dan Perkel

Virtual Playgrounds: An Ethnography of Neopets
Laura Robinson, Heather Horst and Mimi Ito

Neighborhood and Community Research Sites

Rather than see technology access in terms of inequalities of “haves and have-nots” or “digital divides,” we turn our attention to the broader social contexts (family, school, community) that structure diverse uses of new media, and the life trajectories that lead to certain patterns of adoption. Our strategy to sample from a variety of locations, as well as interview protocols and surveys that solicit life trajectory information, will help us tell this aspect of the story. We are particularly focused upon differences in lifestyle as expressed in consumption and production of digital technologies and communication channels.

Coming of Age in Silicon Valley: Digital Media in Families
Heather Horst

Information the Wikipedia Way: the Cognitive Processing of Collaborative Knowledge
Laura Robinson

Living Digital: Teens and Technology
CJ Pascoe

Media Practices in Rural Landscapes
Christo Sims

Discovering the Social Context of Kids' Technology Use through Photo Elicitation
Dan Perkel and Sarita Yardi