Resources
Publications
From Fast Fashion to Connected Consumption: Slowing Down the Spending Treadmill (in The Culture of the Slow: Social Deceleration in an Accelerated World)
BY: Nick Osbaldiston, Juliet Schor
Book chapter in Nick Osbaldiston, ed., “The Culture of the Slow: Social Deceleration in an Accelerated World” (April 2013, MacMillan Press) Book description: Across the world, there has been a polite uprising to the perceived meaninglessness and stress of our accelerated and consumer driven lifestyles. Described simply as the slow phenomenon, this new brand of living […]
Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media
BY: Mizuko Ito, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Martinez, C.J. Pascoe, Dan Perkel, Laura Robinson, Christo Sims, and Lisa Tripp
Digital media and online communication have become a pervasive part of the everyday lives of youth in the United States. Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now well-established fixtures of youth culture; it can be hard to believe that just a decade ago these technologies were barely present in the lives of U.S. children and teens.
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project
BY: Mizuko Ito, Heather Horst, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Patricia G. Lange, C.J. Pascoe, and Laura Robinson (with Sonja Baumer, Rachel Cody, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Martínez, Dan Perkel, Christo Sims, and Lisa Tripp)
Young people in the United States today are growing up in a media ecology where digital and networked media play an increasingly central role. Even youth who do not possess computers and Internet access at home are participants in a shared culture where new social media, online media distribution, and digital media production are commonplace among their peers and in their everyday school contexts.
Who owns the mods?
BY: Yong Ming Kow, Bonnie Nardi
Modding, the development of end user software extensions to commercial products, is popular among video gamers. Modders form communities to help each other. Mods can shape software products by weaving in contributions from users themselves based on their own experience of a product. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a conflict between a modding community and a gaming company which reveals contested issues of ownership and governance. We studied an online game, World of Warcraft, a large multiplayer game produced by Blizzard Entertainment.
The rewards of non-commercial production: Distinctions and status in the anime music video scene
BY: Mizuko Ito
Anime music videos (AMVs) are remix videos made by overseas fans of Japanese animation. This paper describes the organization of the AMV scene in order to illuminate some of the key characteristics of a robust networked subculture centered on the production of transformative works. Fan production that appropriates commercial culture occupies a unique niche within our creative cultural landscape.
User creativity, governance, and the new media: An introduction to the First Monday special issue
BY: Yong Ming Kow, Bonnie Nardi
In this special issue, we present a multi–disciplinary perspective of the emergence of user creativity in new media. The papers were written by researchers in anthropology, sociology, media studies, law, computer science, and management studies. The authors examine the roles of users and commercial actors in the new media, and help answer critical questions on intellectual property, ethics, practice, and governance. Taken together, the papers expose a complex, mutable, creative ecology influencing new media product development and practice.
The Test of Time in School-based Mentoring: The Role of Relationship Duration and Re-Matching on Academic Outcomes.
BY: Grossman, J. B., Chan, C., Schwartz, S., & Rhodes, J. E.
The influence of match length and re-matching on the effectiveness of school-based mentoring was studied in the context of a national, randomized study of 1,139 youth in Big Brothers Big Sisters programs. The sample included youth in grades four through nine from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. At the end of the year, youth in intact relationships showed significant academic improvement, while youth in matches that terminated prematurely showed no impact. Those who were re-mat- ched after terminations showed negative impacts.
Children and the Internet: Great Expectations, Challenging Realities
BY: Sonia Livingstone
Is the internet really transforming children and young people’s lives? Is the so-called “digital generation” genuinely benefiting from exciting new opportunities? And, worryingly, facing new risks?
How Effective Are Mentoring Programs for Youth? A Systematic Assessment of the Evidence.
BY: DuBois, D. L., Portillo, N., Rhodes, J. E., Silverthorn, N., Valentine, J. C.
During the past decade, mentoring has proliferated as an intervention strategy for addressing the needs that young peo- ple have for adult support and guidance throughout their development. Currently, more than 5,000 mentoring programs serve an estimated three million youths in the United States. Funding and growth imperatives continue to fuel the expan- sion of programs as well as the diversification of mentoring approaches and applications.
Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World
BY: Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji, editors
In recent years, otaku culture has emerged as one of Japan’s major cultural exports and as a genuinely transnational phenomenon. This timely volume investigates how this once marginalized popular culture has come to play a major role in Japan’s identity at home and abroad. In the American context, the word otaku is best translated as “geek”—an ardent fan with highly specialized knowledge and interests. But it is associated especially with fans of specific Japan-based cultural genres, including anime, manga, and video games.
