Over the past few decades, we’ve seen dramatic increases in grassroots access to the means of cultural production and circulation and improvements to the infrastructure required for collective action (Jenkins, Ford, and Green, 2013). This participatory turn in culture has been mirrored by shifts in the ways citizens are collectively and individually exerting power within the political process. Young men and women who learned how to use their cameras recording skateboarding videos, to mashup images to make cute cat pictures, to edit making fan videos, are now turning their skills towards political speech and grassroots mobilization. These “creative activists” are often speaking to each other through images borrowed from commercial entertainment but remixed to communicate their own messages; they are often deploying social media tools and platforms, sometimes in ways that challenge corporate interests; and they are forging communities through acts of media circulation. The conclusion of Henry Jenkins’s 2006 book, Convergence Culture, proposed that a networked society would soon be applying what they learned through play within participatory culture towards more purposeful realms, such as education, religion, and politics. The "By Any Media Necessary" book explores new forms of political activities and identities that have emerged from the practices of participatory culture and are impacting how American youth think of their civic identities.
In a white paper for the MacArthur Youth and Participatory Politics research network, Cathy J. Cohen and Joseph Kahne (2012) define participatory politics as “interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern.”(vi) Citing data from a survey of more than 4000 respondents aged 15-25, Cohen and Kahne found that those who engaged in participatory politics (roughly 40-45 percent across all racial categories) were almost twice as likely to vote as those who did not. In some cases, youth’s first political exposure might come from a video (such as Kony 2012) forwarded by their friends or classmates. According to the MacArthur survey, 58 percent of American youth forward links or share information through social networks at least once a week. Critics often dismiss such efforts to deploy social media for public awareness campaigns as “slacktivism”; online campaigns are often seen as involving limited risk or effort and having limited impact on institutional politics. Such critiques are part of a larger narrative about the decline of civic participation. While such critiques raise valid concerns, they also simplify our understanding of the political life of American youth in an era of networked communications.
Building on (and contributing to) this concept of participatory politics, our team, based at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, has been tracking a range of different organizations and networks that have been effective at getting young people involved in civic and political activities through their deft use of networked political practices and participatory culture frameworks.
This online experience supports and expands on the book and is organized along the following paths, please choose one depending on the experience you are looking for: