Media-making matters: exploring literacy with young learners as media crafting, critique and artistry

372 Pages·2016·21.59 MB·English

by  Michelle Cannon

Media-making matters: exploring literacy with young
learners as media crafting, critique and artistry

MICHELLE CANNON

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of
Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy

MARCH 2016
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This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is
understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and due
acknowledgement must always be made of the use of any material contained in, or
derived from, this thesis.

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ABSTRACT: Michelle Cannon
Media-making matters: exploring literacy with young learners as media
crafting, critique and artistry
This research is a timely response to the widespread use of digital media in western
social worlds, and a perceived gulf separating school practices from those in
contemporary living. I argue for a dynamic educational experience that embeds
digital media production in the curriculum. Of central importance is the investigation
of a wider conception of literacy that includes the manipulation of moving image and
sound through time, as a means of creative expression that also shows critical
understanding. By drawing out the particular characteristics of learning with digital
media, I identify the ways in which traditional pedagogies could be transformed in
order to accommodate more social and collaborative ways of working. In relation to
this I explore discursive tensions, including current educational reform measures,
perceived as hindering the development of dispersed digital media-making practices.
Qualitative ethnographic methods were chosen for their capacity to engage with the
complex tensions and textures of modern pedagogy. Photographic, audiovisual and
interview materials were gathered in formal and non-formal school settings which,
through the adaptation of a values-driven hermeneutic framework, inspired critical
and reflexive narrative interpretations. The discussion draws on theories related to
cultural studies, media literacy, and film and moving image composition to explore
our ‘performance’ with digital media in a networked society, under the prevailing
social conditions of possibility.
This study positions media-making in schools as a core entitlement which adds to
and enriches, rather than supplants, traditional literacy. Given the complex ways in
which modern social actors use media representations to negotiate identity, and their
relationships with each other and the environment, it is argued that providing primary
learners with opportunities for creative digital media-making will create a more
relevant, engaging and critically-oriented school experience. Practical media work
nurtures the skills, competencies and disposition for praxis-oriented socio-cultural
participation, of benefit to the individual, and the local and wider community.
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LIST OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT............................................................................................................. 3
ABSTRACT: MICHELLE CANNON ..................................................................... 5
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. 14
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 20
A. BACKGROUND .................................................................................................... 20
B. RESEARCH PROBLEM .......................................................................................... 21
C. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ....................................................................................... 22
D. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 22
E. JUSTIFICATION .................................................................................................... 23
F. THESIS STRUCTURE ............................................................................................. 24
Chapter II – Review of the literature ................................................................. 24
Chapter III – Methodology and methods ........................................................... 25
Chapter IV & V – Presentation of research materials ...................................... 27
Chapter VI – Discussion .................................................................................... 28
Chapter VII – Conclusions and recommendations ............................................ 28
G. DEFINITIONS ....................................................................................................... 29
H. DELIMITATIONS .................................................................................................. 31
I. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ..................................................................................... 31
CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................ 32
A. SOCIO-CULTURAL LANDSCAPE ........................................................................... 32
The empirical and the mind ............................................................................... 33
Making, instrumental learning and the socio-economic .................................... 35
Maker Faires and human capital ....................................................................... 37
Media and vocational training ........................................................................... 40
Media production, creativity and policy ............................................................ 43
Media-making as craftwork ............................................................................... 45
B. APPROACHES TO (MOVING IMAGE) LITERACY IN SCHOOLS ................................. 48
‘The New Literacy Studies’ and the ‘ideological’ model ................................... 48
Media-making, phronesis and rhetoric .............................................................. 50
Media composition ............................................................................................. 53
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Moving image literacy and editing .................................................................... 55
C. MEDIA-MAKING PROCESSES ............................................................................... 57
Approaches to literacy with ‘new’ media .......................................................... 57
Media composition and curation ....................................................................... 60
Cyber-libertarianism and media production ..................................................... 63
D. MEDIA PEDAGOGIES AND SITES OF LEARNING .................................................... 66
Habitus and the borderlands ............................................................................. 67
Mobilisation and participation .......................................................................... 69
E. CYCLE OF DIGITAL MAKING: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................... 73
Cycle of Digital Making ..................................................................................... 75
F. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS .................................................................................... 79
CHAPTER III – METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 81
A. REFLECTIONS ON METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 81
B. METHODOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION .................................................................... 82
Ontological and epistemological reflections ..................................................... 82
Creative Methods ............................................................................................... 85
Current educational research trends ................................................................. 87
Research principles and educational values ...................................................... 88
Ethnography ....................................................................................................... 91
A critical visual anthropological approach ....................................................... 92
Narrative methodology ...................................................................................... 97
Pragmatising the imaginary .............................................................................. 99
Storying children’s lives .................................................................................. 101
C. RESEARCH SETTINGS AND PROCESSES ............................................................. 103
Researcher role ................................................................................................ 105
Gathering materials ......................................................................................... 106
Interview technique .......................................................................................... 107
Setting 1 (non-formal): East London Primary School - The Clip Club ........... 108
Setting 2 (non-formal): North London Primary School - Le Cinéma: Cent ans de
Jeunesse [CCADJ] ........................................................................................... 115
Setting 3 (formal): Riverside School & Institute of Education - Film in a
Morning............................................................................................................ 118
Setting 4 (formal): Riverside School English and Drama Department ........... 121
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Interpretive Framework ................................................................................... 124
D. CREDIBILITY, LIMITATIONS & ETHICS ............................................................. 129
Credibility ........................................................................................................ 129
Limitations ....................................................................................................... 130
Ethics ................................................................................................................ 130
E. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ................................................................................. 131
CHAPTER IV – INTERPRETATION OF MATERIAL PART 1 .................... 133
A. INTERPRETIVE FRAMEWORK ............................................................................. 133
B. SETTING 1: EAST LONDON PRIMARY SCHOOL - THE CLIP CLUB ...................... 136
C. NIMBUS ............................................................................................................ 137
A media practitioner’s core practices and values ........................................... 138
Practitioner insight: tools, iterative technique, dual contexts ......................... 139
D. NIMBUS AND LEONARDO .................................................................................. 140
Nimbus, Leonardo & Mr. P interview ............................................................. 141
Autonomous control & social interaction ........................................................ 142
Practitioner insight: review and redraft .......................................................... 143
E. LEONARDO ....................................................................................................... 144
Co-composition and display ............................................................................ 145
Practitioner insight: ownership and public celebration .................................. 146
F. CLARA AND G-MAN .......................................................................................... 147
Iterative and critical approaches to understanding film language ................. 147
Practitioner insight: embodying film grammar and power relations .............. 148
Social (non)participation ................................................................................. 150
Practitioner insight: roleplay, mess & collaboration ...................................... 151
Flow, mobility and autonomy .......................................................................... 153
Practitioner insight: aesthetic composition ..................................................... 155
G. WIZARD ........................................................................................................... 155
Multimodal craftsmanship ............................................................................... 156
Practitioner insight: the affective, corporeal and imaginary .......................... 157
Media crafting and the film sentence ............................................................... 158
Practitioner insight: technique and iterative practices ................................... 159
Material and digital connectivity ..................................................................... 160
Practitioner insight: intertextual remix ........................................................... 160
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H. DUAL 2 ............................................................................................................. 161
Dialogic relations & porous pedagogies ......................................................... 161
Participation & collaboration ......................................................................... 162
Practitioner insight: agency and autonomy ..................................................... 163
Co-composition and editing as an iterative craft ............................................ 164
Practitioner insight: phronesis and rhetorical performance ........................... 165
I. MEDIA COMPOSITION PRACTICES IN ACTION ...................................................... 165
Whole group collaboration .............................................................................. 165
Practitioner insight: technological constraints ............................................... 167
J. CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATION: CLIP CLUB FINDINGS ...................................... 168
Social & participative forms of literacy ........................................................... 168
Conditions of possibility .................................................................................. 169
Hybrid transactional pedagogic model ........................................................... 170
CHAPTER V – INTERPRETATION OF MATERIAL PART II .................... 172
A. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 172
B. SETTING 2 – LE CINÉMA: CENT ANS DE JEUNESSE (CCADJ) ........................... 173
Relations between theory and practice through artistry .................................. 174
Aesthetic / film sensibility ................................................................................ 179
Moments of translation and ‘Practise, practise, practise!’ ............................. 180
Practitioner’s insight: tacit communication, tools and anatomy ..................... 184
‘Film essai’ editing: a socially contingent and embodied cultural practice ... 185
BFI Screening: public display & process exegesis .......................................... 190
Practitioner’s insight: improvisation, historical continuity and critique ........ 192
Contextual interpretation: CCADJ programme .............................................. 194
C. SETTING 3 – RIVERSIDE SCHOOL - FILM IN A MORNING ................................... 200
Improvised co-production and playful agency ................................................ 201
Practitioner’s insight: digital artistry and media composition language ....... 203
Critical and hybrid pedagogy .......................................................................... 205
Contextual interpretation: formal frustration .................................................. 207
D. SETTING 4 – RIVERSIDE SCHOOL - ENGLISH AND DRAMA DEPARTMENT .......... 210
Preparation for praxis and critical thinking .................................................... 211
Practitioner insight: pedagogy porous to the popular and the public ............. 215
Making meaning between a rock and a hard place ......................................... 217
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