Table of Contents

Imagine the thesis as a series of independent papers that complement each other and cohere as a single piece.

0. Introduction

An overarching thesis and an ongoing train of thought: Looking at participation as something that is fluid, and that it happens across different realms : family, afterschool, online SNSs, searching.

Practices and new media literacies : circulation, production, searching, curating.

Complexity of the digital divide. Digital inequalities. Looking at this inequalities across realms.

Hispanic/Latino youth in the USA, growing up with digital media. Yes but in the margins. Unprivileged youth.

0.1. Design and methods (qualitative methodology)

Qualitative research methods have
 the
 strengths
 to
 better
 assess
 context,
 process,
 and
 socio‐cultural
 meaning
 (Denzin,
 1970)
 that
 underlie
 human
 behavior,

Providing
 insight
 on
 the
 relationships
 between
 the
 contexts
 and
 processes
 of
 human
 social
 life,
 and
 the
 ʺmeaningʺ
 that
 humans
 attach
 to
 social
 and
 physical
 phenomena
 (Denzin
 1970:30‐31).

the
complexity
of
the
human
circumstances

while
 the
 predominant
 methods
 paradigm
 of
 ethnography
 is
 qualitative,
 ethnography
is
more
than
simply
a
qualitative
research
method.


Denzin,
N.K.
1970).
The
 Research 
Act
.

Denzin,
 N.K.
 and
 Y.S.
 Lincoln
 (1994),
 “Introduction:
 Entering
 the
 Field
 of
 Qualitative
 Research”
 in
 Handbook
 of
 Qualitative
 Research.
 Denzin
 and
 Lincoln
 (eds.)
 Thousand
 Oaks,
 CA,
 Sage
 Publications:


the
 strengths
 or
 attributes
 of 
ethnography: 


• (1) includes
 both
 qualitative
 and
 quantitative 
methods,
 and
 both
 classical
and


non‐classical
 ethnographic 
approaches.


 


• (2) 
is
 more 
than
 simply
 methods, 
but
 has
 ontological 
and
 epistemological
 properties.






• (3) 
is
 a 
holistic
 approach
 to
 the
 study
 of 
cultural 
systems.





• (4) is 
the
 study
 of 
the 
socio‐cultural
 contexts,
 processes,
 and
 meanings 
within


cultural
 systems. 
 


• (5) is 
the 
study 
of 
cultural
 systems 
from
 both
 emic
 and 
etic 
perspectives.
 


• (6) is 
greatly 
dependent
 on 
field work.







• (7) 
is 
a
 process
 of 
discovery, 
making
 inferences, 
and 
continuing 
inquiries
 in 
an
 attempt
 to 
achieve
 emic 
validity.






• (8) 
is 
an
 iterative
 process
 of 
learning
 episodes.






• (9) is 
an 
open‐ended
 emergent 
learning
 process,
 and 
not 
a 
rigid
 investigator


controlled 
experiment.
 


• (10) 
is 
a
 highly 
flexible 
and 
creative 1 
process.





• (11) is 
an
 interpretive, 
reflexive, 
and 
constructivist 
process.






• (12) 
requires 
the 
daily 
and 
continuous
 recording
 of
 field notes.








• (13) may
 be
 carried
 out
 by
 individual
 investigators,
 or
 by
 teams
 of
 investigators.





• (14) presents
 the
 world
 of
 its
 host
 population
 in
 human
 contexts
 of
 thickly
 described
 case
 studies.


0.2. The setting and participants. A community. A group of students. Most of them involved in the after school programs and the digital media and game design classes. This study focusses only on the hispani/latino students that participated in the bigger study.

0.3. Theoretical framework and core themes

• Participation
• Latino/hispanic
• Youth and digital medial
• Media Practices and Literacies.

1. Hispanic/Latino families : media environments and teenage brokers.

Youth as media savvy, the brokers of digital media, cultural and social capitals. Comparative case study of 4 families.

2. Digital video : a community of practice in afterschool (Production)

Acquisition of social and cultural capitals.

3. Search : interacting with the World Wide Web. (Searching)

Information retrieval, synthesis, the internet as a fixed thing. Information quality.

4. SNSs and Web 2.0 platforms : FB and YouTube (Circulation and curating)

Entertainment, learning, and searching. Precarious networked publics or semi-publics? Or interacting with networking publics from the margins? Especially focused on music culture. The convergence of music and video culture in YouTube and in FB. New subcultural practices, eclecticism, hipsterism. Availability of so much music.