September 10,2013

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Thinking about how to introduce the problem of study. The topic is latino-hispanic youth, digital media and participation. I contextualize the topic with secondary data related to the closing of the material/technological access to internet and digital devices. There is data that reveal that and that can be used as as transition to the issue of the complexity of the digital divide and the diversity of practices. What is important to understand are the diversity of practice, the diversity of skills, abilities, and the quality. They are connected, they are creators, they do social media, but the quality of their engagement doesn't allow them to have maximalist forms of participation, full participation.

This is the justification of the problem. Why it is important to study the practices of this population?


And I will create three case studies that reveal how they use digital media, the literacies they acquire and have, their participation, as well as their identities in these realms.

The realms/arenas/fields are:

  • Family : home media environment, supports, parental background, capitals. Youth identity as brokers, consumers, students. Bilinguism, biculturalism, biliterate. (A case study comparing 5 families)
  • Afterschool program: digital media extracurricular program, (A case study of a community of practice with active role of 3 latino-hispanic youth with a filmmaker identity)
  • Internet: search engine (Case study of information seeking practices among 7 participants) and social media (Case study of o 4 different identities: gamers, meme-makers/trolls/commedians, alternative music fans, photographer).


Present the group of participants of the project at the begining but make it clear that the case studies would not focus on all the participants.