ASSESSMENT CASE STUDY: Are we really Tuned Out? “It would be less troubling if the 80% of young people who do not read newspapers every day watched TV news or logged on to news Web Sites. Most don’t” (3)

“Most People Use the Internet for Everything But the News” (4) Why have young Americans stopped following news? 1.Complacency 2.Trust 3.Decline of Social Capital

Social Capital Whereas physical capital refers to physical objects and human capital refers to the properties of individuals, social capital refers to connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them. In that sense social capital is closely related to what some have called “civic virtue.” The difference is that “social capital” calls attention to the fact that civic virtue is most powerful when embedded in a sense network of reciprocal social relations. A society of many virtuous but isolated individuals is not necessarily rich in social capital.

The Bowling Alone Phenomenon: An Erosion of Social Capital… Political and civic engagement. political knowledge, political trust, and grassroots political activism are all down. The declines are equally visible in non-political community life (Putnam). Informal social ties. In 1975 the average American entertained friends at home 15 times per year; the equivalent figure (1998) is now barely half that. Tolerance and trust. Although Americans are more tolerant of one another than were previous generations, they trust one another less.

Caused by TV and lack of news? Time Displacement – most all studies correlate negatively between time spent watching TV and time spent in the community Effects on the outlooks of viewers – “mean world effect” heavy watchers of TV are unusually skeptical about the benevolence of other people Effects on Children – Takes time away from most all of their socializing functions (play, groups, activities with others, outdoors, etc.)

Want vs. Need “…fewer people understand the importance of being politically informed and more people are judging journalism’s entertainment value against that of friends” (48).

Really? “One of the simplest ways to get people interested in news is to introduce them to the news habit and hope that it sticks” (68)

HOW IS SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGING CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21 ST CENTURY From Tuned Out, to Tuned In

1.How do we define News today? What are the biggest influences of social media on news? 2.Who is a journalist in the 21st Century? What are the biggest influences of social media on journalism today? ALL - What does it mean to be an informed citizen in the 21st Century?

Approach to the Questions 1.Definition 2.Rationale - Statement/Theory 2. Examples 3. Personal Anecdotes 4. INFORMED CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21 ST CENTURY

More fragmentation | More consolidation Multiplicity of voices | Reduction of substantive reporting Information richness | Information fatigue Citizens who know more facts | Citizens who have less truth Paradoxes of the Information Age

53 Hours Per Week with Media in US (Kaiser, 2010) Over 8 Hours a day average engaged with Screens (Ball State Study, 2009) 2.7 Billion Google Searches per month in 2006 (CommScore), Estimated 5-8 billion per month today (Google, etc.) 6 Billion minutes a day are spent on Facebook globally every day (Facebook) Recent Study: 49% of people polled recently believe Fox News is most unbiased news network (Public Policy Polling, 2010) Mediated lives…

Convergence Culture Two principal trends: the tendency of modern media creations to attract a much greater degree of audience participation than ever before, to the point that some are actually influenced profoundly by their fanbase, becoming almost a form of interactive storytelling; and the phenomenon of a single franchise being distributed through and impacting a range of media delivery methods.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE “What holds a collective intelligence together is not the possession of knowledge—which is relatively static, but the social process of acquiring knowledge—which is dynamic and participatory” (Convergence Culture, 54).

“The new knowledge culture has arisen as our ties to older forms of social community are breaking down, our rooting in physical geography is diminished, our bonds to extended and even the nuclear family are disintegrating, and our alliegances to nation-states are being redefined” (27).

From Re-Telling to Re-Mixing

Remix and News Literacy Remixing is now an important part of contemporary media production that involves the appropriation of existing cultural products for the development of new creative works (Lessig, 2004). In remixing, media texts get re-interpreted by other creative people through techniques of collage, editing, and juxtaposition (Jenkins, 2006). Remixing can be a vehicle for people to comment upon the role of media and technology in society. From the point of view of media literacy educators, remixing can strengthen media literacy skills because it can deepen people’s awareness of an author’s purpose and context. Through strategic juxtaposition and shifts in context, messages change their meanings. Remixing can also illustrate the function of context in the meaning-making process (Hobbs & Rowe, 180) Hobbs, R. and Rowe, J.. (2008). Creative Remixing and Digital Learning: Developing an Online Media Literacy Tool for Girls. P. C. Rivoltella (Ed.). Idea Group Press, Creative Remixing and Digital Learning: Developing an Online Media Literacy Tool for Girls

Remixing News in the classroom effective practices for news literacy education Q1. Q1. How does news remixing teach students about framing, agenda-setting, and news from the production side? Q2. Q2. How does news remixing influence university students’ understanding of information’s role in civil society and understanding other cultures ?

Will the future tools for journalism bring the world together in new “participatory” ways…? When we change the way we communicate, we change society. The tools that a society uses to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as a hive is to bee life” (Shirky, Here Comes Everyone, 17)

Kevin Sites in Yahoo’s Hot Zone Who are the journalists that will lead us in a digital age? How will they work? And who will they work for?

Will collective intelligence change reporting? “…the ability of virtual communities to leverage the combined expertise of their members. What we cannot know or do on our own, we may now be able to do collectively” (Jenkins, Convergence Culture, 27)

How can we begin to cultivate demand for investigative story telling in this converged media age?

You as Movers… “When Social Media Become movers” “The collapse of transaction costs makes it easier for people to get together—so much easier, in fact, that it is changing the world” (48)

Shifting Information Flow 1.Sharing 2.Cooperation (Production) 3.Action (Collective) “Ridiculously easy group-forming matters because the desire to be part of a group that shares, cooperates, or acts in concert is a basic human instinct that has always been constrained by transaction costs” (54).

Monitorial Citizenship a gatherer, monitor, and surveyor of information, who “swings into public action only when directly threatened” (Lemann 1998).

CONCLUSION journalism, news, and the future of civic society CONNECTING Skills to Citizenship CONNECTING Analysis to Production CONNECTING Culture to Creation CONNECTING Responsibility to Empowerment CONNECTING communities, media, and citizenship

New Voices

FIVE Questions for a media literate ASSESSMENT of information Who is the author and what is the purpose? What techniques are used to attract attention? What lifestyles, values, and points of views are represented? How might different people interpret messages differently? What is omitted from the message?