Relevance and Definitions of Key Concepts
With the exception of “and” and “as”, every word in this chapter’s title is a contested concept. Where does “youth” begin and end? Does “media” refer to any available means of representation, to the press, or to mass communication in general? All three, maybe? And what exactly constitutes “digital writing”? Composing a text using a word processor? Posting to Twitter? Uploading a sneaker review to YouTube or hosting a Twitch.tv stream? Finally, what does it mean to be a “global citizen”? Is it descriptive, prescriptive, aspirational? Again, maybe all three?
In this chapter we focus on young people’s involvement as global citizens who use digital media as a means of engaging with sociocultural, political, and economic issues that might otherwise go unremarked. Given the complex nature of the titular concepts, however, we will first ground our discussion by examining their definitions a bit more carefully. Doing so will allow us to appreciate the various tensions both in the subject matter itself as well as in the research. We will then consider how emerging theories may help us think through such tensions, and we will use them to consider the roles of educational practitioners in working toward resolutions. We will also discuss issues related to research methodologies before offering a few final recommendations for future work.
Who, then, are these youth we speak of? Because our focus is on digital writing and global citizenship, our references to young people will refer to grade-school and college-aged individuals who, either independently or with the help of peers, mentors, teachers et cetera, use digital tools to create compositions of varying degrees of formality with the explicit aim of interacting with people living outside the bounds of the writers’ nation states. Our references to “media” will speak primarily to the myriad web-based tools and platforms young people use when creating digital compositions, although we may at times insert the word “social” to limit our discussion those tools that facilitate synchronous or asynchronous interactions.
What do we mean by digital writing, though? I mean, there are clearly some things that we DO mean, and clearly some things that we DON’T mean. We do mean all manner of multimodal compositions, although I wonder if there must be an actual “written” element? Must their be words? I also wonder if it must also be some planning involved? And should it be published for an audience wider than those in one’s contact list? Let’s take texting as an example. Even though sending a text message often uses written language to communicate, that it typically facilitates communication between just a few people within one’s social sphere suggest it is something qualitatively different from filming, editing, and publishing a sneaker review to YouTube. So maybe we should think of digital writing as a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum is communication that exclusively uses written language informally to interact spontaneously just with people the user knows irl. On the other end of the spectrum is communication that, instead of using written language, uses still and moving images as well as audio to present a planned message to a global audience.
Here are the key elements:
Text messaging, then, typically prioritizes written language to communicate spontaneous messages to a limited audience of personal acquaintances. So, is it digital writing? In the strictest sense of the concept, yes, text messaging is digital writing, but it is qualitatively different from digital compositions that seek to bridge global divides. In June of 2016, WNYC’s On the Media podcast published “Two Years in the Life of a Saudi Girl,” an audio diary created by Majd Abdulghani, a Saudi teen who documents two years of her life as she learns karate, pursues a career in genetics, and navigates societal pressures to accept an arranged marriage. Majd’s diary includes zero written text, it is to some degree spontaneous, and it has been published to most podcast platforms and downloaded by thousands of listeners. Interestingly, while Majd is the primary author of the audio diary, it is worth nothing that various producers and editors participated in the ultimate publication of the diary, which may suggest that digital writing often includes some element of collaboration. So, is “Two Years in the Life of a Saudi Girl” digital writing? Yes, of course it is, and it is qualitatively different from sending and receiving text messages. What educational practitioners must consider is which forms of digital writing do young people use to engage as global citizens? And how can young people’s use of such forms be supported and encouraged through educational practice?
Finally, what is global citizenship? No doubt the most contested concept in the chapter title, global citizenship means different things to different people, and to some people it means nothing. A great deal of contemporary research into global citizenship is presented under the rubric of cosmopolitanism (Appiah, ___; Zimmerman, ____; Hull & Stornaiulo, _____; Bean, ____), which frames global citizenship as a progressive, humanistic way of understanding the individual’s relationship to the wider world in light of the increasing global connectivity resulting from internet communication technologies. The cosmopolitan view of global citizenship seeks to, in __________’s words, PUT GOOD QUOTE HERE.