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.