Participatory Culture

While I was reading Jenkins' article, one of the things that both surprised and saddened me was the section that he wrote bout students working with school papers.

I had completely forgotten about this medium of expression; it's been so absent for so long that I forgot about the potential progress and cohesion with a community that can take place.

Jenkins writes that students used to write for school papers under the tutelage and close supervision of several faculty members. The idea was that these students would learn what it was like to be a journalist while enjoying the safety net of writing for a school with little outside influence.

This is not the case with participatory cultures.  In another article that we read, a young girl spoke about how she enjoys reading fictional short stories that are written and submitted to an online website.  As Jenkins says, "In a world in which the line between consumers and producers is blurring, young people are finding themselves in situations that no one would have anticipated a decade or two ago" (Jenkins 16).

The idea that kids are left on their own in this manner is what saddens me.  They seem to no longer have the encouragement and guidance that was previously offered by a staff member.  I'm not saying that students haven't asked their teachers to help edit a short story that was submitted online (I've done this several times), but the process seems to be less involved than it once was.