<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The article explores how upper secondary students use the learning activity mediagraphy to reflect on their identity and on media as constraining and enabling factors in their social practice. In mediagraphy, the students research four generations of their own families, including themselves. They write a mediagraphy essay on the differences and similarities across the generations in media use and turning points in individuals’ lives, in addition to societal and media-related developments. Data from student products and interviews are analysed through three “identity dilemmas” that any identity claim faces: the constant navigation between 1) continuity and change, 2) sameness and difference with regard to others, and 3) agency as “person-to-world” and “world-to-person”. The findings suggest that mediagraphy is a type of identity work that can potentially help students develop an agentive identity in a time of insecurity, with rapidly shifting social and cultural conditions and increasing media density.</p></abstract>

The article explores how upper secondary students use the learning activity mediagraphy to reflect on their identity and on media as constraining and enabling factors in their social practice. In mediagraphy, the students research four generations of their own families, including themselves. They write a mediagraphy essay on the differences and similarities across the generations in media use and turning points in individuals’ lives, in addition to societal and media-related developments. Data from student products and interviews are analysed through three “identity dilemmas” that any identity claim faces: the constant navigation between 1) continuity and change, 2) sameness and difference with regard to others, and 3) agency as “person-to-world” and “world-to-person”. The findings suggest that mediagraphy is a type of identity work that can potentially help students develop an agentive identity in a time of insecurity, with rapidly shifting social and cultural conditions and increasing media density.

Young People’s Narratives of Media and Identity

Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim

Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

University Lecturer, School of Education, University of Tampere

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mediagraphy as Identity Work in Upper Secondary School

The article explores how upper secondary students use the learning activity mediagraphy to reflect on their identity and on media as constraining and enabling...

Young People’s Narratives of Media and Identity

Published Online: Jun 09, 2015

Page range: 79 - 93

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2015-0007

Keywords
mediagraphy, identity, agency, media use, media education, media literacy

© by Daniel Schofield

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Young People’s Narratives of Media and Identity

Published Online: Jun 09, 2015

Page range: 79 - 93

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2015-0007

Keywordsmediagraphy, identity, agency, media use, media education, media literacy

© by Daniel Schofield

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
mediagraphy, identity, agency, media use, media education, media literacy