DISCOURSES OF THE DIGITAL NATIVE: Use, non-use, and perceptions of use in BBC Blast

This article emerges from a long-term project investigating the BBC initiative 'Blast' - an on- and offline creative resource for teenagers. Designed to 'inspire and equip' young people to be creative, the research interrogates the assumptions behind such a resource, particularly...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Information, communication & society communication & society, 2011-03, Vol.14 (2), p.258-279
Main Authors: Thornham, Helen, McFarlane, Angela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
BBC
Blast
Creativity
digital native
Discourse analysis
Mass Media
Motivation
Operational Definitions
Peer Groups
Technological change
Teenagers
UGC
Youth
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Summary:This article emerges from a long-term project investigating the BBC initiative 'Blast' - an on- and offline creative resource for teenagers. Designed to 'inspire and equip' young people to be creative, the research interrogates the assumptions behind such a resource, particularly in terms of the so-called 'digital native', and tests such assumptions against the populations actually using and engaging with it. It finds that the conception of a 'digital native' - a technologically enthusiastic, if not technologically literate - teenage population, which is operationalized through the workshop structure of BBC Blast, rarely filters down to the teenagers themselves. Teenage delegates to the Blast workshops rarely validate interest based on technological facilities, enthusiasm or competency. Instead, it is peer groups and social alignments which shape declarations and, more importantly, enactments of interest. This suggests that while the concept of the 'digital native' may be pertinent for generational comparisons of technological use, or is a useful concept for the operationalization of creative media workshops, it is simply not recognized by teenagers to whom it refers, nor does it adequately define use. Further, technological competency and enthusiasm sits uneasily with social and cultural peer group norms, where certain (and very specific) technological competency is socially permitted. This means that the concept of the 'digital native' is problematic, if not entirely inadequate. Focusing on the BBC Blast workshops therefore raises some critical questions around teenage motivations to become technologically literate, and the pleasures teenagers articulate in such engagements per se.
ISSN:1369-118X
1468-4462
DOI:10.1080/1369118X.2010.510199