Mobile storytelling and informal education in a suburban area: a qualitative study on the potential of digital narratives for young second-generation immigrants

The article discusses an action-research study focused on developing participatory attitudes and the self-expression skills of a group (N = 15) of second-generation immigrant adolescents who live in an urban suburb in Italy. The research study was based on mobile storytelling, a practice of personal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Learning, media and technology media and technology, 2013-06, Vol.38 (2), p.217-235
Main Authors: Ranieri, Maria, Bruni, Isabella
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Computer Mediated Communication
digital storytelling
Foreign Countries
Immigrants
Informal Education
Italy
Low Income Groups
Media Literacy
mobile phones
new media literacies
Participation
second-generation youth
Social Change
Social Development
Social Networks
Story Telling
Suburbs
Telecommunications
Web 2.0 Technologies
Workshops
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Summary:The article discusses an action-research study focused on developing participatory attitudes and the self-expression skills of a group (N = 15) of second-generation immigrant adolescents who live in an urban suburb in Italy. The research study was based on mobile storytelling, a practice of personal multimedia storytelling conducted through mobile devices in connection with social networking services. The findings reveal that encouraging certain uses of the media can have positive effects on the expression of identities and collaborative practices, particularly for marginalised groups. At the same time, a certain laconicism and misspelling tends to characterise the mobile stories created by the teens, which reveals their difficulties in linguistic communication. From this perspective, it is evident that the use of digital media can reinforce pre-existing divisions and therefore there is now a need for public education to play a more active role in balancing inequalities with the development of technical, social and linguistic skills.
ISSN:1743-9884
1743-9892
DOI:10.1080/17439884.2013.724073