Educational Affinity Spaces and News Media Discourse: An Approach Using Critical Discourse and Frame Analysis

• In Event: Roundtable Session 62
  In Roundtable Session: Education in the Media: Making “Sense” of Explicit and Implicit Messages

Abstract

This presentation discusses one news media outlet’s depiction of online affinity spaces, such as fan fiction writing communities, to discern common cultural depictions of the academic merit of engaging in such activities. Several qualitative studies of affinity spaces like fan-fiction websites have come to the general consensus that there is a widespread cultural dismissal of the affinity space as non-academic and non-creative (Kell, p. 2009). Researchers depict fan fiction as “privileged by students but marginalized by teachers” (Chandler-Olcott & Mahar, 2003, p. 564). New media scholars suggest that “media produced specifically for young people may be increasingly difficult for adults to access or understand”, and suggest that “conservative social critics... have bemoaned” the childhood culture produced by increased youth media access (Buckingham, 2003, p. 311-312). Recent literature reviews of affinity spaces situate these communities within the overarching “children’s consumer culture”, and suggest that any dialogue about such youth culture remains deeply polarized within contemporary social discourse (Sekeres, 2009, p. 405).

Educators frequently report that students will become more engaged in coursework, and therefore perform better academically, if the topics of their studies are presented as exciting rather than dull or tedious (Sipe & McGuire 2006). Despite the best efforts of teachers to "make learning fun", many K-12 students underachieve academically due to disinterest, yet have no trouble reading, studying, and memorizing facts pertaining to non-academic, branded children’s entertainment fiction such as Pokémon and Hannah Montana (Sekeres, 2009). This non-academic acquisition of recreational knowledge takes place in virtual “affinity spaces” such as discussion forums and fan fiction communities (Gee 2004).

Scholars also maintain the positive pedagogical applications of transferring these new media practices from the realm of popular culture into the K-12 classroom. Interaction between the members of fan fiction communities “focuses on literate activities that are aligned with practices that schools value and promote”, such as peer feedback, meta-discussion of writing/reading related topics, how to “show not tell” when writing, and how to receive feedback without taking it personally (Black 2009, p. 77). Several scholars caution that the growing divide between in-school and out of school knowledge acquisition could even be exacerbated by the K-12 community’s failure to incorporate affinity space-based practices into the traditional classroom, pointing to the “widening gap between young people’s worlds outside school and their experiences in the classroom” as the key factor in dwindling student enthusiasm (Buckingham, 2003, p. 312).

Thus, this presentation will discuss (1) how fan fiction affinity spaces are framed in articles of one news media outlet, and (2) how educational research regarding affinity spaces is employed and deployed to construct a meaningful narrative regarding the efficacy of use affinity spaces in the formal classroom setting. Such an examination is crucial for educational researchers because of the influence of the media on public perception, including policy writers, administrators, teachers, and parents (Fairclough, 1995).

Author

• Drew Berkowitz, Montclair State University