Nexus of Participation, Literacy, and Consumerism: A Content Analysis of Club Penguin

• In Event: Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Media, Culture, and Learning SIG Roundtable: Exploring Media and Social Practices in Many Forms

Abstract

As a part of an ongoing research, this cyber-ethnographic study examines children’s participation, literacy and consumerism practices in the Club Penguin virtual world. The intentional designs of children’s virtual worlds serve for the commercial priorities of the producing companies (i.e., Disney, Nickelodeon, etc.). Most of these companies offer children two types of membership options; one is free of charge-- basic membership, and the other one is paid membership, which requires monthly subscription but offers additional opportunities (i.e., unlimited access, dressing up avatars, decorating virtual homes, etc.). By applying Scollon and Scollon’s (2004; Scollon, 2001) notion of the nexus of practice, this paper analyzes the role of the commercial design of Club Penguin on children’s social interactions and literacy practices.

Author

• Tolga Kargin, Indiana University - Bloomington