Exploring the Affordances of Digital Storytelling in a Media Arts Restorative Justice Program

• In Event: Engaging Diverse Learners and Communities Through the Arts

Abstract

Both restorative justice and arts-based programs within the juvenile justice system provide juvenile offenders with promising alternatives to the punitive sanctions utilized by many courts. The present study represents an initial examination of how the restorative justice media-arts program; Young New Yorkers, employs restorative justice principles via digital storytelling. Findings suggest the production of digital stories enabled participants to recontextualize and rearticulate restorative values through the digital storytelling process. Findings underscore the need for future research on the use of digital storytelling and other multimodal research methods to investigate the effectiveness of arts-based programming used in to promote behavioral and cognitive changes for youth.

Author

• Jordan Morris, University of California - Los Angeles