Journalism and Activism Anew: Participatory Movements With Adolescents Writing for Change

• In Event: 25.086 - Sheraton Roundtable Session One - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 25.086-4 - Approaches to Critical and Powerful Writing Practice

Abstract

In a school district with a primarily black population, this study foregrounds voices of students of color who participated in a writing program centered on journalism as a way to “write for change.” Twenty middle and high school students attended a journalism summer writing camp I facilitated through a youth participatory action research (YPAR) framing, emphasizing what students wished to engage in activism about and how they did so via journalistic writing. Through a transliteracies and YPAR framing, the study then followed students across in- and out-of-school as well as print and digital contexts as they engaged with journalist mentors and in journalistic research about issues relevant to their communities. Students were involved in data creation, coding, and developing findings.

Author

• Emily Plummer, University of Pennsylvania