OnCities: Documenting Community Challenges in Global Culture Through Connective Technologies

• In Event: Comparative Perspectives on Media Training and Civic Engagement in At-Risk Communities

Abstract

Across the globe today, the emergence of readily available connective technologies have resulted in the documenting and sharing of daily life in communities of all shapes and sizes. With more mobile phones than humans on the planet, and rising Internet connectivity throughout the world, mediated platforms have fast become central prerequisites for connecting individuals, communities and societies. The On Cities project, launched in 2012, asked a global cohort of young people to document what they saw as the major challenges to urban communities in global culture. Students from over 30 nationalities documented via mobile cameras what they saw as the most pressing challenge for their communities. The participants then went online to complete a survey and reflection detailing their challenge and possible solutions that communities may explore. A codebook consisting of 109 variables was built to analyze these images, locating similarities, clustering of ideas, traits and categories in the documented images. This study aims to provide a portrait of values and attitudes of young people towards communities in digital culture. The results detail a shifting awareness about the role of digital media in identify global problems and framing active solutions that incorporate media literacy competencies as skills for sustained civic engagement in daily life.

Author

• Paul Mihailidis, Emerson College