Benjamin Thevenin - Making Media Matter: Critical Literacy, Popular Culture, and Creative Production

This book is an essential resource for media educators working to promote critical thinking, creativity, and civic engagement through their teaching. Connecting theory and research with creative projects and analyses of pop culture, it models an integrated and practical approach to media education.

In order to prepare learners to successfully navigate rapid shifts in digital technology and popular culture, media educators in both secondary and university settings need to develop fresh, innovative approaches. Integrating concepts and practices from the fields of media studies, media arts, and media literacy, this book prepares teachers to help their students make connections between their studies, uses of media, creative expression, and political participation. As educators implement the strategies in this book in their curricula and pedagogy, they will be empowered to help their students more thoughtfully engage with media culture and use their intelligence and imagination to address pressing challenges facing our world today.

Making Media Matter is an engaging and accessible read for educators and scholars in the areas of media literacy, media and cultural studies, media arts, and communication studies.

Benjamin Thevenin is an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University's Department of Theatre and Media Arts. His studies focus on the relationships between youth, media, and civic engagement; particularly, how we can better prepare young people to become thoughtful citizens, consumers, and creators of media. He teaches classes on creativity, children's culture, emerging media, and media literacy.

Cover image: David Habben

First published 2022

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2022 Benjamin Thevenin

The right of Benjamin Thevenin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched (KU). KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 9781003057925. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org..

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this title has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-52434-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-52433-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-05792-5 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003057925

Typeset in Bembo Std

by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.

Writing this book has been an exciting learning experience, and its publication would not be possible without the help of so many collaborators, colleagues, friends, and family. Making Media Matter is in many ways the result of nearly ten years of research, teaching, and making media at Brigham Young University's Department of Theatre and Media Arts, where I have had the unique opportunities to pursue a range of different interests, always with incredible institutional support and enthusiastic participation from students. Given that, my first acknowledgment goes to the many students I have had over the years, particularly in my TMA 112 Creativity, Research & Visualization, TMA 277 New Media Conceptualization, TMA 295 Contemporary Screens, TMA 378 New Media Production, and TMA 458 Media Literacy Education courses. The active engagement, insightful conversation, impressive creative work, and thoughtful feedback they have shared with me in those classes over the years have made this book what it is and have helped me improve as a scholar, educator, and media creator. In particular, I want to thank the students whose work I reference in the book for their creativity and their willingness to share their creations with the readers of Making Media Matter. They are Sam Burton, Marshal Davis, Cassidy Featherstone, Abi Nielsen Hunsaker, Jenna Larsen, Noah Kershisnik, Melissa King, McCall McLellan, Dallin Penrod, Aarron Reupena, Cambree Snow, Devin Sudweeks, Ellie Harrison Valle, Abby Woods, and Jenna Woolley.

I am also especially appreciative of my department and college administrators who enabled me to pursue Making Media Matter as well as the many research and creative projects that provide the content for the book. They are Wade Hollingshaus, Megan Sanborn Jones, Amy Petersen Jensen, Tom Lefler, Kyle Stapley, Elizabeth Funk, and Ed Adams. I am grateful to have such supportive colleagues and collaborators who have given me encouragement and feedback, and in some cases, worked with me in making some of the projects referenced in the book. They are Brad Barber, Ed McCulloch, David Habben, Theresa Redmond, Scott Christopherson, Jeff Parkin, Darl Larsen, Dean Duncan, Kimball Jenson, Kelly Loosli, Brent Barson, Jared Cardon, Max Johnson, Cody Robles, and Ontario Britton.

I have been blessed to have colleagues like Amy Petersen Jensen and Paul Mihailidis whose friendship and mentorship has been invaluable to me as I have developed as a scholar and worked on this book in particular. And I am grateful for the opportunities and inspiration that they, Renee Hobbs, and Henry Jenkins have given me over the years. I have learned so much from my colleagues in media education and count myself lucky to be a part of such a thoughtful, encouraging, and open community of scholars and educators.

In a very literal way, Making Media Matter would not have been realized without the help of the editorial staff at Routledge, including Emma Sherriff and Erica Wetter, whose patience and support have made the process of publishing my first single-authored book rather enjoyable. I am also appreciative of my research assistants, Ranse Gale and Elizabeth Harrison Valle, whose willingness to check references and grammar and give notes made the process of writing and preparing the book for publication so much easier. And I am grateful to David Habben who generously donated his time and talent to design the book's cover art.

Most importantly, I am so thankful to my family for the love and support that they have shown me over the years. My children Damon, Cade, and Liam have shown me such kindness as I have spent countless hours writing this book (sometimes when they would prefer I read and play with them). Their creativity, their enthusiasm for media and for life, their innate sense of goodness and justice, are among the primary motivations for me to find ways of using media education to make the world a bit better. Last, and most importantly, I must give credit and thanks to my wife. I would not be the scholar, teacher, creator, or person that I am today without her inspiration and encouragement. She has read so many of my drafts and listened to so many more of my long brainstorming sessions, always giving me kind and honest feedback. She has sacrificed time that might have been spent on her career to support me and our children as I researched and wrote. And she has always expressed so much confidence that the work I am doing is worthwhile and will make a positive impact on the world. Thank you Em.