Mobile storytelling and informal education in a suburban area: a qualitative study on the potential of digital narratives for young second-generation immigrants

Abstract

The article discusses an action-research study focused on developing participatory attitudes and the self-expression skills of a group (N = 15) of second-generation immigrant adolescents who live in an urban suburb in Italy. The research study was based on mobile storytelling, a practice of personal multimedia storytelling conducted through mobile devices in connection with social networking services. The findings reveal that encouraging certain uses of the media can have positive effects on the expression of identities and collaborative practices, particularly for marginalised groups. At the same time, a certain laconicism and misspelling tends to characterise the mobile stories created by the teens, which reveals their difficulties in linguistic communication. From this perspective, it is evident that the use of digital media can reinforce pre-existing divisions and therefore there is now a need for public education to play a more active role in balancing inequalities with the development of technical, social and linguistic skills.

Keywords:

• new media literacies
• participation
• second-generation youth
• digital storytelling
• mobile phones

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the Comunitá di base delle Piagge and all the children and the educators of the ReTE project, especially Fabrizio Martini and Francesca Sarcoli. Without their collaboration and support, this research would not have been possible.