Politics of race, gender, and visual representation in feminist media education

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses technologies of power and technologies of self in relation to race and gender in youth digital media production. We query how girls of color use feminist filmmaking to tell the stories they want to tell, and ask where the political discourse shaping their media production is located throughout the process. Our analysis is based on research conducted from 2015 to 2017 exploring traditional and mobile digital video production practices in non-profit media education programs. We offer a view to the cultural politics of digital video production in educational settings and focus on two final productions – an exposé about girls’ empowerment and a horror genre inspired slasher film – each reproducing and subverting common themes of racial and gender-based oppression in and through digital media.

KEYWORDS:

• Feminist media
• media production
• critical media education
• race and gender in digital media production
• visual culture
• black feminist thought

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 (1) The circulation of information and artifacts; (2) Dialogue and feedback about issues of public concern; (3) Production of original content; (4) Critical investigation of topics from a range of sources; and (5) The mobilization and rallying of community members and networks to reach a goal with civic or political attributes (Soep, 2014).