Transmedia teens: the creative transmedia skills of Italian students

ABSTRACT

The objective of this article is to analyse the extent of creativity and autonomy of Italian teenagers’ digital media practices and to link it to the new transmedia skills developed within their favourite digital environments. The data studied emerged from the Transmedia Literacy project (European Commission-Horizon 2020) which involved eight countries from three continents. Through the analysis of information gathered with multiple methodologies (survey, in-depth interviews, workshops and media diaries), the article explores both the consuming and producing media practices of Italian teenagers and the ways in which they are connected with emerging transmedia skills (Guerrero-Pico, Masanet, & Scolari, 2019; Scolari 2018). The data shows that Italian teenagers may still be considered quite traditional media users: their creative participation is limited and often they merely imitate, or remix others’ works, acting as ‘functional prosumers’ rather than ‘critical prosumers’ (Chen, Wu, & Wang, 2011). The outcome of the research reveals teenagers’ meta-reflexive approach to media, an approach that seems to regulate and restrict their attitude towards creating and, above all, exposing their own creativity online. At the same time, teens demonstrate the acquisition of new and creative skills related, in particular, to the mechanisms of media industry and self-management.

KEYWORDS:

• Transmedia
• teens
• creativity
• media skills
• participation
• web 2.0

Acknowledgement

This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Actions under Grant Agreement Number 645238.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gabriella Taddeo, Ph. D in Communication Science, is researcher at the National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Research in Education (INDIRE) and she teaches Social Networking at the Polytechnic of Turin. She carries on research about youth digital cultures, digital competences and soft skills, the relationship of formal and informal digital practices with the labour field.

Simona Tirocchi, Ph.D. in Communication Sciences, is assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the University of Turin (Italy), where she currently teaches Sociology of education. Researcher specialized in Media education and Media literacy, young people and media, cyberbullying, social representations.

Notes

1 TRANSLITERACY – 645238 / Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation actions. Further information at the page: www.transmedialiteracy.org. The members of the Italian unit of the project were Simona Tirocchi and Gabriella Taddeo, all the presented analyzes are the result of the work of both researchers. In writing this contribution, Simona Tirocchi is responsible for the paragraphs ‘Introduction’, ‘Methods’ and ‘Results’; Gabriella Taddeo is responsible of the paragraphs ‘The challenging concept of digital creativity and participation’, ‘Discussion. From consumption to creation, between social and self-control’, and ‘Conclusions’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Horizon 2020  Framework Programme: [Grant Number TRANSLITERACY project 645238. Horizon 2020 Research.].