Video production in Ohio high schools: The role of media pedagogy in youth identity

By applying British cultural studies this dissertation compares mainstream and critical pedagogy in high school video production classes. I analyze how teachers' pedagogical styles impacts on the construction of students identity assignments. Research involved two case studies of Ohio high schools (one in Cleveland and one in Columbus) that have video production in curriculum. The aim of the project was three fold: to evaluate the extent to which video production and media literacy and media education are taught in Ohio high schools; to do ethnographic fieldwork in two Ohio high schools to compare mainstream and critical pedagogy; and to evaluate students identity videos through textual analysis. Students were asked to create a video about their identity and to keep a journal reflecting on their media use and production experience. Findings illustrate that in mainstream pedagogy students tend to reproduce mainstream media; in the critical pedagogy classroom students tend to be more self reflective on the impact media and consumer culture have in their everyday life.