ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the digital divide in relation to values, asking, what type of narratives and skills are valued with regard to media production among nonwhite communities? We draw on two studies to demonstrate a spectrum of values attributed to both the use of particular kinds of media-making tools and the types of stories told through these productions. Our first data set comes from the study of a weeklong mobile filmmaking camp with nonwhite girls in Seattle; the second, an inquiry into nonwhite millennial podcasters, also in Seattle. We focus this discussion on emerging efforts to teach media literacy and media production and address the relationship between how different media formats are valued, by whom, and what types of media participants make. We address tacit social values that are embedded in media production practices as well as those applied to media made by nonwhite creators. Through the matrix of values evident in these examples, we explore how nonwhite media production can work to both resist and reify narratives of “otherness” through pedagogy, media practices, and technology. Our discussion is framed by background literature and theory related to the history of US Black popular culture, critical studies in media and culture, neoliberalism, entrepreneurship, and sociotechnical imaginaries. We conclude with critical commentary about values, commodification, and digital labour to further situate contemporary questions about the digital divide.
