Disconnected

American university presses have filled their lists exposing the ‘threat’ of new media. But what renders this short book superior to the usual ‘young people are out of our control’ diatribe is its focus on the ethics of online participation.

Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap is an enlightening read, not only for its analysis of online decision making but also for its revelation of what youth have (and haven’t) learned from the adults in their lives prior to making those decisions. James’s work is relevant for any parent, teacher, graduate student, and professor who has ever wondered, in response to a young person’s ethically questionable decision online, What were they thinking? Upon reading Disconnected, however, well-meaning adults will realize that the question they should ask: What are we teaching? After all, the so-called digital natives were born into a participatory culture. Their predecessors should be willing to inform them of and guide them with principles of ethical participation.

Carrie James is a sociologist and Principal Investigator at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was codirector (with Howard Gardner) of the Good Play Project, which collected the data that inform Disconnected.Henry Jenkins is Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. He is the coeditor of From Barbie to Mortal Kombat- Gender and Computer Games (MIT Press, 1998).

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