Activism and Communication Pedagogy: A Conversation with Becky Lentz and Mark Lipton

Abstract

Activism isn't just standing in the streets; it's not just filling out an online petition; it's not just deciding to vote and for whom ... I mean, what are the limits of the definition of activism? I began my career, first and foremost, as an activist-not because I wanted to fight for social justice but more because friends were dying. HIV/AIDS radically impacted my understanding of the world and the world's response to this global epidemic led me down a path; put me on my journey that I can only describe as my life. I think my challenge is to encourage students to identify that thing that drives them, whether it be about one's health or family, about media policy, about the death of public discourse, or the rise of celebrity culture. If a student can find that thing that they care about so dearly, with so much heart and emotion that it drives them to "act"-well, I think that's a kind of activism. ML: All the work that I've done in the last 25 years has been about media literacy, and media literacy practices, which includes things like digital storytelling. I am trying to encourage and ask the questions, "what are those digital fluencies or digital competencies?" The last book I wrote, called Research, Write, Create (Gibson & Lipton, 2014) is basically a call for students to engage in communication acts as students-and not just students of media, but all students really-and to resist the academic folly of the power of writing and respond by creating ... to make things, don't just write things. Students certainly have to write, and may need to write, but they can also create something to go with their words. And so in that vein, I've chosen the medium of video because I've worked with video. I invite my students to make short digital essays and I'm interested in studying young adults and their digital literacy via the creation of digital stories. In this phase of my life and through this practice, I'm trying to walk the walk. I've been saying faculty have to require more than just essays, and so, my students are going to create digital stories. ML: No you're definitely not imposing that. There are pressures. There are obstacles. But with obstacles come opportunities. Every day there's something that's come up that's an impact of the neoliberal trend. So rising class sizes, for example, make what I do more difficult-not impossible, just more difficult. Here's my latest challenge: I'm used to teaching 60-80 students in a room with movable chairs. My institution has now bolted everything to the floor and expanded those room capacities to 120, so basically you're in this big room and everyone's in long rows where they can't move tables.