Abstract The rationale for this doctoral research derives from the escalating challenge posed by the media gap reducing learners’ school motivation. Today’s learners have been attracted to interactive media involving content creation, but such activating learning environments are rarely employed at school. To address this challenge, I started this research on pedagogical potentials of publishing-oriented learner-generated video production. The process, implementing new literacies, offered an alternative to traditional instruction as well as opportunities for multilevel social interaction. Online publishing of the videos as a natural continuation of the process enabled interaction between school and society. In this research, I examined through three case studies what kinds of social interaction emerge in this context and how interaction can be improved. I collected the data in primary and secondary schools by observing and video recording discussions in video projects and by interviewing students, teachers and parents. I employed a quantifying method to analyze group interaction and its development and used inductive qualitative methods to examine teacher–student interaction and interaction at the societal level. The findings emphasize the crucial role of the teacher in orchestrating social interaction. The observed peer group was actively involved in planning their joint video story, but the open-ended fictional task challenged interaction. Despite initial disputational and modest discussion the group learned to ‘intercreate’ due to minimal scaffolding provided by the teacher. Occasionally, whole-class discussions were dominated by the teacher and two to three students. Online publishing of the videos appeared to generate contradictory feelings. In primary schools videos were largely published online, but in secondary schools students were more reluctant to publish their school-context videos. Interaction was scarce between students, teachers and parents even though they were invited to discuss the media ground rules of online publishing activities. In order to improve interaction processes and environments, the teacher needs to designate carefully scripted subtasks, provide reflective scaffolding as well as implement media encouragement to enable interaction between school and society. / Tiivistelmä Väitöstutkimuksen taustalla on koulun ja arjen mediaympäristöjen välille viime vuosina syntynyt, koulumotivaatiota heikentävä kuilu. Oppijat ovat arjessaan tottuneet vuorovaikutteiseen, tuottavaan median käyttöön, mutta koululla on vaikeuksia hyödyntää aktivoivia oppimisympäristöjä. Vastauksena tähän haasteeseen aloin tutkia julkaisemislähtöisen yhteisöllisen videotuotannon mahdollisuuksia opetuksessa. Tämä monilukutaitoja toteuttava työmuoto tarjosi vaihtoehdon perinteiselle opetukselle ja tilaisuuksia monipuoliselle vuorovaikutukselle. Videoiden verkkojulkaiseminen prosessin luontevana jatkona mahdollisti vuorovaikutuksen myös koulun ja ympäröivän yhteiskunnan välillä. Tutkimuksessa selvitin millaista vuorovaikutusta tässä kontekstissa muodostuu ja millä tavoin vuorovaikutusta voidaan kehittää. Tutkimuksen toteutin kolmen tapaustutkimuksen sarjana. Aineistot keräsin ala- ja yläkoulussa observoimalla ja videoimalla videoprojektien keskusteluja sekä haastattelemalla oppijoita, opettajia ja vanhempia. Tutkin ryhmävuorovaikutuksen kehittymistä määrällistävällä menetelmällä. Lisäksi tarkastelin vuorovaikutusta opettaja–oppija-tasolla sekä koulun ja yhteiskunnan välillä aineistolähtöisen laadullisen analyysin keinoin. Tulokset osoittavat opettajan olevan keskeisessä asemassa vuorovaikutuksen orkesteroinnissa. Tarkastelemani oppijaryhmä suunnitteli innostuneesti videotarinoita, mutta avoin fiktiivinen tehtävänanto vaikeutti vuorovaikutusta. Vaikka keskustelu oli aluksi riitaisaa ja laadultaan vaatimatonta, ryhmä oppi opettajan antaman minimaalisen tuen avulla luomaan yhdessä itsenäisesti. Oppijalähtöinen ryhmittyminen vei aikaa ja vaikeutti työn aloittamista, kun taas opettajajakoiset ryhmät näyttivät käynnistyvän helpommin. Kokoluokkakeskustelua dominoivat opettaja ja pari oppilasta. Videoiden verkkojulkaiseminen herätti ristiriitaisia näkemyksiä. Alakouluissa julkaistiin videoita mielellään, kun taas yläkouluissa arkailtiin niiden julkaisemista. Verkkojulkaisemisen julkisuuskasvatukselliseen keskusteluun osallistamien osapuolten välinen vuorovaikutus jäi vähäiseksi. Vuorovaikutusprosessien ja -ympäristöjen kehittämiseksi opettajalta edellytetään selkeiden osatehtävien huolellista suunnittelua, reflektiivistä ohjaamisen taitoa sekä verkkojulkaisemiseen rohkaisemista mahdollistamaan vuorovaikutusta koulun sekä ympäröivän yhteiskunnan välillä.

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New mass media impact on the nature of public communication and the use and gratification of existing mass media because each new medium is used and experienced differently. As a new mass medium, the Internet offers different forms of communication, such as Internet Relay Chat, Multi-User Dungeons and chatrooms. It has also combined traditional mass media, namely print, radio and television, into a single powerful medium. Due to the fact that the Internet is still an emerging medium, its long-term effects on the nature of public communication and traditional mass media warrants ongoing investigation. The first part (Part A) of this dissertation situates the Internet chronologically within the development of traditional mass media and their impact on public communication. Part B investigates Internet use among a group of professionals in South Africa. The objective is to identify how they use the Internet and the gratification they derive from it. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

New mass media impact on the nature of public communication and the use and gratification of existing mass media because each new medium is used and experienced differently. As a new mass medium, the Internet offers different forms of communication, such as Internet Relay Chat, Multi-User Dungeons and chatrooms. It has also combined traditional mass media, namely print, radio and television, into a single powerful medium. Due to the fact that the Internet is still an emerging medium, its long-term effects on the nature of public communication and traditional mass media warrants ongoing investigation. The first part (Part A) of this dissertation situates the Internet chronologically within the development of traditional mass media and their impact on public communication. Part B investigates Internet use among a group of professionals in South Africa. The objective is to identify how they use the Internet and the gratification they derive from it. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

This thesis introduces and analyses the emerging Website genre of Resource Centre Sites. RCSs are sites which combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. They also offer spaces for virtual communities of specialists or enthusiasts to emerge, who in the process and as a product of their interaction on these sites collate detailed resource collections and hyperlink directories for their fields of interest. Therefore, Resource Centre Sites significantly involve their users as content contributors and producers, turning them into what is here termed ‘produsers’ of the site. Aiming to evaluate all the content relevant to their field that is becoming available online, and to coopt or at least link to this information from the news and resources collection that is a central part of the RCS, Resource Centre Site produsers engage in an adaptation of both traditional journalistic gatekeeping methodologies and librarianly resource collection approaches to the Web environment: in the absence of gates to keep online, they have become ‘gatewatchers’, observing the publication of news and information in other sources and publicising its existence through their own sites. Their operation is studied here through a number of case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites from various fields of interest. These sites are analysed both based on their available Web content, and using background information obtained in a series of email interviews with RCS creators. In combination, this offers insights into the operating philosophies of sites and site editors, and provides an opportunity to assess to what extent these ideas have been translated into everyday practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of past and current theoretical views of the Web in an effort to evaluate their suitability for the current study. Older approaches positing an abstract ‘ideal’ form of hypertext are rejected in favour of a direct engagement with the World Wide Web as the now dominant mode of hypertextuality. Chapter 2 outlines the principles of gatewatching in contrast to traditional methods of evaluating news and information as they exist in journalistic media and archival institutions, and investigates the effects such gatewatching practices may have on editors and users. Chapter 3 describes the overall characteristics of Resource Centre Sites as a genre of Web publications. It notes the special role site users play in the operation of such sites (in their new role as ‘produsers’), and distinguishes the RCS genre from similar Website models such as portals and cybermediaries. Chapter 4 observes the everyday operation of such Websites in practice, using case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites including Slashdot, MediaChannel and CountingDown, and interviews with their creators. (These interviews are included in full in the Appendix.) This analysis works with both a synchronic view to the variety of topics existing Resource Centre Sites are able to address, and a diachronic view to the evolution of proto-RCSs (such as enthusiast community or online advocacy sites) into fully-featured Resource Centre Sites. Finally, based on this analysis, Chapter 5 is then able to point out some of the implications and effects that increasing use of this media form may have on its users and the network of news and information publications on- and offline, and to indicate the potential for further developments of the site genre.

This thesis introduces and analyses the emerging Website genre of Resource Centre Sites. RCSs are sites which combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. They also offer spaces for virtual communities of specialists or enthusiasts to emerge, who in the process and as a product of their interaction on these sites collate detailed resource collections and hyperlink directories for their fields of interest. Therefore, Resource Centre Sites significantly involve their users as content contributors and producers, turning them into what is here termed ‘produsers’ of the site. Aiming to evaluate all the content relevant to their field that is becoming available online, and to coopt or at least link to this information from the news and resources collection that is a central part of the RCS, Resource Centre Site produsers engage in an adaptation of both traditional journalistic gatekeeping methodologies and librarianly resource collection approaches to the Web environment: in the absence of gates to keep online, they have become ‘gatewatchers’, observing the publication of news and information in other sources and publicising its existence through their own sites. Their operation is studied here through a number of case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites from various fields of interest. These sites are analysed both based on their available Web content, and using background information obtained in a series of email interviews with RCS creators. In combination, this offers insights into the operating philosophies of sites and site editors, and provides an opportunity to assess to what extent these ideas have been translated into everyday practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of past and current theoretical views of the Web in an effort to evaluate their suitability for the current study. Older approaches positing an abstract ‘ideal’ form of hypertext are rejected in favour of a direct engagement with the World Wide Web as the now dominant mode of hypertextuality. Chapter 2 outlines the principles of gatewatching in contrast to traditional methods of evaluating news and information as they exist in journalistic media and archival institutions, and investigates the effects such gatewatching practices may have on editors and users. Chapter 3 describes the overall characteristics of Resource Centre Sites as a genre of Web publications. It notes the special role site users play in the operation of such sites (in their new role as ‘produsers’), and distinguishes the RCS genre from similar Website models such as portals and cybermediaries. Chapter 4 observes the everyday operation of such Websites in practice, using case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites including Slashdot, MediaChannel and CountingDown, and interviews with their creators. (These interviews are included in full in the Appendix.) This analysis works with both a synchronic view to the variety of topics existing Resource Centre Sites are able to address, and a diachronic view to the evolution of proto-RCSs (such as enthusiast community or online advocacy sites) into fully-featured Resource Centre Sites. Finally, based on this analysis, Chapter 5 is then able to point out some of the implications and effects that increasing use of this media form may have on its users and the network of news and information publications on- and offline, and to indicate the potential for further developments of the site genre.

This thesis introduces and analyses the emerging Website genre of Resource Centre Sites. RCSs are sites which combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. They also offer spaces for virtual communities of specialists or enthusiasts to emerge, who in the process and as a product of their interaction on these sites collate detailed resource collections and hyperlink directories for their fields of interest. Therefore, Resource Centre Sites significantly involve their users as content contributors and producers, turning them into what is here termed ‘produsers’ of the site. Aiming to evaluate all the content relevant to their field that is becoming available online, and to coopt or at least link to this information from the news and resources collection that is a central part of the RCS, Resource Centre Site produsers engage in an adaptation of both traditional journalistic gatekeeping methodologies and librarianly resource collection approaches to the Web environment: in the absence of gates to keep online, they have become ‘gatewatchers’, observing the publication of news and information in other sources and publicising its existence through their own sites. Their operation is studied here through a number of case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites from various fields of interest. These sites are analysed both based on their available Web content, and using background information obtained in a series of email interviews with RCS creators. In combination, this offers insights into the operating philosophies of sites and site editors, and provides an opportunity to assess to what extent these ideas have been translated into everyday practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of past and current theoretical views of the Web in an effort to evaluate their suitability for the current study. Older approaches positing an abstract ‘ideal’ form of hypertext are rejected in favour of a direct engagement with the World Wide Web as the now dominant mode of hypertextuality. Chapter 2 outlines the principles of gatewatching in contrast to traditional methods of evaluating news and information as they exist in journalistic media and archival institutions, and investigates the effects such gatewatching practices may have on editors and users. Chapter 3 describes the overall characteristics of Resource Centre Sites as a genre of Web publications. It notes the special role site users play in the operation of such sites (in their new role as ‘produsers’), and distinguishes the RCS genre from similar Website models such as portals and cybermediaries. Chapter 4 observes the everyday operation of such Websites in practice, using case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites including Slashdot, MediaChannel and CountingDown, and interviews with their creators. (These interviews are included in full in the Appendix.) This analysis works with both a synchronic view to the variety of topics existing Resource Centre Sites are able to address, and a diachronic view to the evolution of proto-RCSs (such as enthusiast community or online advocacy sites) into fully-featured Resource Centre Sites. Finally, based on this analysis, Chapter 5 is then able to point out some of the implications and effects that increasing use of this media form may have on its users and the network of news and information publications on- and offline, and to indicate the potential for further developments of the site genre.