Description

Navigating the Media Environment: How Youths Claim a Place Through Zines

The importance of media in the lives of children has received considerable attention. From theater to radio, and video to self-published zines, young people’s self-representations yield images, caricatures, and myths that shape public opinion. Refocusing the lens of current debates on media and youth–the effects of TV watching on youth violence and the impact of corporate media power–we were interested to learn how youth are revisioning the possibilities of using media for their agendas. Julie Chu depicts the subculture created within the tens of thousands of zines produced by youth. The rise in zine production exemplifies the new social networks and forms of community that have been emerging since the 1980s. Chu analyzes the importance and content of zines as a window into youth subjectivity in the 1990s.

magazines, media industry, publishing industry, youth culture

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 24, No. 3 (1997): 71-85