Paper Abstract - A.M. Mullally

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ABSTRACT

The way we tell 'em: Children, Narrative and ICT

Anna Mullally

As frequently observed (Kaiser Foundation, 1999; Tapscott, 1999), today's young children "have never known a world without interactive video games, personal computers and the world wide-web" (Kaiser Foundation 1999:1). Furthermore they "..have never known a time when they were not viewed as consumers, thus when substantial portions of media and media content were not tailored for them" (Pecora, 1998 in Kaiser 1999:1). Readings of this phenomenon have ranged from those that are clearly 'technophilic' to those which have been declaimed as 'Neo-Luddite.' In the middle ground a growing cohort of researchers is taking as the object of their curious and critical regard the impact of ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Though there is ample description of the broader social impact of what some term 'cyberculture' and others shrug off as merely the 'internet', there has been considerably less investigation of the impact of any aspect of ICT on children, and very limited qualitative scrutiny of children's activity within this new environment.

The aim of this ethnographic research was twofold. The primary aim was to establish suggestive readings of (digital) narratives through original qualitative research carried out with a sample group of 9 to 11 year old Irish children and their families at a particular time, that is spring and summer 2001. Given the small size of the sample group, findings can only be viewed as pointers to possible trends. It would be apt therefore to label this a pilot study.

The children interviewed present and identify themselves as cultural consumers, fitted out with aerials, modems, satellite dishes and mobile phones pulsating, beeping, and vibrating with downloaded culture, which they busily interpret, reinterpret and from which they poach - textually. All of them spend the majority portion of the time chosen to use the computer, engaged in the leisure pursuit of videogames. In pursuing their opinions on ICT and narrative, therefore, one must begin with play, in its capacity as a catalyst for the interaction with digital texts. The versions of narrative offered by videogames, are examined, through case-studies using the games these children play, positive and negative discourse surrounding games, and the thoughts of the informants themselves.

The secondary aim of this research was to interrogate any notions there may be on the part of the children of a metanarrative of technology, and to see in what way this may have been shaped by their parents and siblings and by gendering and contemporary constructions of childhood. Other forces in their environment such as school, their peers and the way in which new technologies have been marketed to them are also considered. It is concluded that narrative as it is understood and rendered by children is expanding to take into account new possibilities within ICT and also that patterns of gameplay amongst boys and girls would suggest a gendering of children through their encounters with PCs and games consoles.

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