Being Digital, Being Hip Hop
“The Hip Hop Lifestyle: Exploring the Perils and Possibilities of Black Youth’s Media Environment”
Monday, September 21, 12 noon, 7200 Law School (Lubar Commons)
“To Be Young, Black and Digital: Hip Hop’s Future in the Digital Age”
Monday, September 21, 7pm, 1100 Grainger
S. CRAIG WATKINS teaches in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been writing about youth and media for more than ten years. His works cuts across varied terrain: media studies, sociology, race and ethnicity, and most recently digital media. As a part of the MacArthur Foundation’s initiative on youth, learning, and digital media, Watkins joined a team of researchers, thought leaders, and technology visionaries to explore in detail young people’s engagement with digital technologies. His most recent book, The Young and the Digital:What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future (Beacon 2009), is based on several years of research including surveys and in-depth interviews with young technology users. His previous books include Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement (Beacon Press 2005), and Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema (The University of Chicago Press 1998). Currently, Watkins is launching a new digital media research initiative that focuses on the use and evolution of social media platforms. For updates on these and other projects visit theyoungandthedigital.com.