Video Culture

Abstract

This article presents findings from an international research project on the use of video for interculutral youth communication, “VideoCulture.” Young people from different locales of five Western countries produced and exchanged short videotapes on a range of themes, and their responses to each other's productions were recorded and analyzed. A review of the rationale and methodology for the project frames the presentation of two case studies. One study focuses specifically on how young people as media producers learn the “languages” of video production and how they conceptualize their audience. Another study examines issues of reception, in which ideas about a shared sense of “youth experience” and young people's conceptions of their counterparts in other cultures are both playing key roles. A concluding discussion reviews the multiple and interrelated findings of the entire study and the implications they hold for cross-cultural communication, youth media production, audience interpretation, and media education.