WP35 Popular culture consumption and identities at school

This paper draws from a three-year project entitled ?Urban Classroom Culture and Interaction? that investigates the significance of teen consumption of media and popular culture within the everyday environment of a multi-ethnic secondary school. This consumption plays an important part the formation and negotiation of these young people?s identity. It is argued that the social significance of media and popular culture consumption can be explored by adopting an ethnographic research model that engages with everyday social interaction and social processes. The purpose of this paper is to propose a set of research methods for exploring the use value and symbolic value of media and popular culture for different teen consumers, in relation to their everyday lives. The research model presented enables an investigation of the significance of media consumption that extends beyond the focus on the interaction between the text and the consumer commonly found in media consumption studies.