Abstract
This chapter utilizes key findings from a research project investigating teenage user-generated content, creativity and learning on ‘Blast’, an initiative by the BBC, the UK’s public service broadcaster, which ran between 2004 and 2010. It was an on- and offline resource for teenagers, encompassing a range of creative strands (film, music, dance, games, writing, fashion, art and design). The website allowed teenagers to view, comment on and upload creative material: it included a showcase section, message boards, blogs and short instructive clips from professionals in the field. In addition, the project included an eight-month touring workshop, links with local educational and creative groups, televisual output, film and videomaking competitions in conjunction with Media Trust, work placements and work experience for young people. Sustained by user-generated content and with the notion of creative autonomy at its heart, BBC Blast was both inherently flawed and truly exciting. As John Millner, the Executive Producer, noted in the foreword to our 2008 report:
Blast is the BBC’s most ambitious and sustained experiment to date in user-generated content … Blast aims to be a catalyst and incubator of teenagers’ creative skills in the fields of art and design, music, dance, video, gaming, writing and fashion … by the beginning of 2007 Blast was growing fast, mounting a nationwide roadshow of creative workshops, attracting tens of thousands of uploads of young creatives’ work to its online galleries, and generating real excitement from everyone who came into contact with the project. (McFarlane and Thornham, 2008, p. 3)
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© 2014 Helen Thornham and Angela McFarlane
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Thornham, H., McFarlane, A. (2014). Claiming Content and Constructing Users: User-generated Content and BBC Blast. In: Buckingham, D., Bragg, S., Kehily, M.J. (eds) Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008152_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008152_12
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