Writing Media: A Case Study of Literary Sponsorship, Practice, and Identity in a Story-Sharing App

Author: Ksenia Korobkova
Presented at 2017 AERA

​Abstract: This research study investigates the most popular storysharing mobile app with an eye toward literacy constraints and affordances. Using sociocultural theory and employing constructs of literacy practices (Scribner & Cole, 1981) and literacy sponsorship (Brandt, 2001), the study analyzes power-laden dynamics connected to “new,” networked, social, and mobile literacies enabled by apps. In-depth content analyses, surveys, and interviews are utilized to explore and analyze literacy practices made available via the app and the uptake, negotiation, and contestation of these practices by adolescent users. Analyses show that although the mobile device is heralded as an equalizer of power relations, new cleavages and questions related to power and the distribution of literate resources are born with the proliferation of mobile technologies like apps.