Participatory action research and media literacy: Toward engaged, accountable, and collaborative knowledge production with marginalized communities

Abstract

Focusing on research methodologies, this chapter addresses the potential and challenges of participatory action research (PAR) for working with marginalized youth communities in the context of media education and media literacy research. PAR may offer new opportunities to bridge the perspectives of academics, practitioners, and learners. Rather than conducting research on a community, it is an approach to research with communities. Participatory action research enables researchers to ensure that their academic objectives are aligned with the interests of the participants. The chapter is structured in three sections. In the first, we examine PAR objectives and detail where PAR originated. Second, we discuss the type of research questions PAR approaches can cover in relation to critical media literacy theories, introduce methodological techniques, and outline the challenges. Third, we present five principles – related to power relations, stakeholders, ethics, process, and reflection – for carrying out PAR. In general, PAR may contribute to larger changes currently observable in academia. Universities are increasingly seeking to rebrand the academic landscape, not as an ivory tower removed from society but as a publicly engaged institution. PAR provides an approach, methodology, and social justice-based ethics to support this broader shift toward engaged, community-based research.