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244 Patricia G. Lange and Mizuko ItoDigital and online media are opening new avenues for young people tocreate and share media. Surveys conducted by the Pew Internet & AmericanLife project indicate a rapid growth in what it describes as online “contentcreation,” particularly among youth (Lenhart et al. 2007). The growingavailability of digital media-production tools, combined with sites whereyoung people can post and discuss media works, has created a new mediaecology that supports everyday media creation and sharing for kids engagedin creative production. Social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook,blogs, online journals, and media-sharing sites such as YouTube, deviant-ART, and FanFiction.net are all examples of sites that enable youth to postor repost content in the context of ongoing personal communication.Media educators are beginning to consider this new media ecology’s potentialto reshape the conditions under which young people engage withmedia and culture, moving youth from positions as media consumers tomore active media producers. In what Henry Jenkins (2006) and his colleagueshave described as “participatory culture,” budding creators candevelop their voices and identities as media creators through ongoinginteraction with engaged peers and audiences (Jenkins 1992; Jenkins et al.2006). Conversely, researchers also are concerned that the blurring of theboundaries between social communication and media production coulddegrade the standards of the latter. For example, Naomi Baron (2008, 6)asks, “Could it be that the more we write online, the worse writers webecome?”Drawing from a range of case studies, this chapter describes differentmodes of new media production that young people engage in, analyzingthese practices in relation to learning and the development of skills andidentities as media producers. We draw primarily from our case studies onyouth media production by Dan Perkel (MySpace Profile Production),Dilan Mahendran (Hip-Hop Music Production), Patricia G. Lange (YouTubeand Video Bloggers), Sonja Baumer (Self-Production through YouTube),Mizuko Ito (Anime Fans), and Becky Herr-Stephenson (Harry PotterFandom). Discussion of game-related production is largely covered inchapter 5. The focus of this chapter is on the social processes of interestdrivengenres of participation, but we also describe how kids get involvedin messing around with new media through their more friendship-drivenpractices, and we draw from studies on the friendship-driven side todescribe some of these dynamics. The interest-driven groups that are the