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10 Introduction(Chin 2001; Dyson 1997; Ito 2006; Seiter 1999a). In the case of interactivemedia and communications technology, the constitutive role of youthvoice and sociability is further accentuated in what Henry Jenkins (1992;2006) has described as a “participatory media culture” and Mizuko Ito(2008b) has described in terms of “hypersociality” surrounding mediaengagement. In looking at Pokémon, for example, David Buckingham andJulian Sefton-Green (2004) have argued that although all media audiencesare in some ways “active,” interactive and sociable media such as Pokémon“positively require activity.” With teens, this participatory approach towardnew media has been channeled into networked gaming and social mediasites such as MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube, which have captured thepublic limelight and added fuel to the discourse of a digital generation.The active and sociable nature of youth new media engagement argues foran ethnographic approach that looks at not only the content of mediabut also the social practices and contexts in which media engagement isembedded. While we are cautious about assuming a natural affinity betweenyouth and participatory forms of media engagement, it is clear that youthparticipation in these media forms is high, and that interactive and networkedmedia require particular methodological commitments.We use the term “new media” to describe a media ecology where moretraditional media such as books, television, and radio are intersecting withdigital media, specifically interactive media and media for social communication(Jenkins 2006). As described in chapter 1, we are interested in theconvergent media ecology that youth are inhabiting today rather than inisolating the specific affordances of digital-production tools or online networks.We have used the term “new media” rather than terms such as“digital media” or “interactive media” because the moniker of “the new”seemed appropriately situational, relational, and protean, and not tied toa specific media platform. Just as in the case of youth, who are always onthe verge of growing older, media are constantly undergoing a process ofaging and identity reformulation in which there is a generation of the newready to replace the old. Our focus is on media that are new at this particularhistorical moment. Our difficulty in naming a trait that defines themedia we are scrutinizing (interactive, digital, virtual, online, social, networked,convergent, etc.) stems from the fact that we are examining aconstellation of media changes, in a move toward more digital, networked,and interactive forms, which together define the horizon of “the new.”