Mashup: digital media and drama conventions

Web developers use the term 'mashup' to describe new applications that emerge when complementary elements are combined from two or more sources. This chapter considers how some educational dramatic conventions can accommodate contemporary and emerging digital media forms. Increasingly, these media forms regarded as 'everyday' communication are based on digital technology and networks that have moved from computers in academic and government settings into a range of devices for domestic and personal use. Digital media are everywhere, 'taken up by diverse populations and non-institutionalized practices, including the peer activities of youth' (Ito et al. 2008, p. vii). As its starting point, this chapter takes the widely used conventions and techniques for structuring drama outlined in the books Structuring drama work (Neelands and Goode 2000) and Beginning drama 11'14 (Neelands 2004). Many of the drama conventions discussed in those books make use of, or are modelled upon cultural uses of, common media forms. In some cases the digital media forms suggested here are presented simply as being a more contemporary form to substitute directly into the drama, for example making use of an email message rather than a letter or facsimile. In other cases, the media forms suggested can be considered as a means by which the drama activity itself can be conducted, for example making use of a discussion forum as the means by which participants can engage in a drama activity beyond being physically present in the same space. As with earlier drama conventions, the digital media forms and possible applications are presented as a selection of elements and ideas that individuals and practitioners can adopt and adapt in whatever ways are appropriate to them. They are offered as a means of thinking about the possible advantages of mixing established drama forms with new technologies.