Copy and Paste Literacy: Literacy practices in the production of a MySpace profile

In this paper, I argue that MySpace is an informal learning environment that fosters the development of new literacies. This analysis is based on a model that tries to reconcile social and technical perspectives on literacy. The expressive power found in the creation of a MySpace profile concerns a technically simple but socially complex practice: the copying and pasting of code as a way to appropriate and reuse other people’s media products. However, the importance of copying and pasting code does not easily fit in the common conventions of reading and writing, consumption and production. By integrating theories of appropriation and reuse of media with theories of literacy, a new way of thinking about this practice emerges, seeing “participation” and “remix” as important concepts to describe the social and technical aspects of new media literacy.