iGen Cinema. Moving Image Consumption and Production by Post-Millenials

Compared to the generation of the so-called Millenials, the Post-Millennials are the first true digital natives, being exposed to smartphones and other mobile media devices from the very first days of their lives. Also known as the iGeneration (or iGen), they become at a very young age touchscreen players, multiscreen users, early prosumers and later social media followers. They show an active attitude towards media, both in a personal and heterodox way.

Comunicazioni Sociali’s special issue iGen Cinema - edited by Alexandra Schneider, Wanda Strauven and Mariagrazia Fanchi - aims at analyzing Post-Millennials’ cinema experiences and practices. Although the youngest generation does not seem to go too often to the movie theatre any longer, cinema remains a point of reference in their lives. As recent surveys demonstrate, youngsters not only consume a lot of films and other moving images on multiple devices, but also produce their own audiovisual objects in a variety of forms and formats. In other words, Post-Millennials are doing what Miriam Hansen predicted: they are reimagining and reinventing cinema (Hansen, 2012).

The thematic issue is divided into three sections, focusing on three different aspects of iGen Cinema: representation, consumption and production. The first section deals with representational issues in connection with teen genres; the second section collects essays reflecting on new forms of spectatorships, related to the practices of binge-watching, second screen uses and traditional moviegoing; the third section, lastly, proposes to look at active media forms, such as Snapchat and mobile monster-making apps, which lead to the production of new content.

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