ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: USING DIGITAL MEDIA IN RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

This document lists a range of research involving digital media, children and young people. Some of the sources focus on methods, while others provide information about childrens digital media habits. The sources listed include web pages, textbooks and journal articles. Some sources are free to access; others require payment or journal subscriptions. This resource was produced in 2012 for Young Digital: www.youngdigital.net

Mobile digital technologies and children/young people

Plowman, L. and Stevenson, O. (forthcoming, 2012) Using mobile phones to explore childrens everyday lives. Childhood. http://bit.ly/Op3SC6 (free to access) The authors develop digital diary methods for environments where participant research can often be difficult the family home and car journeys. Parents were instructed to send the researchers combined picture and text messages to provide a visual diary of family activities, as a means to document childrens play activities and interactions as seen through the eyes of parents.

Walker, M., Whyatt, D., Pooley, C., Davies, G., Coulton, P. and Bamford, W. (2009) Talk, technologies and teenagers: understanding the school journey using a mixed-methods approach. Childrens Geographies, 7 (2): 107-122

http://bit.ly/PzZAfZ (subscription required) This study used mobile telephones linked to GPS receivers to log the travel routes of young teenagers in north England, as they walked to and from school. The teenagers took photographs and entered textual information on their mobile telephones while travelling using a GIS mobile application called GeoBlog, in an attempt to capture their perceptions of their personal health and wellbeing as they travelled.

Henderson, S., Taylor, R. and Thomson, R. (2002) In touch: Young people, communication and technologies. Information, Communication & Society, 5 (4): 494-512 http://bit.ly/O88ule (subscription required) Using longitudinal qualitative data from five different locations in the UK, the authors explore the emergence of the mobile telephone in the everyday lives of young people, and consider how class, gender and culture can shape their meanings and use. Set within a wider context of young peoples sociality, it is concluded that the meanings and uses of mobiles are wide-ranging, from the ability to buy privacy and independence from parental control, to the positioning of oneself within social hierarchies.

Morris, W., Jones, O., Wood, L. and Fleuriot, C. (2006) Investigating new wireless technologies and their potential impact on childrens spatiality: A role for GIS. Transactions in GIS, 10 (1): 87-102. http://bit.ly/Sc16Um (subscription required) This paper details a series of workshops led by the authors with primary school children in Bristol, England, to investigate the potential role of wireless mobile technologies for childrens self-authorship of their environments. Using PDA handheld computers, the children designed and produced virtual sound maps that overlaid their local physical environment. This gave children a means of communicating their environmental perceptions in spaces that might otherwise tend to reproduce adultist geograph[ies] of the city.

Young people and social networking websites

Livingstone, S. (2008) Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New media & society, 10 (3): 393-411 http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27072/ (free to access) The author conducted interviews with 16 teenagers in their homes in London, while simultaneously viewing their profiles, and the profiles of their friends, on different social networking sites (MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Piczo). The paper seeks to understand how these teenagers shape their online identities and interact with peers, and considers the opportunities (such as intimacy and sociability) and risks (privacy, misunderstanding, abuse) that such social networking affords teenagers.

boyd, d. (2008) Why youth social network sites: the role of networked publics in teenage social life. In: Buckingham, D. (ed.) Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 119142 http://bit.ly/Ndelnk (free to access) Using a range of ethnographic tools, including participant observation, qualitative interviews, and deep hanging out, boyd considers how teenagers using social networking sites negotiate between public and private realms. Further, boyd outlines how social networks produce networked publics that differ from non-mediated public life because of the presence of four properties (persistence, searchability, replicability, and invisible audiences) that alter social dynamics.

Donoso, V. And Ribbens, W. (2010). Identity under construction. Journal of Children and Media, 4 (4): 435-450 http://bit.ly/LOZZtZ (subscription required) In this paper the authors explore young peoples use of photoblogs as a mechanism for self-disclosure and the opportunities this offers to adolescents identity construction. They emphasise the potential benefits such sites offer

for adolescents to experiment with different versions of the self and to create a sense of belonging.

Young people and digital technologies: ethnographic tools

Leander, K.M. and McKim, K.K. (2003) Tracing the everyday sitings of adolescents on the internet: a strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces. Education, Communication & Information, 3 (2): 211-240 www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace/sitings.pdf (free to access) The paper begins by outlining a set of problems with traditional place-based ethnographic procedures for researching adolescents online literacy. This includes: the notable lack of bounded physical sites for such research; the absence of non-verbal cues in online textual communication; and the invisibility of members of online communities who remain silent. The authors offer some connective ethnographic procedures to overcome these challenges, which moves ethnography from a place-bound practice to [a] moving, traveling practice.

Kullman, K. (2012) Experiments with moving children and digital cameras. Childrens Geographies, 10 (1): 1-16 http://bit.ly/NjJiDB (subscription required) In this paper, Kullman develops digital visual ethnographic methods to investigate school journeys made by a group of children in Helsinki, Finland. Using participatory digital filming and digital photography methods and followup interviews, the author explores childrens image making practices including their performative aspects, such as the staging of images and the sharing and circulation of images and cameras.

Ruckenstein, M. (2010) Toying with the world: Children, virtual pets and the value of mobility. Childhood, 17 (4): 500-513 http://bit.ly/PPohVV (free to access)

Based on ethnographic data drawn from participant observation, individual and group interviews, and childrens drawings produced within 3 preschools in Helsinki, this article focuses on the interactions between preschoolers, teachers and virtual pet toys. The research results emphasise gendered differences in the ways in which these toys are used, principally with regard to caretaking, and the various ways that virtual pets allow preschoolers to move between, and orient themselves within, virtual and physical worlds.

Arrsand, P. and Forsberg, L. (2010) Producing childrens corporeal privacy: ethnographic video recording as material-discursive practice. Qualitative Research 10 (2): 249-268 http://bit.ly/Pyk0Sj (subscription required) Drawing on ethnographic data collected over the period of one year with eight Swedish families, the authors consider the ethical dilemmas faced by researchers using video cameras to carry out participant observation in peoples homes. The authors argue that, because videotaping is framed as a public event, the choice of technology used had a significant impact on how researchers and participants create and negotiate corporeal privacy.

Young peoples media habits and use

Livingstone, S.; Haddon, L.; Grzig, A.; lafsson, K. with members of the EU Kids Online Network (2011) EU Kids Online: Final Report. London: LSE Research Online. http://www.eukidsonline.de/Final%20report.pdf (free to access) This report presents the findings from a detailed face-to-face survey exploring childrens online habits and experiences. Interviews were carried out with 25,142 young people (9-16 years old) and their parents from 25 countries of the European Union during 2010. The authors consider 10 myths about childrens online risks and make a number of recommendations for, amongst others, government, parents and educators.

Livingstone, S. and Bober, M. (2003) UK children go online: listening to young peoples experiences [online]. London: LSE Research Online. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/0000388 (free to access) This paper draws on the findings from fourteen focus groups carried out with 55 young people (9-19 years old), and longitudinal interviews with three young people and their parents. The combination of methods highlighted the gap between great expectations and good intentions, and actual online use and behaviour. Findings suggest that despite young peoples enthusiasm for the internet there were gaps in their internet literacy and a lack of critical engagement with online content.

Ito, M.; Bittanti, H.H.M.; boyd, d.; Herr-Stephenson, B.; Lange, P.G.; Pascoe, C.J. and Robinson, L. with Baumer, S.; Cody, R.; Mahendran, D; Martnez, K.; Perkel, D.; Sims, C. and Tripp, L. (2008) Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundations Reports on Digital Media and Learning. http://bit.ly/NpLRIK (free to access) This paper documents young peoples everyday engagement with new media in the US. It is based on a three-year ethnographic study which included semi-structured interviews, focus groups, diary studies, online discussion group forums, videos, observations, online profiles and questionnaires. Findings suggest that young peoples engagement with online networks creates new opportunities for learning, education and public participation. These challenge traditional models of learning and traditional notions of expertise and authority.

Druin, A.; Foss, E.; Hatley, L.; Golub, E.; Guha, M.L.; Fails, J.; and Hutchison, H. (2009). How children search the internet with keyword interfaces, in Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, June 3-5, 2009, Como, Italy. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1753388 (subscription required) This paper presents the findings of a study to understand how children search the internet using keyword interfaces in the home. The authors emphasise the

potential barriers children encounter when searching for information on the internet, and offer some suggestions for improving the design of future internet search interfaces for children.

New media use as educational tool

Sylla, C.; Branco, P.; Coutinho, C. and Coquet, E. (2012). TUIs vs. GUIs: comparing the learning potential with preschoolers. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 16 (4): 421-432 http://www.springerlink.com/content/a787j38171409225/ (subscription required) In this paper the authors present the findings of a comparison study evaluating the merits of tangible and traditional graphical user interfaces for teaching preschoolers (4-5 years old). The study used three evaluation methodologies to assess childrens involvement and preferences with the interfaces, highlighting some of the difficulties in evaluating technology for and with preschoolers.

New media and socio-political engagement

Coleman, S. (2008). Doing IT for Themselves: Management versus Autonomy in Youth E-Citizenship. In: Lance Bennett, W. (ed.) Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 189-206. http://bit.ly/NpUoey (free to access) Drawing from the findings of a study of six youth e-citizenship projects in the United Kingdom, the author considers the tension between, and the drawbacks of, managed (i.e. run for young people with strong links to government) and autonomous (i.e. run by young people with weak or no links to government) youth e-citizenship. The author argues for greater convergence between these two models and concludes by making a number of suggestions for educationalists and policy.

Sandoval, C, and Latorre, G. (2008) Chicana/o Artivism: Judy Bacas Digital Work with Youth of Color. In: Everett, A. (ed.) Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 81108. http://bit.ly/O8b76F (free to access) The authors explore young peoples digital art and activism through an analysis of collaborations between public artist Judy Baca and young Chicanas/os in Southern California. They describe a number of projects and methodologies used, highlighting the potential of blending digital art and activism to breach social, racial and generational divides.

Internet methods

Rogers, R. (2010) Internet Research: The Question of Method a Keynote Address from the YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States Conference, Journal or Information Technology & Politics, 7 (2/3): 241-260 http://bit.ly/NS8YY0 (free to access) Drawing from a number of examples, the author critically reviews the existing approaches for the study of internet cultures. He concludes that these have, by and large, merely digitalised traditional social sciences methodologies. He considers the particular research opportunities the internet offers and what natively digital approaches might be worth pursuing.

Produced in 2012 for Young Digital www.youngdigital.net