Toddlers Watching TV - A study on the role of electronic media in the everyday-lives of one to three year old children

In recent studies on children and electronic media, children are acknowledged as active users, interpreting TV-texts in various meaningful ways, according to their previously constructed knowledge of narratives and relating the texts to their everyday lives. Still, there is a tendency that toddlers' (ages 1 to 3) viewing is neglected, and seen as mere fascinations of patterns, bright colours and movements without focusing on the social uses or uses in which television narratives come to play an important part in small children's experimenting with building identity and self-image. This article focuses on the meaning-making processes that take place when toddlers watch television and DVD, and the way in which they broaden the reception-situation to different arenas, for instance through play and different uses of merchandise connected to the television programs. Also, it studies the context of children's media use, the way both parents, media and market set up the frames of children's reception

Does excessive social media use actually harm the self-esteem of young people?

A Swedish survey has claimed that social media use negatively affects the self esteem of young people. But such studies must take into account the complex intertwining of online and offline worlds, and recognise that a sharp distinction between life, relationships, and communication online and offline is no longer meaningful. Stine Liv Johansen is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Media at Aarhus University. She studies children’s media use in different contexts, most recently practices related to children’s use of YouTube. She is a member of the Danish Media Council for Children and Youth

Medier i hele kroppen: Når små børn bruger medier

Små børn forholder sig fra en tidlig alder til både elektroniske medier, legetøj og merchandise i en kropslig og legende praksis. I denne artikel præsenteres resultater fra ph.d. afhandlingen Seere i bleer – små børns møde med medier. Artiklen vil især fokusere på, hvordan børnenes mediebrug kan forstås som en kropslig praksis, både på et individuelt og et socialt niveau via især tre perspektiver: for det første, at det lille barn, gennem sin kropslige væren i verden og sin sonderende attitude over for samme, er kontinuerligt opmærksom på medieflow, blandt andet via de auditive strukturmarkører i medietekster. For det andet reflekterer barnet det, det ser og hører, i sin krop, ved at afprøve rytmer og positurer og ved atforholde sig til genkendelige tegn på mediestil og – genre. Samtidig er det typisk at små børn er særligt interesserede i mediefigurernes kroppe og bevægelser. Og for det tredje fungerer kropslige aktiviteter og relationer som omdrejningspunkt for den sociale brug af medier i familien

Medialiseret legepraksis i børns hverdagsliv: Hvad betyder det at være ”digital native”?

Nutidens børn har aldrig kendt til et liv uden digitale medier, teknologisk legetøj, medieformidlede fortællinger og adgang til internettet. Derfor færdes de i dagens medialiserede samfund helt uden at trække grænser mellem digitalt og analogt, mellem offline og online venskaber og mellem computerspil og ”rigtig leg”. De er digitalt indfødte, med andre ord. Deres tilgang til medier og teknologi er derfor grundlæggende anderledes end de fleste voksnes, hvilket giver anledning til undren, frustration og misforståelser, når voksne overfører deres normer og forståelser på børnenes praksis med afsæt i netop grænser mellem det digitale og ”det virkelige liv”. Gennem to empiriske, praksisnære eksempler er det denne artikels formål at præsentere et teorikompleks, der kan begribe betydningen af medier og teknologi i børns hverdagsliv, set fra børnenes synsvinkel og med et legekulturelt udgangspunkt. Teoretisk tages afsæt i medialiseringsteori (Hjarvard 2008, Lundby 2009) samt i et praksisteoretisk (Frykman & Gilje 2003, Reckwitz 2002) greb i forhold til at beskrive konkrete, empiriske legesituationer som de udspiller sig med og uden teknologi

Children’s digital friendship practices during the first Covid-19 lockdown

During the Covid-19 pandemic, digital technologies have come to the forefront of mostpeople’s social, professional, and educational lives, and children have, like everyone else, depended on digital media for remote schooling as well as informal communication with their peers. This article presents results from a qualitative interview study among 20 Danish children, aged 3–12, and their parents during the spring and summer of 2020. As would be expected, age predicted a certain level of proficiency with, and access to, digital media technologies. However, children across the age spectrum of our sample relied on adult facilitation of digital practices in similar ways during a time where these were foregrounded in unforeseen ways. We discuss these findings in relation to a triadic theoretical framework of distributed agency, dynamic affordances, and access-oriented aspects of children’s practices with communication technology

Panik før, under og efter en nedlukningstid: børns mediebrug under coronakrisen

The media practices of children and youth have often been subject to polarized debates in which ‘media’ are portrayed as harmful and something which must be contained. Kirsten Drotner’s canonized concept of media panics speaks to this issue and the concept itself has also been the subject of discussions elsewhere. This article reflects on the role of media in children’s everyday lives in light of the ongoing crisis due to Covid-19. The article presents empirical examples from the research project “Children’s Digital Lives during Covid-19” as well as international perspectives, and through these it relates to the ongoing societal focus on digital literacy and children’s media practices