Digital Media Literacy of Children with Parents Working Abroad: Case Study of the Romanian Northeastern Area

Rumänien, als eines der jüngsten Mitglieder der Europäischen Union, wurde in den letzten zwanzig Jahren mit einer hohen Migration konfrontiert. Es handelte sich um Arbeitsmigration aus Rumänien in Richtung Italien, Frankreich, Deutschland und Grossbritannien. Bei einigen Familien handelt es sich nicht nur um ein Elternteil, sondern oftmals um beide Elternteile, die für einige Monate oder sogar Jahre ihre Kinder bei Grosseltern oder Verwandten lassen und ins Ausland gehen. Dieses Phänomen prägt die rumänische Gesellschaft, insbesondere den Nordosten Rumäniens. Unsere Studie widmet sich der digitalen Medienkompetenz der Kinder, deren Eltern im Ausland arbeiten. Wir möchten dabei die Idee betonen, dass diese Kinder und Jugendliche nicht benachteiligt sind. Die theoretische Grundlage bietet das Medienkompetenz-Modell (Riesmeyer, Pfaff-Rüdiger, und Kümpel 2012; Dewe und Sander 1996; Groeben 2002; Livingstone 2004). Leitfadeninterviews wurden im Zeitraum zwischen Januar und April 2018 mit Kindern und Jugendlichen aus der Region Nordosten Rumänien durchgeführt. Sie haben eine bessere ökonomische Situation und einen besseren Zugang zu Kommunikationstechnologien als deren Freunde. Der Migrationshintergrund beeinflusst die motivationalen Fähigkeiten und hat wenig Einfluss auf die rechtliche Medienkompetenz. Soziale Netzwerk-Plattformen bieten technische Unterstützung, um Probleme und Sorgen mit den Eltern zu teilen.Romania is one of the countries in the European Union that has been confronted with a large intra-EU migration of population towards countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in the last two decades. Thus, one or both parents work abroad for several months or sometimes for years and their children are left in the care of their grandparents or other close relatives. This phenomenon has large implications for the Romanian society and certain regions, such as the Northeastern, are dealing with the consequences. The paper addresses the question of media literacy of the children whose parents are working abroad and adds to the current discussions, in particular to a discourse that does not position children of migrant workers as automatically disadvantaged. As a foundation for our study we used a skills-based model of media literacy (Riesmeyer, Pfaff-Rüdiger, and Kümpel 2012; Dewe and Sander 1996; Groeben 2002; Livingstone 2004). We conducted thirty in-depth interviews with children and adolescents from the Northeastern region of Romania between January and April 2018. Romanian children and adolescents with parents working abroad live in a favourable economic context and have better access to communication technology than their peers. The migration situation influences the motivational dimension of media skills but probably has little influence on legal media skills. Social media offers them technical support in order to see their parents, to share their problems and worries. It is often used for educational purposes in this particular situation

Adolescents’ Augmented Reality Filter Usage on Social Media, Developmental Process, and Well-Being

Social media platforms are relevant for the media diet of adolescents. Augmented reality (AR) filters on social media are prevalent within the media consumption of this age group. Recent studies have unveiled the negative impact of beautifying AR filters and digitally enhanced pictures on adolescents’ well-being. However, there is a need for an in-depth understanding of how adolescents use AR filters beyond aesthetic reasons. Therefore, the present study aims to contribute to the existing scholarship by focusing on various AR filters and their relation to adolescents’ well-being. We investigate different ways of using AR filters (e.g., public posts versus ephemeral settings or direct messages to online friends) inspired by peers and social media influencers. Thus, we conducted four focus groups with N = 40 adolescent participants aged 14 to 18 from a European country. Our findings align with previous research on adults, showing that adolescents use AR filters for fun, entertainment, creativity, interaction, and self-expression. Besides, adolescents’ well-being determined using AR filters can be tied to crucial elements of the developmental process, such as connections, identity, learning, and emotions. Results showed that using AR filters on social media can facilitate socializing and increase self-esteem. Conversely, their use is time-consuming and can cause adolescents frustration and enhance social pressure. This study provides new insights into adolescents’ AR-filter-related interactions. Furthermore, it contributes to the literature on AR filter usage, well-being, and the developmental process of adolescents

The Polyphonic Sounds of Europe: Users’ Engagement With Parties’ European-Focused Facebook Posts

It is an old concern in public and academic debates that people are not interested in European‐level issues, and even European Parliamentary election campaigns, which are the main democratic tools of the European Union (EU) to involve ordinary people into political decision‐making, are mostly about national‐level political topics. Moreover, even when European issues emerge, the context of its discussion is often harmful to European integration and strengthens the perceived importance of domestic politics. In the age of social media, however, users’ content preferences may significantly affect the presence of different political levels in political campaigns, but these preferences are still largely uncovered in academic literature. To fill this gap, we investigate the direct and moderated effects of European‐focused Facebook posts on user engagement drawing upon a content analysis dataset including 9,688 posts of 68 parties from 12 EU countries. In line with the well‐known second‐order election hypothesis (Reif & Schmitt, 1980) we hypothesize a negative direct main effect. However, we also assume that this effect is moderated by several content‐, and party‐level factors, and when people engage with European‐level contents they do it with those ones that are posted by populist parties, focused on a few divisive hot topics, and are framed with a negative tone. Moreover, we expect cross‐country differences. We find that on the whole, user engagement with national‐level political content prevails over the European‐level, but in some countries there are no remarkable differences in user engagement patterns of the two levels. While our findings mostly confirm the second‐order election hypothesis, they also demonstrate that European politics can spread within social media platforms in a less divisive and negative way than we expected. European‐focused posts do not perform better when they are posted by populist parties, focused selectively on the salient issues of immigration or environment, or framed in a negative way

Review of "The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World", by José van Dijck, Thomas Poell, and Martijn de Waal

In a society based on sharing economy and personalized services, the book The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World is focused on a relevant contemporary issue, that of the platform-driven change of society. The book offers a comprehensive view of a connected world (p.2) where several areas of society are subject to change. By using techniques that enable connectedness and supported by a participatory culture, platforms contribute to the development of a society that is less dependent on legacy institutions. The central issue addressed in this book is how public values and sectorial activities are shaped by platforms nowadays. According to the authors, the accountability for a balanced platform society is held by three major categories of actors: corporations, governments, and the civil society

Review of "The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World", by José van Dijck, Thomas Poell, and Martijn de Waal

In a society based on sharing economy and personalized services, the book The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World is focused on a relevant contemporary issue, that of the platform-driven change of society. The book offers a comprehensive view of a connected world (p.2) where several areas of society are subject to change. By using techniques that enable connectedness and supported by a participatory culture, platforms contribute to the development of a society that is less dependent on legacy institutions. The central issue addressed in this book is how public values and sectorial activities are shaped by platforms nowadays. According to the authors, the accountability for a balanced platform society is held by three major categories of actors: corporations, governments, and the civil society

Users’ Perspective on the Credibility of Social Media Influencers in Romania and Germany

The present research addresses the issue of source credibility of social media influencers from the perspective of users. Social media influencers are defined as online personalities with a large number of followers, across one or several social media platforms. They have a complex role, being content creators, online opinion leaders, and even entrepreneurs. Influencer marketing is becoming a more and more relevant component of current advertising campaigns worldwide. A consistent body of literature has underlined the importance of source credibility for the effectiveness of advertising. Recent researches on Source Credibility Theory (Teng et al, 2014; Djafarova & Rushworth, 2016; Munnukka et al 2016; Lou &Yuan, 2018) have stressed the influence of trustworthiness, expertise, similarity and attractiveness as elements of source credibility on perceived trust in influencer marketing. In order to gain better insights, we chose to conduct qualitative research that can allow us an in-depth perspective on the phenomenon of source credibility in influencer marketing. We carried out four group discussions in Germany and five in Romania. We explored the differences and similarities regarding the users’ perception of the perceived credibility of social media influencers

Users’ Perspective on the Credibility of Social Media Influencers in Romania and Germany

The present research addresses the issue of source credibility of social media influencers from the perspective of users. Social media influencers are defined as online personalities with a large number of followers, across one or several social media platforms. They have a complex role, being content creators, online opinion leaders, and even entrepreneurs. Influencer marketing is becoming a more and more relevant component of current advertising campaigns worldwide. A consistent body of literature has underlined the importance of source credibility for the effectiveness of advertising. Recent researches on Source Credibility Theory (Teng et al, 2014; Djafarova & Rushworth, 2016; Munnukka et al 2016; Lou &Yuan, 2018) have stressed the influence of trustworthiness, expertise, similarity and attractiveness as elements of source credibility on perceived trust in influencer marketing. In order to gain better insights, we chose to conduct qualitative research that can allow us an in-depth perspective on the phenomenon of source credibility in influencer marketing. We carried out four group discussions in Germany and five in Romania. We explored the differences and similarities regarding the users’ perception of the perceived credibility of social media influencers

Using Media in the Foreign Language. Case Study Media Use of the Students of the Babes- Bolyai University, Romania

In the last few years, thanks to the Internet, access to foreign language media has become more and more easy, which is why the number of foreign language media users has increased. This research focuses on exploring the use of German speaking media by Romanian students from the German speaking departments of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. The theoretical background of the study is the Uses and Gratifications theory. The research methods applied were the focus group, followed by a survey applied to a representative number of students. Our research highlighted the fact that the students from German language programs often used German television and German websites. In regard to the German media in general, most respondents stated that they satisfy, in a very large mount, the needs described by the Uses and Gratifications model