Doctoral defence: Kristiina Saks “Mediatisation of the Lifeworld of Children”

On 31 October at 10:00 Kristiina Saks will defend her doctoral thesis “Mediatisation of the Lifeworld of Children” for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Media and Communication).

Supervisors:
Professor Veronika Kalmus, University of Tartu
Professor Andra Siibak, University of Tartu

Opponent:
Professor Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Malmö University (Sweden)

Summary
The rapid development of the media and communication technologies is one of the megatrends defining the 21st century. Children in Western countries spend hours using media. Despite countless studies, the debate about media effects on children is one of the most controversial topics in the field of communication studies. Between highly optimistic and pessimistic perspectives, there is a widely accepted scholarly view that media usage is not directly “good” or “bad” for children. Instead, in the process of mediatisation, the media is becoming an integral and complex part of the social, cultural and cognitive development of children. The aim of this thesis was to explore the mediatisation of the lifeworld of children, defined as a subjective perception of the world. The findings of a qualitative study with kindergarten children and teachers and a quantitative content analysis of elementary school children’s drawings revealed that the media was deeply embedded in children’s everyday life. One form of mediatisation manifested in the direct usage of media. The other dimensions of mediatisation were more indirect. The games that children played, the vocabulary they used, the clothes they wore, the toys they used – all were greatly influenced by media content. Even if some children had minimal access to media at home, they became aware of current media trends through the childhood culture they shared in kindergarten (e.g., media inspired creative play). The findings also indicated that Estonian children follow the media content produced mainly in the USA or Western Europe. Therefore, I advised parents to talk about how the global media content is related to Estonian culture (defined as “cultural mediation”). I also suggested parents talk with children about their media experiences in retrospect (defined as “retrospective mediation”) to reveal whether a child needs support in the mediatised environment as they grow up.