Our project will organize a working group at the Annual Conference of Youth Studies at Tampere University in November. We welcome empirical research, theoretical and methodological reflections as well as contributions to research ethics in the field of social media and youth research. Call for Papers is open until 31 August!
Working group 19: Young people, social media and short videos: How to understand and study audiovisual communication?
Chairs: Nadezhda Vasileva and Heta Mulari
During the past decades, (short) video platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok have rapidly increased their popularity among young audiences (Newman et al. 2023, 27–28). Initially viewed primarily as entertainment and a leisure activity, short videos have become a primary means of communication and sharing news, politics, opinions, and cultural trends among young people. This session contemplates the role of short videos in young people’s lives as those who are both influencers and a target of influence on digital platforms. We welcome empirical research that seeks to answer questions about how young people use short video platforms in their everyday lives and for cultural and political expression, as well as how social media reflect, remake, and challenge societal trends, norms and values. Moreover, to contribute to the development of theory and method, this section encourages researchers to explore the short video format as a distinctive mode of communication with its own aesthetics, rules, narratives and styles. Thus, we invite scholars to reflect on what distinguishes the multimodal short audiovisual form from other forms of expression, and how short videos and the video platforms should be examined. The proposals may also discuss the methodological possibilities of using short video at different stages of the research: data collection, analysis, and dissemination. Finally, the session aims to discuss the ethical issues that researchers encounter in the field of audiovisual social media research. We welcome all reflections about difficulties and concerns related to video copyrights, obtaining informed consents, and informing users about the research, gathering data, digital platform policies etc.