media & generations: use of media in generational discourse

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

Teenagers and Media representation: Switching the perspective.How teenagers represent themselves in a media environment.

Luca Rossi LaRiCA / University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

persistence/easy to search/addressed to an unknowable audience/ easy to replicate/(boyd 2007)

Growing availability of User Generated Content:

wesearch/scenario

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

persistence invisible audiences replicability searchability

few Writings Printing press, newspapers Digital media (pc, video-cameras)

World Wide Web + Google (Google Book Search)

many Writings Personal online publishing / Web 2.0 (Blogs, Flickr, YouTube)

Digital media (pc, video-cameras)

World Wide Web + Google (Google Blog Search)

wesearch/scenario

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

media&generation/research

Is it possible to use ugc to observe the emergence of the generational discourse?

[ world-wide, media based, generational wesense (Edmunds, Turner 2005) ]

May specific media products get user generated generational discourses started?

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

wesearch/methodology

Keywords Identification

Through 5 focus groups we’ve identified 45 media products to be used as keywords to investigate online discourses

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

wesearch/methodology

Query strings definition

a) Avoid unwanted responses (spam)b) Obtain the full text of every blog entry (yahoo pipes)c) choose between chronological or “by relevance” output

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

Storage of blog entries and retrieval of authors’ information

a) Incremental storage of RSS entriesb) Scraping of authors’ information

wesearch/methodology

supported platforms:

Blogger ITA / ENGFlickr ENGIl Cannocchiale ENGLibero ITASplinder ITAWindows Live Space ENGYouTube ENG

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

Summary of collected data

starting set of keyword: 45retrieved blogs entries: 3000cases with authors’ data: 928

wesearch/methodology

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

Generation Age (2007) %

Postwar 55 3%

Boomers 41-54 3%

X generation 29-41 15%

Y generation 28 79%

Totale 100%

Collected data: age distribution

wesearch/methodology

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

media&generation/results

Media products are anchors for personal memories which can be used in an individual or a generational way.

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

media&generation/results

“The Party (La Boum)" and ”The Party 2"... Today as yesterday are cult movies of my life… even if my time has been more the “missed party time!” I was more than 18 and still waiting for the first kiss!! I’ve always been slow, naive, dreamer and scared”

(A. female 44 years old)

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

media&generation/conclusions

“for us it wasn’t Christmas if there wasn’t the Coca-Cola Ad(that one with the tree), and “Home alone” on Tv…”.(A. male 19 years old)

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

rappresentazione generazionale

rappresentazione individuale

X generation (1966-1978)

41,18% 47,06%

MTV generation (1974-1981)

30,77% 53,85%

Boomerang generation (1977-1989)

28,7% 55,56%

C generation (1980-2000)

28,3% 55,66%

Y generation (1979-1991)

28,7% 55,56%

media&generation/conclusions

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

XMTV

BoomerangC

Y

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

60,00%

generational use

individual use

media&generation/conclusions

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

me generation?

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

media&generation/limits&possibilities

- average age of online content producers- accuracy of published data- automatically updated online profiles- need of a more accurate filter technology- privacy issues

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

media&generation/limits&possibilities

- users share their personal data online- qualitative analysis of large quantity of data- high qualitative value of ugc- average age of online content producers- spontaneous data

media&generationPRIN - National Research Project

Twenty first century teenager: Media Representatio, theory and PolicyLeeds, 10th-12th July 2008

http://mediageneration.wordpress.comluca.rossi@uniurb.ithttp://www.soc.uniurb.it/larica