Events

METHODS WORKSHOP

Youth perspectives on digital media: how and why to listen

Time and Date: 10:00am – 1pm  on Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Location: Virtual, register via Eventbrite.

This workshop explores methods, paradigms, and strategies for listening and centering youth’s voices when it comes to their digital lives

Workshop Goals:

• Build a network of international youth media scholars
• Listen to firsthand accounts from experts in the field
• Reflect and refine your own research methodology

Organizers:

• Ana Kubrusly (NOVA University of Lisbon and Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Portugal)
• Natalie Coulter (York University, Canada)

Guest speakers:

• Maria Castellví-Lloveras — Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
• Riccardo Pronzato — University of Bologna, Italy
• Sara Pereira — University of Minho, Portugal
• Shauna Pomerantz — Brock University, Canada

Workshop programme information

10:00am Welcome to participants 

10:10am Round of introductions           

Each participant will have a minute to quickly introduce themselves and their research interests using a standard slide.

10:30am Critical literacies and Participation

• Critical algorithmic literacy in practice: Insights from students’ autoethnographies
  • Riccardo Pronzato — University of Bologna, Italy
• Studying the media lives of children and young people: the case of the bYou project methodology
  • Sara Pereira — University of Minho, Portugal

11:20am Break 

11:30am Girlhood and digital media 

• TikTok Teachings: Radical media engagement @ the convergence of adult-child-algorithm
  • Shauna Pomerantz — Brock University, Canada
• Researching Teenagers’ Digital Lives: Focus Groups, Paired Interviews, and Think-Aloud Social Media Tours
  • Maria Castellví-Lloveras — Pompeu Fabra University, Spain

12:20pm Interactive activity          

12:50pm Final remarks and goodbyes

Guest speakers’ bios:

Maria Castellví-Lloveras is a postdoctoral researcher and a professor at the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University and member of the research group MEDIUM. During her doctoral studies, she was a beneficiary of an FI Joan Oró – AGAUR grant. Her research focuses on the analysis of popular culture, digital culture, and young audiences from a gender perspective. She is also interested in new forms of digital work and the dynamics and structures of the audiovisual sector. She is the founder and director of the Reteena Festival.

Riccardo Pronzato is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bologna. He holds a Ph.D. with honours from IULM University (Milan, Italy) and he was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a Visiting PhD scholar at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia). His research is mainly situated within the field of Critical Algorithm Studies and digital sociology. He analyses power asymmetries underlying the production of algorithmic media, how individuals relate to digital platforms, and the social implications of algorithms/AI in fields such as healthcare and everyday life. Moreover, he adopts the framework of critical pedagogy to explore innovative research and teaching methodologies to promote critical data literacy.

Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Communication Sciences, University of Minho, and researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre (Portugal). In 2004 she completed her PhD in Child Studies, specializing in Media Education, at the University of Minho. Currently she is Principal Investigator of the research project “bYou – Study on children and young people’s experiences and expressions of the media”, funded Foundation for Science and Technology. She is co-coordinator of MILObs – Observatory on Media, Information and Literacy (milobs.pt).

Shauna Pomerantz is Professor of Child & Youth Studies at Brock University. Using feminist, immanent, and affect theories, Shauna’s research explores cultures of childhood and girlhood, gender and education, youth culture, representations of young people, and social media, particularly TikTok. She is author of Girls, Style, and School Identities: Dressing the Part, and co-author of Girl Power: Girls Reinventing Girlhoodsand Smart Girls: Negotiating Academic Success in the Post-Feminist Era. When not working, Shauna listens to Spotify playlists, studies music trivia, watches teen dramas and coming of age movies, lifts weights, and hangs with her fam.