Social Media and Young People's Health: Translating and Communicating Narratives Through Digital Mediums

• In Event: Listening for Methodology

Abstract

This paper examines the methodological processes and dilemmas involved when empirically rich composite digital narratives are created, translated and communicated. The digital narratives focussed on the relationship between social media, young people and health, using data from participatory research with over 1500 young people. Drawing on Dewey’s theory of experience (1938) and narrative conceptions of knowledge, the digital narratives were analysed to better understand how these stories resonated with young people. Findings demonstrate that digital media serve as a new mechanism to bridge the research, theory, and practice divide. The accurate representation of all young people within the five digital narratives, however, is questioned, given the researchers’ and digital producer’s outsider roles in young people’s lives, spaces, cultures, and contexts.

Authors

• Victoria Anne Goodyear, University of Birmingham

• Lee Mason Schaefer, McGill University

• Kathleen M. Armour, University of Birmingham

• Hannah Elizabeth Wood, University of Birmingham

• Brett Smith, University of Birmingham