Browsing by Author "Åhlgren, Viivi"

YouTube has become the second popular application among children. The objective of this research was to determine why children spend so much time in YouTube and examine children viewpoint on YouTubes’s commercial collaborations and review it by critical media educational point of view. Also, the goal was to research school’s role as a media educator. Classes of first and second graders from Helsinki metropolitan area participated in the research. The material as collected through themed small-group interviews, which had four bigger themes as YouTube’s using, commercial collaborations, criticality and school’s role. There were a total of 17 participants and six interview groups. The data was categorised and analysed by using the content analysis method. Three different content types were identified from the material and they were YouTube’s using, viewpoint on YouTubes’s commercial collaborations and school’s role as media educator. One extra type was identified in children’s interviews, and that was parent’s role. The reason why children adores YouTube is because it is full of entertainment and the diversity it serves. Most of the children involved in this research has use the application for several years and still use it every day for several hours. Children recognise commercial collaborations, but they don’t really understand what they mean in practice. Criticality against influencer marketing was not present. Children don’t talk about YouTube in school with their teachers and school’s media educations don’t seem to reach YouTube.