Engl. transl.: Young consumers and advertising in the new media landscape

Children and the media is an oft-discussed topic. A topic that engages many and that many have opinions about. It is also a very broad international field of research. Thousands of studies have been published on the importance of the media in children's and young people's lives, and about how media influence them (Valkenburg & Piotrowski, 2017). It may therefore appear as contradictory to state that there is still a lot to be learnt about children and young people in relation to the media – a point made in this chapter. This text sketches the outlines of the current research and knowledge concerning children, young people, and the media, while emphasizing the need for further research. Particular attention is paid to advertising in the new media landscape, which children at the same time are exposed to and actively contribute to. The media play a central role for young consumers due to several factors and circumstances. For one, the media are an important societal institution influencing children's and young people's consumption, sense of identity, and everyday life. Secondly, the media are goods and services that are bought, consumed, shared, and distributed on a market. In addition, the media are tools that can be used to exert influence, accessible not only for commercial actors, but also for children and young people. Media offer children possibilities for identity construction, communication, evaluation and transmitting ideas and notions about goods, and for acting as marketers in roles such as the "influencer" or the "vlogger" (see, e.g., Hanna, Rohm & Crittenden, 2011; Both & Matic, 2011; Dahlquist & Wadbring, 2017). In this overview, children are approached both as media consumers and as producers of media content.

A deeper understanding of young children's digital life in the Swedish context is needed. More research is also needed on the commercial risks associated with children's increased presence online and the new forms of marketing connected to digital developments. For instance, young children have undeveloped ability to consciously steer and control their own gaze in online contexts, which makes them particularly vulnerable for commercial online advertising, such as in gaming contexts. Online advertising has also been shown to negatively influence children's reading comprehension. Similar results have been obtained in terms of distraction, cognitive encumbrance, and fatigue. Also hidden online advertisements need more attention from scholars. At the same time, digitalization offers children many tantalizing new possibilities, for instance to be heard and make themselves visible in the public like never before (YouTube, influencers, influencer marketing, etc.). (Condensed & trans. by coder).