What Matters to the Girls? Norwegian Girls’ Experiences of Digital Competences in Mainstream Blogging
Keywords
Digital technology
gender
Internet
media
teenagers
leisure
Publication details
| DOI: | 10.1177/1103308816673496 |
| Issued: | 2017 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 25 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page: | 190 |
| End Page: | 207 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Dmitrow-Devold K. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | YOUNG |
| Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
| Topics: | Internet usage, practices and engagement; Literacy and skills; Content-related issues; Wellbeing; Risks and harms |
| Sample: | On the basis of my preliminary research of the Norwegian blogosphere and the existing literature, I established the following sampling criteria: (i) gender and age: girls aged 15–17,2 since most bloggers were girls in this approximate age group when I began collecting data (Norwegian Media Authority, 2012); (ii) the blog genre: all the blogs include life accounts and outfit- of-the-day photos3 (Palmgren, 2010), since these two elements are viewed as most typical for young female bloggers in Norway (Fuglerud, 2013); (iii) blogging community: blogs set up on blogg.no, because this is the largest in Norway. Another criterion was regular updates (at least 10 times per month) because I was looking for active bloggers and assumed that frequent updates would indicate considerable engagement. Length of participation in the blogging practice: at least 6 months prior to recruitment, as the analysis of blog content was to include samples from the blog archives in order to track the indications of digital competences over time. Finally, I selected girls who had various ethnic backgrounds (eight girls were ethnic Norwegian and four were non-ethnic Norwegian) and whose blogs had various audience sizes in order to see if these elements were in any way meaningful for their experiences of digital competences. The former did not appear to have any significant influence. Audience sizes ranged from 50 to 5,000 unique readers per day.4 The most popular female blogger on blogg.no has about 70,000 readers.5 Upon recruitment, ten participants attended upper secondary school and two were in the last grade of lower secondary school. The girls came from towns of different sizes, mostly in the Akershus, Oslo and Oppland regions. |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parental practices / parental mediation; Parental digital literacy |
| Implications For Educators About: | Professional development; Digital citizenship |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | Creating a safe environment for children online; Stepping up awareness and empowerment |
Abstract
This article seeks to identify the digital competences experienced as meaningful by teenage girls, who blog within the mainstream blog community in Norway. Previous work has mostly had its basis in the artefacts produced by girls rather than in their stories of participation, and has discussed digital competences in abstract or normative terms. This study focuses on girls’ perspectives, identifies concrete digital competences they experienced as meaningful, and a range of complex, even contradictory meanings they attributed to the competences, depending on their blogging-related goals and the femininity norms of their community of practice. The study documents how the girls’ digital practices changed over time. While some of these modifications align with what is considered beneficial, others can be viewed as problematic or gendered.
Outcome
The study documents how the girls’ digital practices changed over time. While some of these modifications align with what is considered beneficial, others can be viewed as problematic or gendered.