THESE CHILDREN WHO “DANCE” ON THE SCREEN: MEDIATIZATION AND THE MAKING OF CONTEMPORARY CHILDHOODS THROUGH INSTAGRAM
Childhood. Consuptiom. Instagram. Social Media. Mediatization.
This thesis addresses the various childhood images circulated within social media (RECUERO, 2018; RECUERO; BASTOS; ZAGO, 2020), specifically on the Instagram platform, based on a case study of three children's profiles, notably children represented there as child digital influencers (ABIDIN, 2021; JORGE; MARÔPO; NUNES, 2018); The main goal is to understand how these images encourage specific perspectives on the social construction of childhood in the digital context; we point out a situation of frank mediatization (FAUSTO NETO, 2008; SANTI, 2016; SODRÉ, 2002), in which the media acquired a reinforced sense of windows to the world, ordering everyday life; we are conceiving the relationship of children's subjects with the media and their culture through the lens of symbolic consumption (CANCLÍNI, 1999; SILVERSTONE, 2005), so that the media elements that the individual appropriates are intertwined with others from their experience (BARBERO , 2006); we tense a theoretical-methodological approach that overcomes manichaeism in relation to children (BUCKINGHAM, 2012), considering them as active and competent in the process; we understand the media as a social entity linked to the constructions of meanings, values and practices related to the individual's experience, to the fabric of ways of life in society, in its various spheres of socialization; in terms of methodology, we used a qualitative approach, using bibliographic research techniques (STUMPF, 2006), case study (DUARTE, 2006) and content analysis (BARDIN, 2011); Among the conclusions, we mainly observe the predominance of the childhood-product/child-consumption perspective to the detriment of other angles that favor more plural and comprehensive representations of what it means to be a child and experience childhood, in its various crossings of race, gender and socioeconomic level.