For the KIDFLUENCER project (https://www.kidfluencer.be), we are looking for a PhD candidate with a profile in critical media studies and/or (digital) anthropology to conduct ethnographic research with preschool and primary school children.
KIDFLUENCER is a five-year research project, funded through an ERC Consolidator Grant, that examines how children experience the kidfluencer phenomenon. Kidfluencers are monetized social media accounts centered on young children, whose content is explicitly aimed at a young audience.
The project is grounded in a critical media studies perspective and approaches kidfluencing as a form of platformized cultural production, paying attention to the political economy of social media, processes of commercialization and datafication, and the ways in which childhood is mediated and commodified. At the same time, it connects with (digital) anthropological approaches by focusing on everyday media practices, lived experiences, and children’s meaning-making within their daily contexts.
Within the project, we analyze:
- the production processes and platform ecology behind kidfluencer content,
- the content, representations, and underlying discourses and narratives,
- and how children interpret, incorporate, and assign meaning to this content within their lifeworlds (meaning-making and interpretive practices).
The PhD position is situated within the final work package. The project employs a team of researchers, with collaboration and knowledge sharing at its core.
The ethnographic component builds on a child-centered and context-sensitive approach. The project adopts a systems perspective that zooms in on the complex reality of children’s living environments and how media use is embedded within them.
The position involves designing and conducting longitudinal ethnographic research with preschool and primary school children. You will carry out observations in the children’s home environments. This research will result in a doctoral dissertation, leading to a PhD degree in Communication Sciences. In addition, the PhD candidate is expected to actively contribute to the valorization and societal dissemination of the research findings.
For more information and how to apply: https://www.ugent.be/en/work/scientific/doctoral-fellow-11