Dear colleagues

Apologies for cross-posting.

There are still a few places left at the fourth seminar in the ESRC-funded series 'Rethinking Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media'. It will be held in the Michael Young building, Meeting Rooms 3 and 4, Open University in Milton Keynes on Thursday 18th February, from 11.00 – 5.00.

If you would like to come, please reply to [log in to unmask] as soon as possible, letting us know whether you are interested in Session 1, 2 or both (see below). 

The seminar will be in two parts. 

Session 1: New directions in youth culture research. (11-1pm)

This session will explore cutting edge research by new scholars in the field. It will include presentations from recently (or almost) completed PhD students about their youth culture work and how they are taking the field forwards. It will also include a 'workshop' element for current PhD students to share and discuss approaches with other students and to engage with some experienced researchers in this area, including Professor Chris Griffin, Dr Rupa Huq as well as the series organisers.

If you are a PhD student working in this area and would like to attend (and /or present at) this session, we would like you to send a one-page outline of your work to be circulated in advance, covering (for instance): your name, contact details, institution, start and [proposed] end dates of study, supervisors; title of PhD; research questions and focus; methods, site of study, etc; your main influences and theoretical orientations; any key issues you would like to share with others – dilemmas, findings, etc. Please send it to Mary Jane Kehily ([log in to unmask]) and Sara Bragg ([log in to unmask]) before Feb 4th so that we can compile and circulate them. 

Lunch (1 – 1.45pm, provided) 

Session 2: Youth as a consumer market (1.45-5pm)

This session brings together academics and market researchers to focus on the issue of youth as consumers. It will consider the changing ways in which youth are conceptualised as a consumer market, both in marketing practice and in market research, discuss phenomena such as branding, promotion and social media, and consider the globalised strategies of media companies. 

Barbie Clarke: Family Kids and Youth
Research with Young Consumers: What do we do, and how do we do it?
This presentation will look at the type of clients commissioning market research with young people, consider some brief case studies, and focus on methods, contrasting old with new and considering the ethics of these, particularly on-line research.

Barbie set up Family Kids and Youth (www.kidsandyouth.com) with a small team of researchers seven years ago. An international youth researcher for over 20 years, she was formerly Director of the Family division of GfK NOP. She completed her PhD in child and adolescent psychosocial development at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education last year, where her research has looked at early adolescents’ use of digital media. 

Francesco d’Orazio: Face Group
New collaborative methods in youth research
Face is a research agency driven by co-creativity and specializing in real-time research, online communities, open innovation and open planning. As Research Director, Francesco D'Orazio focuses on real-time research, online communities, crowdsourcing programs and increasingly on applying gaming mechanics to the research process. He holds a PhD in new media and sociology and his research has mainly focused on immersive media.

The session will look at collaborative methodologies in youth research such as co-creation, crowdsourcing, netnography, peer-to-peer and real-time research. Particularly we will look at the role of social media, game mechanics and the mobile web in engaging youth audiences in market research programs.

DK: Media Snackers
Youth and social media
Drawing on cross-sector models and practical examples to illustrate the impact and consequences of this new fluid media landscape, DK will give an energetic and dynamic overview of how social media has changed the game.

DK is the founder of MediaSnackers (http://mediasnackers.com/). MediaSnackers was a term he coined back in early 2006 whilst describing what young people were doing with media. Since that time, MediaSnackers has delivered to four continents and to a cross-sector group of clients. DK has an educational background in communications and media, plus a professional background in local government. He is also the founder of 'Social Media For Suits' (http://socialmediaforsuits.com/), a personalised mentoring for CEOs and executives who want to understand and effectively use social media, and the author of 'Zen And The Heart Of Social Media', FREE to read online till March 2010: http://bit.ly/7Ilgtg.

Liz McFall: Open University
Response
Liz McFall is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University. Her work is concerned with how markets are 'made', especially through advertising and other promotional practices. She is the author of Advertising: a cultural economy (Sage, 2004), co-editor with Paul du Gay and Simon Carter of Conduct: sociology and social worlds (Manchester University Press 2008) and co-editor of the Journal of Cultural Economy. She has published a number of articles exploring commercial promotion, of life assurance in particular, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and is currently working on a new book exploring the role of personal finance devices in 'Covering Consumption' (forthcoming Routledge, 2011).

Places are limited! If you intend to come, please reply to [log in to unmask] as soon as possible.

We hope to see you there,

David Buckingham, Institute of Education
Sara Bragg and Mary Jane Kehily, Open University