Journal Articles by Andra Siibak
Methis. Studia Humaniora Estonica, 2020
Meediakasutust puudutavad isiksuseomadused on kujunenud olulisteks põlvkondliku enesemääratluse j... more Meediakasutust puudutavad isiksuseomadused on kujunenud olulisteks põlvkondliku enesemääratluse ja identiteedi osisteks. Artiklis tutvustatakse meediapõlvkondade kultuurili-sest käsitlusest lähtuvat lähenemist, mis näeb tänapäeva lapsi ja noori sotsiaalmeedia põlvkon-nana. Mitmete empiiriliste uuringute tulemustele tuginevalt antakse artiklis ülevaade peamis-test Eesti noortele omastest internetikasutuse harjumustest ja internetitegevustest. Millisena tajuvad sotsiaalmeedia põlvkonna esindajad sotsiaalmeedia rolli enda igapäevaelus, näitavad viieks päevaks sotsiaalmeedia kasutamisest loobunud noorte kogemuspäevikute sissekanded.
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Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics, Dec 7, 2020
What children count as their favourite things tell us not only about children but also about thei... more What children count as their favourite things tell us not only about children but also about their social and cultural experiences. This study, based on the outcomes of a children's drawing competition organised by the Estonian National Museum and applying a combined framework of visual sociology and participa-tory research, proposes an innovative angle to using the museum's experimental approach to contemporary collecting of cultural heritage. This large-sample (n=926) content-analytical study of children’s favourite gifts gives a rich ethnographic and sociological perspective on children’s life-worlds. On the one hand, the children’s wishes reflected contemporary global trends in technology and commercialisation. On the other hand, the children’s prevailing dream of having a pet shows loneliness shaped by societal changes, including urbanisation and changing family models and time regimes.
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Eesti Haridusteaduste Ajakiri, 2020
Artikli eesmärk on analüüsida õpilastepoolset küberkiusamist kogenud Eesti üldhariduskooli õpetaj... more Artikli eesmärk on analüüsida õpilastepoolset küberkiusamist kogenud Eesti üldhariduskooli õpetajate (N = 14) arvamusi ja kogemusi ning uurida, milliseid koolipoolseid sekkumisvõimalusi õpetajad selliste küberkiusamise juhtumite lahendamiseks näevad. Poolstruktureeritud individuaalintervjuu meetodil otsiti vastuseid järgmistele uurimisküsimustele: 1) milliste õpilastepoolsete küberkiusamise liikidega on õpetajad kokku puutunud; 2) kuidas võiks kool õpetajate küberkiusamisjuhtumitesse sekkuda. Intervjueeritud õpetajad olid peamiselt kokku puutunud viie küberkiusamise liigiga: 1) töödeldud fotod; 2) kirjad ja sõnumid; 3) laim ja valeinfo jagamine; 4) jälitamine ja ahistamine veebis; 5) kellegi teise nime all esinemine. Küberkiusamist kogenud õpetaja turvatunde loomise ja juhtumi efektiivse lahendamise eesmärgil peeti oluliseks õpetajate küberkiusamist taunivate meetmete sätestamist kooli regulatsioonides, toetavate juhendmaterjalide
loomist, koolipere harimist küberkiusamise vallas ning psühholoogilise ja tehnilise nõustamise tagamist.
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Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae scientiarum, 2020
Emerging digital data sources provide opportunities for explaining social processes, but also cha... more Emerging digital data sources provide opportunities for explaining social processes, but also challenge knowledge production practices within social sciences. this article contributes to the ‘end of theory’ discussions, which have intensified in the social sciences since the widening practice of big data and computational methods. Adopting a systematic literature review of 120 empirical articles through a combined quantitative and qualitative approach, this article strives to contribute to the ongoing discussions on the epistemological shifts in social media big data (smBD) studies. This study offers an insight into the development of analytical methods and research practices in smBD studies during their rapid growth period in 2012 –2016. The study findings only partially revealed the ‘end of theory’ claim: the problem setting of the studies is rather weakly related to theory, often neither hypothesis nor research questions are formulated on the basis of previous theories or research. However, this relatively weak relatedness to theory has not led to the descriptive type of inference, but rather exploratory, or predictive ways of reasoning. instead of enabling predictions in social science research, smBD raises issues of understanding the causes and effects in predictions for evaluating the social mechanisms of global disruptions. Developing ‘human research machines’ that exploit the cognitive resources of individuals should not be the aim of smBD production. the outcome should be to recognise that the cognitive abilities of researchers, access to data, and developing novel methods are necessary for evaluating the global impact of social behaviour.
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Media International Australia, 2019
Semi-structured individual interviews with 14 Estonian mothers and their children (aged 9-13 year... more Semi-structured individual interviews with 14 Estonian mothers and their children (aged 9-13 years) pairs who had 'friended' each other on Facebook were carried out to study pre-teens' and parents' reflections and experiences regarding information disclosures and sharenting on Facebook. We wanted to know what kind of information mothers shared about their children on Facebook and how the children perceived and reacted to such posts. Our findings indicated that there was a major discrepancy in the parents' and children's views about whether a parent should ask for permission to upload child-related content on social media. Pre-teens were often frustrated by their mothers' sharenting practices, which led to privacy boundary turbulence between parents and the children. Raising the awareness of parents is crucial as children not only feel a need to negotiate the terms of acceptable information sharing with their parents but also expect their parents to respect their views on the topic.
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Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 2019
Present day parents have become accustomed to regularly posting information and disclosing detail... more Present day parents have become accustomed to regularly posting information and disclosing details about their children on social media, i.e. engaging in sharenting. Although many parents value the practice as it not only enables to involve distant family members and friends in the growing up of the children, but has also become a practice for collecting precious memories receiving social support and sharing one's parenting dilemmas; sharenting has still gained quite a negative public image. The current article aims to highlight some of the most dominant concerns that scholars have voiced when talking about the dark sides of sharenting-the emergence of a datafied child, loss of privacy and a potential distress the practices of sharenting might cause to the parent-child relationship.
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Comunicazioni sociali, 2019
Previous research has indicated that media technologies and media use form an important cultural ... more Previous research has indicated that media technologies and media use form an important cultural glue within generations. Younger generations, in particular, have been noted to build their generational identity around the technology and devices that they use. We believe it is important to explore how generations and shared identities are constructed, especially in unusual circumstances that lead to in-depth self-reflexivity. The aim of this study was to see how the disruption of habitual social media use helps to outline the generational self-construction of young adults. We invited 19-23-year-old students (N=42) to disrupt their habitual media use by participating in a five-day social media detox and to reflect upon this experience in their social media detox diaries. By doing so, the young in our sample helped to self-narrate and construct their generation-al identity characteristic of present-day youth. Our findings indicate that many of the young participants, indeed recognized social media as dominant generational glue, and expressed annoyance and submissive resignation when looking at the practices of themselves and their peers, who were described in most cases as "addicted" to smart devices. Disruption from the norm of constant availability and affordances of social media offered the participants an outsider's look at their own everyday lives: seeing their peers engaged with technology and not being able to do the same enabled them to assume a reflexive attitude, contributing to the making of a generation and offered a novel perspective on both individual and generational media use. As people are increasingly encouraged to resist and self-regulate in the context of pervasive media, self-reflexivity-heavy social media detoxes can be used as tools for building resilience and can even unfold to become a part of the generational glue itself.
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Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology , 2019
The prevalence of using email as a communication tool for personal and professional purposes make... more The prevalence of using email as a communication tool for personal and professional purposes makes it a significant attack vector for cybercriminals. Consensus exists that phishing, i.e. use of socially engineered messages to convince recipients into performing actions that benefit the sender, is widespread as a negative phenomenon. However, little is known about its true extent from a criminal law perspective. Similar to how the treatment of phishing in a generic manner does not adequately inform the relevant law, a case-by-case legal analysis of seemingly independent offences would not reveal the true scale and extent of phishing as a social phenomenon. The current research addresses this significant gap in the literature. To study this issue, a qualitative text analysis was performed on (N=42) emails collected over a 30-day period from two email accounts. Secondly, the phishing emails were analysed from an Estonian criminal law perspective. The legal analysis shows that in the period of only one month, the accounts received what amounts to 3 instances of extortion, 29 fraud attempts and 10 cases of personal data processing related misdemeanour offences.
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The aim of this interdisciplinary paper is to study the social reality surrounding the data proce... more The aim of this interdisciplinary paper is to study the social reality surrounding the data processing practices employers and employees engage in on social networking sites (SNS).
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The aim of this ethnographic case study was twofold. Firstly, we aimed to find out which mediatio... more The aim of this ethnographic case study was twofold. Firstly, we aimed to find out which mediation strategies parents used to regulate the touchscreen technology use of their toddlers and how these strategies were embedded in the family's everyday life. Secondly, we aimed to study older siblings' influence and the mediation practices of toddlers' touchscreen use. This ethnographic case study was carried out from September 2015 to May 2016, during which time the touchscreen technology use and parental and older sibling mediation practices of two girls (21 and 54 months old) were explored. The data gathered consists of field notes and videos recorded with a smartphone and semi-structured interviews with parents and a 4-year-old child. Our results indicate that the parental mediation strategies were in accordance with their positive or negative expectations of media effects on children. As the mother was more concerned about excessive internet use and improper online content, she was mainly engaged in restrictive mediation; in contrast, the father was more relaxed, believed in the educational role of touchscreen technologies and was thus more likely to engage in active mediation. The older sibling influenced the younger one's practices both in terms of the content used and the times of use, but also served as a role model, a playmate, gatekeeper, consoler, trustee and «window» when mediating her younger sister's touchscreen use.
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The aim of this study was to identify the strongest predictors of individual
differences in Inter... more The aim of this study was to identify the strongest predictors of individual
differences in Internet use, taking into account personality traits, socio-demographic
variables, and indicators of habitus and lifestyle. To this purpose, an empirically robust and
theoretically easily interpretable classification of online activities and their underlying
motives was developed. Representative survey data of the Estonian population (age range
15–74 years; N = 1,507) were used. Factor analysis of online activities revealed two
underlying motives for Internet use: Social media and entertainment (SME), and Work and
information (WI). General linear modelling analysis showed that SME was most
significantly predicted by younger age, the frequency of Internet use at public place, at
friends and at home, Openness to Experience, lower education level, and the ethnic
minority status. WI was best predicted by the frequency of Internet use at work or school,
higher education level, more active civic participation, and the ethnic majority status.
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The aim of this article is to analyse how tween girls in Estonia and in Sweden describe and disco... more The aim of this article is to analyse how tween girls in Estonia and in Sweden describe and discover their
gender identities when selecting profi le images for social networking sites (SNSs). To this end, interviews
with tweens in Estonia (N=21) and in Sweden (N=31) were carried out. As SNSs largely exist without the
recognisable surveillance of adults, children can explore the social matrix of relating to others, and they
also feel safe to try out and display diff erent constructions and reconstructions of their identity. At the
same time, in communicating online, impression management is formulated with constant worry about
how to construct one’s virtual identity so that it will be appreciated and accepted by one’s peer group. In
this article, our analysis focuses on the most popular posing strategies used by tween girls, which, it turns
out, are often marked by reproduction of the dominant heterosexual cultural norms and values.
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The study provides an overview of teacher perceptions regarding young children’s
internet use and... more The study provides an overview of teacher perceptions regarding young children’s
internet use and media education in pre-schools. Two focus-group interviews with 24
Estonian pre-school teachers were carried out in order to analyze their experiences and
opinions about factors that influence pre-school children’s computer and Internet use.
Pre-school teachers’ perceptions about their own role in shaping children’s media
literacy were also examined. The results indicate that teachers consider the role of the
family on children’s computer use to be more significant compared to their own role.
Although the teachers started to acknowledge their own role as supervisors and parents’
counselors as the interviews progressed, no curriculum-based media literacy shaping is
done in the classrooms. Furthermore, rather than developing children’s awareness of the
media, various new media had been used as “enrichment” and significantly fewer
activities that would actually help to shape children’s media literacy were mentioned.
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This study explored Estonian teachers’ perceptions and practices about student-teacher interactio... more This study explored Estonian teachers’ perceptions and practices about student-teacher interaction on Facebook. Four focus group interviews with high-school teachers (n=21) revealed that educators are used to monitoring their students’ posts on Facebook and consider it their role to intervene whenever something inappropriate is posted. Teachers viewed such social media surveillance as a routine and harmless practice which does not violate students’ privacy. The participants of our study do not see any need for formal social media policies to regulate student-teacher interaction on social media, as they consider themselves perfectly capable of making ethical choices in this realm.
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Special Issue: Generation and mediated relations, 2012
The editorial (of the special issue) consists of three parts. First of all, we shall provide a sh... more The editorial (of the special issue) consists of three parts. First of all, we shall provide a short overview of the key concepts and ideas which are found in social scientists’ debates regarding the so called “problem of generations”. The second part of the editorial will introduce the main dimensions of these debates which have been used as the basis of the papers published in this special issue. In the third part of the editorial, we shall provide short descriptions of each paper for the special issue
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Themed Section: Media Generations, Nov 11, 2014
The Introduction to the Themed Section of Participations "Media Generations" aims at illuminating... more The Introduction to the Themed Section of Participations "Media Generations" aims at illuminating the relationship between media audiences, their media consumption cultures and the social formations called “generations”. The Introduction describes the cultural concept of generations and its relationships with media. The cultural concept of generation stresses the process of generational building (or “generationing” – Alanen 2001: 129) based on a synergy of temporal settings (e.g. events; historical context) and cultural experience. This process includes the “cultural uses of age, opportunities for identity building which people can take up and enhance or not” (Vittadini et al. 2013: 65) and the reciprocal construction of generations “by purifying their distinctive sets of practices” (Alanen 2001: 129). The Themed Section has been influenced by the inspirational cross working-group initiative meetings of the scholars working on the field of media and generations in COST Action IS0906 “Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies”.
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Book Chapters by Andra Siibak
Early Childhood Education and Change in Diverse Cultural Contexts, 2018
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Eesti ühiskond kiirenevas ajas. Uuringu "Mina. Maailm. Meedia" 2002-2014 tulemused, 2017
The authors of the chapter analyse trends in internet use amongst Estonian population and show th... more The authors of the chapter analyse trends in internet use amongst Estonian population and show that the amount of internet users have been grown to 87 per cent (15-74 years old). Internet users are as varied in their usage practices as are their offline lives virtual spaces recreate the hierarchies found in social relations and amplify inequalities in society. As more and more spheres of life will be dependent upon digital solution, digital literacy has become an essential dimension of well-being and a component necessary so as to fully participate in a society. Based on their usage practices and competences we differentiated between four user groups: 1) approximately 80% of the population is able to use the internet on the basic level; 2) one half of the population is accustomed to use interactive possibilities of the internet; 3) one third of the population undertakes more creative online activities , and 4) one fifth of the population uses the participatory potential of the internet by engaging in different civic and political activities online .
The social divisions expressed in the offline lives are also reflected in the social media usage practices and not only lead to the formation of personal publics but also fragmentation of information. Three main types of social media practices emerged: 1) social media marketing orienting practices (liking, following and commenting); 2) personal networking and interpersonal communication oriented practices; 3) civic engagement oriented practices.
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Journal Articles by Andra Siibak
loomist, koolipere harimist küberkiusamise vallas ning psühholoogilise ja tehnilise nõustamise tagamist.
differences in Internet use, taking into account personality traits, socio-demographic
variables, and indicators of habitus and lifestyle. To this purpose, an empirically robust and
theoretically easily interpretable classification of online activities and their underlying
motives was developed. Representative survey data of the Estonian population (age range
15–74 years; N = 1,507) were used. Factor analysis of online activities revealed two
underlying motives for Internet use: Social media and entertainment (SME), and Work and
information (WI). General linear modelling analysis showed that SME was most
significantly predicted by younger age, the frequency of Internet use at public place, at
friends and at home, Openness to Experience, lower education level, and the ethnic
minority status. WI was best predicted by the frequency of Internet use at work or school,
higher education level, more active civic participation, and the ethnic majority status.
gender identities when selecting profi le images for social networking sites (SNSs). To this end, interviews
with tweens in Estonia (N=21) and in Sweden (N=31) were carried out. As SNSs largely exist without the
recognisable surveillance of adults, children can explore the social matrix of relating to others, and they
also feel safe to try out and display diff erent constructions and reconstructions of their identity. At the
same time, in communicating online, impression management is formulated with constant worry about
how to construct one’s virtual identity so that it will be appreciated and accepted by one’s peer group. In
this article, our analysis focuses on the most popular posing strategies used by tween girls, which, it turns
out, are often marked by reproduction of the dominant heterosexual cultural norms and values.
internet use and media education in pre-schools. Two focus-group interviews with 24
Estonian pre-school teachers were carried out in order to analyze their experiences and
opinions about factors that influence pre-school children’s computer and Internet use.
Pre-school teachers’ perceptions about their own role in shaping children’s media
literacy were also examined. The results indicate that teachers consider the role of the
family on children’s computer use to be more significant compared to their own role.
Although the teachers started to acknowledge their own role as supervisors and parents’
counselors as the interviews progressed, no curriculum-based media literacy shaping is
done in the classrooms. Furthermore, rather than developing children’s awareness of the
media, various new media had been used as “enrichment” and significantly fewer
activities that would actually help to shape children’s media literacy were mentioned.
Book Chapters by Andra Siibak
The social divisions expressed in the offline lives are also reflected in the social media usage practices and not only lead to the formation of personal publics but also fragmentation of information. Three main types of social media practices emerged: 1) social media marketing orienting practices (liking, following and commenting); 2) personal networking and interpersonal communication oriented practices; 3) civic engagement oriented practices.
loomist, koolipere harimist küberkiusamise vallas ning psühholoogilise ja tehnilise nõustamise tagamist.
differences in Internet use, taking into account personality traits, socio-demographic
variables, and indicators of habitus and lifestyle. To this purpose, an empirically robust and
theoretically easily interpretable classification of online activities and their underlying
motives was developed. Representative survey data of the Estonian population (age range
15–74 years; N = 1,507) were used. Factor analysis of online activities revealed two
underlying motives for Internet use: Social media and entertainment (SME), and Work and
information (WI). General linear modelling analysis showed that SME was most
significantly predicted by younger age, the frequency of Internet use at public place, at
friends and at home, Openness to Experience, lower education level, and the ethnic
minority status. WI was best predicted by the frequency of Internet use at work or school,
higher education level, more active civic participation, and the ethnic majority status.
gender identities when selecting profi le images for social networking sites (SNSs). To this end, interviews
with tweens in Estonia (N=21) and in Sweden (N=31) were carried out. As SNSs largely exist without the
recognisable surveillance of adults, children can explore the social matrix of relating to others, and they
also feel safe to try out and display diff erent constructions and reconstructions of their identity. At the
same time, in communicating online, impression management is formulated with constant worry about
how to construct one’s virtual identity so that it will be appreciated and accepted by one’s peer group. In
this article, our analysis focuses on the most popular posing strategies used by tween girls, which, it turns
out, are often marked by reproduction of the dominant heterosexual cultural norms and values.
internet use and media education in pre-schools. Two focus-group interviews with 24
Estonian pre-school teachers were carried out in order to analyze their experiences and
opinions about factors that influence pre-school children’s computer and Internet use.
Pre-school teachers’ perceptions about their own role in shaping children’s media
literacy were also examined. The results indicate that teachers consider the role of the
family on children’s computer use to be more significant compared to their own role.
Although the teachers started to acknowledge their own role as supervisors and parents’
counselors as the interviews progressed, no curriculum-based media literacy shaping is
done in the classrooms. Furthermore, rather than developing children’s awareness of the
media, various new media had been used as “enrichment” and significantly fewer
activities that would actually help to shape children’s media literacy were mentioned.
The social divisions expressed in the offline lives are also reflected in the social media usage practices and not only lead to the formation of personal publics but also fragmentation of information. Three main types of social media practices emerged: 1) social media marketing orienting practices (liking, following and commenting); 2) personal networking and interpersonal communication oriented practices; 3) civic engagement oriented practices.
ways in which datafication, algorithms, and
artificial intelligence (AI) transform the contexts
for children: at home, school, and in peer and
parent-child relationships. The COVID-19
pandemic provides an important moment for
reimagining how data are repurposed for the
social good and best interests of children