Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture - Childhoods in Transition: Mediating “In-Between Spaces”, Dec 2020

This editorial serves as an introduction to the Special Issue titled ‘Childhoods in Transition – Mediating “In-Between Spaces”’. The thematic issue was conceived in an effort to conceptualize and explore the topic of ‘in-between spaces’ from the point of view of media and communication studies. The contributions presented in this Special Issue offer a complex view of what it means today to live a childhood in transition and how digital and social media can have a deep impact on the ‘in-between spaces’ the young people inhabit. From children in migration to queer youth and from Snapchat to minority language media, this Special Issue offers an international and interdisciplinary perspective on the inextricably linked issues of media use, identity and becoming.

This article explores the advent of the ‘Undocuqueer’ movement, an activist social network that represents the life chances of undocumented queer youth migrants in the United States, arguing for acceptance, equality and integration, with a particular focus on needs for education. Considering the promise of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (a possible legislative act that would offer education to undocumented migrant youth), this article offers an historical and cultural foundation as to the emergence of the Undocuqueer movement, and also theoretical insight into the use of online technology to produce transmedia testimonials. Relating the significance of the affective queer body, this article argues that the online work of the Undocuqueer movement offers a model of affective queer activism, framing the performative potential of undocumented queer youth and their attempts to attain civil rights.

This article explores the use of digital images as part of the adoption process. Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with adoptive parents, social workers and foster carers, it explores the responses of these stakeholders and reflects on the value and effect of digital images as they are employed when a child is placed for adoption. The research reveals how the kinds of information ‘moving images’ can offer become significant, not just as introductory material for potential adoptive parents – operating within the in-between space for the parent waiting to adopt and the child waiting to be placed – but as facilitating a virtual, present-tense dialogue (in-between adopters, foster carers and the child) once a placement has been agreed. Another unanticipated revelation was the extent to which clips were valued beyond their instrumental use in these in-between spaces and resonated within the future life narrative of the adopted child.

The move from adolescence to adulthood is a pivotal transitional period rife with cultural, social and personal changes. It also involves an era of in-between moments: rather than a sudden change, teenagers spend years navigating the grey areas between adolescence and adulthood. This transition has been further complicated by the use of digital technologies (DTs) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) shaping teenagers’ experiences during this period. By utilizing UK communication regulator Ofcom’s Adults’ Media Lives dataset, this study longitudinally studies the same teenagers between 2006 and 2018. It observes how they are both aided and hindered by the use of DT and CMC over time, identifying three key aspects of their lives that are shaped during this transition – relationships with their parents, their friends and their move from school to work – as they strive for independence, agency and individuality.

The ‘transition phase’ between primary and secondary school represents an important milestone in the context of identity formation. For multilingual children, questions of cultural belonging and identity can add to issues and challenges of self-representation. Giddens notes how identity construction is made up of series of narratives that formulate an ‘ongoing “story” about the self’ (1991: 54). Media now representing an increasingly important aspect of social life, especially amongst young people. The focus of this research is to explore how the evolution of Welsh-language children’s media production practices has formed a unique understanding of media narratives that is intrinsically connected to Welsh identity and the maintenance of a national community (cf. McElroy 2008: 233). Framing the debate within a minority-language context, this article explores how (Welsh/English) bilingual children in Wales navigate these multiple identities in this ‘in between space’ through their engagement with Welsh-language media texts. The research will draw on findings from a dual-phased research project conducted between 2012 and 2014.

This study aims to identify the representations of migrant childhood in Brazilian digital media that belong to what we call the ‘webdiaspora’ – media outlets produced by or for migrants. We argue that these migrant and refugee children live in an ‘in-between’ condition, not physically but symbolically. They build their identities not only negotiating the stereotypes of what it is to be a child in their nation of origin and in the country they live in but also through the representations of what it is to be a migrant child. We seek to present the migrant childhood through news articles found in the digital platform Mídia de Migrantes de São Paulo (‘Migrant Media of São Paulo’), which gathers over 100 media outlets that are part of the ‘webdiaspora’ and are produced in the São Paulo state, Brazil. We found approximately 30 articles that discuss childhood, from only three websites. The article concludes that even in publications focusing on community communication, migrant children remain underrepresented.

This article explores how young adults negotiate gender relations and intimate boundaries through the smartphone app, Snapchat. We build on an empirical study based on interviews and a quantitative questionnaire distributed among young Danes. Our findings suggest that the key affordance of Snapchat (its default deletion) creates ‘in between spaces’ as it incites a high degree of boundary-pushing content. The way the content pushes boundaries varies across genders, but a common characteristic is that the content is more intimate and with less facade than what is usually shared on other social media. At the same time, we find that young males and females to some extend use Snapchat in different ways and with different kinds of content, though for the same overall purpose; Snapchat constitutes their ‘in between space’ where they can test boundaries and uphold social relations by exchanging personal, unveiled behind-the-facade content.