The Digital (Neighbour)hood

Critical Technology

How, where, and what kids and teens learn about safe sex, substance use, and other health-related topics is incredibly important. Especially for young people who are already dealing with higher risk factors, such as neighbourhood poverty and violence--a disproportionate number of whom are young people of colour, specifically Black, Latinx or Indigenous youth. In this episode, Dr. Sara M. Grimes (Director of the KMDI) chats with Dr. Robin Stevens, Associate Professor at University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and the Director and founder of the Health Equity and Media Collab, about her research on Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ youth's use of social media, and the implications for their health and well-being. The discussion is focused on two of Dr. Stevens's articles: “The digital hood: Social media use among youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods,” published in 2017 in New Media and Society; and “#digitalhood: Engagement with risk content in Social Media among Black and Hispanic Youth,” published in the Journal of Urban Health in 2019.
Type of research discussed in today's episode: health communication; digital epidemiology; community-engaged research; interdisciplinary research; youth studies; qualitative research.
Keywords for today's episode: digital neighbourhood/hood; risk-related content; Black youth culture; Latinx youth culture; technological determinism; content creation; invisible visibility.
For more information and a full transcript of each episode, check out our website: http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/the-critical-technology-podcast/
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