What exactly happens when teenagers open their phones and begin scrolling? How does the ubiquitous presence of digital media influence their everyday lives, and what does this mean for their social experiences and identity development? Beginning with these questions, this doctoral research project investigates how teenagers’ everyday lives are mediatised – that is, shaped at a fundamental level by communications media generally and digital media specifically.
Using TikTok as a case study, this PhD thesis centres the lived experiences of teenagers with digital media, drawing directly on the voices and perspectives teens themselves. The research argues that teenagers as a specific demographic have been marginalised and overgeneralised in youth and media research, which has very often focused exclusively on children’s experiences or else swept together children, teens, and young adults indiscriminately by using terms such as ‘youth,’ ‘young people,’ or ‘youngster.’ By contrast, this research meaningfully defines teenagers as individuals between 13 and 19-years-old and understands the teenage years as a cultural and developmental stage for identity work and socialisation.
In this study, TikTok provides a window into how digital media mediate not only communication, but the very fabric of teenage social existence. Teenagers are not merely affected by media—they actively shape and negotiate them. Understanding mediatisation, therefore, means understanding how young people live and make meaning through media in a deeply digital society.
Emilie Owens successfully defended her thesis on 9 April 2026.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: The role of media in the everyday life of youth: Research traditions, approaches and historical trajectories.
Evaluation committee
- Professor Göran Bolin, Söderntörn University (first opponent)
- Professor Lynn Schofield Clark, University of Denver (second opponent)
- Professor Trine Syvertsen, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
- Professor Marika Lüders, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor Elisabeth Staksrud, University of Oslo
- Associate Professor Stine Liv Johansen, Aarhus University.