Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Understanding the influence of sexual objectification in media: A triangulation study of the role of peers in the relationship between media use and self-objectification in adolescents." "Steven Eggermont" "Leuven School for Mass Communication Research" "Mass media that are popular in adolescents abound with messages that portray individuals as (sexual) bodies while disregarding their personalities. Objectification theory argues that exposure to such so-called sexually objectifying media encourages adolescents to develop an objectified self-concept which is considered to be a central factor in health risks. My PhD introduced the “three-step process of self-objectification” that explains how media tend to induce an objectified self-concept. However, to further increase this model’s explanatory value the role of PEERS needs to be addressed. The current project therefore aims to study the role of the sexual objectification of peers and perceived peer norms of sexual objectification in the media/self-objectification model. More precisely, a longitudinal 4-wave survey and a daily experience study in adolescents will test whether:(1) Preferences for and exposure to sexually objectifying media are explained by perceived peer norms of sexual objectification;(2) Relationships between media use and self-objectification vary as a function of peer norms of sexual objectification;(3) The sexual objectification of peers mediates the relationship between media use and selfobjectification;(4) It is valuable to apply a reinforcing spiral framework to the media/peer - self-objectification model;(5) Adding peer-related concepts to the media/self-objectification model increases the power of this model to explain health risks." "SEXUAL AND GENDER DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA: PSMs at the interface between media production and normative discourses on LGBT+ representation" "Sofie Van Bauwel" "Department of Communication Sciences" "The representation of sexual and gender difference in popular culture has mostly been addressed in mainstream US media. Hence, the interplay between media production and societal norms on LGBT+ portrayals is argued to be mediated by the interests of private enterprises. To navigate the representational interface, they independently appraise and apply normative convictions about LGBT+ portrayals best suited to their aims. While prominent in Western European cultural spaces, public service media [PSMs] have been largely overlooked in LGBT+ media studies. But in the face of LGBT+ representations’ increased prominence as catalysts for often heated public debate, PSMs clearly operate in a more complex representational interface. Required to attend to various external demands – from legal commitments to diverse representation to informal pressures by civil society, they cannot only prioritize their own interests as media companies to navigate conflicting views on how sexual and gender difference is to be represented. Focusing on the institutional (1), public (2) and individual (3) dimensions to the representational interface PSMs operate in, this project investigates how various forces shape LGBT+ representation in Western European PSM programming. Analyzing the distinct representational norms PSMs in Ireland, the Netherlands and Flanders navigate when portraying sexual and gender difference, the project results in an industrial framework to understand PSM LGBT+ representation in." "Collaboration in the media: the impact of interthinking and distributive cognition on news and media production processes." "Geert Jacobs" "Department of Linguistics, Department of Language and communication" "The central research questions of the research project are: which components (including interthinking) play salient roles in the distributed cognition of media production work and how are these components organized in interaction? The project analyses segments of 200 hours of audio-recorded media production meetings in which (i) media products were planned, (ii) drafts were discussed, and (iii) updates and revisions were made." "On Mood and Media: Disentangling the Relationship between Adolescents’ Affective Media Experiences and their Emotional Well-Being" "Steven Eggermont" "Leuven School for Mass Communication Research, School Psychology and Development in Context" "This project introduces a model which explains positive and negative role of media use in depressive symptoms. In its process, the project will lead to a conceptualization of moderators in a theoretical structure which distinguishes levels of moderation. This project will therefore not only lead to a more advanced understanding of associations between media use and adolescent well-being, but will contribute to an improved conceptual model for explaining (differential susceptibility to) media effects." "Copyright and news media: the impact of copyright on free and independent (online) news media" "Dirk Voorhoof" "Department of Communication Sciences" "The central research objective is to investigate what the impact is of copyright on the freedom and independence of online news media. The research centers on two different types of countries: first, European continental countries with a tradition of ""authors' rights"" (Belgium and Germany); and second, countries with a tradition of ""copyrights"" (the UK and the US)." "The ""Child Effect"" in Media Research: how children affect media adoption, media use and media rules in the family." "Steven Eggermont, Jan Van den Bulck" "Leuven School for Mass Communication Research" "Research on the ""child-impact"" in the broad media in particular examine how children's media-adoption, media usage and media rules affect in the family." "Can social media literacy contribute to adolescents' mental well-being? Developing a conceptual framework for the socialization of social media literacy and its role in mitigating adversarial social media effects" "Laura Vandenbosch" "Leuven School for Mass Communication Research" "The current society increasingly highlights the importance for adolescents to use social media in a media literate way. That is because of widespread public concerns on adolescents’ avid use of social media platforms. Social media are also often considered harmful for adolescents’ well-being, even though research investigating this has largely produced inconsistent results. Yet, scholars and policy makers alike have put social media literacy forward as a promising solution for the dominant role that social media platforms play in adolescents’ daily lives. Social media literacy can be described as cognitive and affective competencies that help to navigate social media platforms in a healthy way. Generally, social media literacy is expected to challenge the risks inherent to social media usage and is thus assumed to interact with social media effects, however this widespread assumption has largely remained unexplored. This lack of research is surprising given the extensive implementation of social media literacy programs in school curricula. Fundamental understandings of social media literacy’s impact on social media effects thus seemed needed to justify society’s support for such programs. So far though, the social media literacy and social media effects literature lacked a close integration and social media literacy emerged as a fragmented concept with no detailed attempts to theoretically define and characterize it in regard to the social media effects it intends to enhance versus prevent.   Accordingly, the first goal of this PhD project was to develop a theoretical framework on the role of social media literacy in the social media effects literature. The first chapter introduces this novel theoretical framework, also called the Social Media Literacy (SMILE) model which integrates media (literacy), social psychology, interpersonal communication and educational theories. The model puts forward five assumptions, part of which relate to the theorized empowerment process and the other part relates to the theorized development process. The empowerment process seeks to explain the role of social media literacy in the links between social media behavior and adolescent mental well-being and specifically considers how social media literacy may minimize social media risks and maximize opportunities. The development process aims to understand the ways through which adolescents can acquire social media literacy and considers which socialization agents foster social media literacy and how they operate simultaneously.The second goal of this dissertation was to provide empirical validation for the proposed theoretical framework by testing its assumptions against the background of one area of social media effects: the social media positivity bias, also known as social media users’ conveyance of highly positive lifestyles, successes and/or attractive appearances to their audience. In order to adequately test the SMILE-model’s assumptions for the positivity bias, valid and reliable instruments were needed to address a) social media literacy on this bias, b) socialization agents’ mediation of social media literacy, c) engagement in unauthentic positivity-biased self-presentation behaviors and d) different interactions with positive social media content. Such instruments were missing in the literature at the initial stage of the PhD dissertation, which is why a rigorous methodological approach to scale development was adopted. The second chapter describes in detail the scale development process for the instruments to measure interactions with positive social media content. To develop these instruments but also the other instruments, data of focus groups (6 groups, N = 22), in-depth interviews (N = 35), a cross-sectional survey study (N = 586), two waves of a longitudinal survey study (NW1 = 1895, Nanalyses = 1419) and a second cross-sectional survey study (N = 542) were used.The third chapter was an empirical test of the first assumption of the empowerment process, that social media literacy acts as a moderator in the relation between social media use and well-being. The chapter specifically investigated the moderating role of social media literacy in the within-person longitudinal associations between exposure to positive social media content, social comparison and the affective responses of envy and inspiration, drawing on a longitudinal survey study with three data waves (NW1 = 1895, Nanalyses = 1032). It was found that the within-person longitudinal association between social comparison and envy only occurred for those adolescents with low levels of affective social media literacy. Adolescents with high levels of affective social media literacy did not feel increased envy after increased social comparisons.The fourth chapter empirically explored the second assumption of the empowerment process of the SMILE-model, which argues that social media literacy acts as a predictor. More concretely, this chapter investigated social media literacy’s power in predicting the extent to which an adolescent engages in unauthentic positively-biased self-presentation behaviors and how these kind of behaviors relate to adolescents’ self-esteem. This chapter also drew on the data of the longitudinal survey study (NW1 = 1895, Nanalyses = 1032). No support was found for within-person longitudinal associations between positively-biased self-presentation behaviors and self-esteem. Within-person longitudinal associations did occur between cognitive social media literacy and positivity-biased behaviors, yet in the opposite direction of what was expected. An adolescent who displayed more critical knowledge than usually, engaged more in unauthentic positively-biased self-presentation on social media, later in time. This unexpected finding is discussed in light of peer dynamics characterizing social media interactions. In addition, it was found that adolescents with higher levels of affective social media literacy engaged less in unauthentic positively-biased self-presentation behaviors and displayed more self-esteem.Two assumptions of the development process of the SMILE-model were tested in the fifth chapter: the assumption on reciprocal processes and the assumption on differential learning processes. Based on the first two waves of the longitudinal survey study (NW1 = 1895, Nanalyses = 1007), this chapter explored the longitudinal relations between parental and peer mediation and cognitive and affective social media literacy. Reciprocal associations were found between active parental mediation on the positivity bias and one cognitive social media literacy dimension, awareness of the presence of the positivity bias, over time. Active parental mediation also predicted affective social media literacy over time. No associations were found between active peer mediation and social media literacy.The current PhD dissertation thus sought to contribute to a theoretical and empirical underpinning for the fast developing literature on social media literacy. The findings highlight the importance of affective social media literacy. Apart from knowledge transmission, current social media literacy education programs and intervention packages should also focus on adolescents’ emotions in their social media interactions and help them manage these in an adaptive way. Furthermore, the role of parents may not be underestimated. Governmental initiatives could be set up to encourage parents to take up an active role in helping their children navigate social media by staying abreast of their social media activities and talking to them about their social media experiences and related emotions." "(Mis-)Informed by Social Media Influencers? Benefits and Risks of Following Political Social Media Influencers and the Moderating Role of Media Literacy" "Desiree Schmuck" "Leuven School for Mass Communication Research" "Social media influencers who were initially known for marketing and advertising increasingly use their popularity on platforms like TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat to communicate their opinions on political and societal topics to a large network of followers. This increasing political engagement of social media influencers can be seen in a positive light as it may raise political interest and participation among young people who are often not reached anymore by traditional party politics and whose primary source of political information are social media. However, social media influencers may also misuse their popularity and celebrity status to intentionally or unintentionally mis-inform their followers with questionable advices, scientifically unfounded claims, or even conspiracy theories. Therefore, this project investigates how information and misinformation by social media influencers affect young people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions." "Stimulating film and media in Palestine. The enhancement of the media studies bachelor and the development of a film making minor at the Media Department of the Al Quds University." "Philippe Meers" "Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi)" "There is a clear need for a high level specialized media and film education in Palestine. Currently many of the film makers in Palestine had their training abroad. In the very sensitive political situation it is important that Palestinians produce their own documentaries and fiction, creating their own voice and representation.The main objectives of the project are twofold and complementary:1. The enhancement of the existing programmes in media2. The feasibility study for and the establishment of a new minor in film making within the media studies bachelors." "(Mis-) Informed by Social Media Influencers?Benefits and Risks of Following Political Social Media Influencers and the Moderating Role of Media Literacy" "Desiree Schmuck" "Leuven School for Mass Communication Research" "Social media influencers who were initially known for marketing and advertising increasingly use their popularity on platforms like TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat to communicate their opinions on political and societal topics to a large network of followers. This increasing political engagement of social media influencers can be seen in a positive light as it may raise political interest and participation among young people who are often not reached anymore by traditional party politics and whose primary source of political information are social media. However, social media influencers may also misuse their popularity and celebrity status to intentionally or unintentionally mis-inform their followers with questionable advices, scientifically unfounded claims, or even conspiracy theories. Therefore, this project investigates how information and misinformation by social media influencers affect young people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions in the areas of health and sustainability."