Children of media – worldbuilders for justice

Children are turning to social media platforms, like Instagram, TikTok or Twitter, to voice their political views and express their activism. What does this tell us about children’s media use and justice? For www.parenting.digital, John Hartley discusses his recent paper in the LSE’s Working Papers series. He applies to ‘children of media’ a general model of culture’s function, using a systems and evolutionary perspective (developed here, here, and here) to argue that ‘class consciousness’ is being formed around ‘the means of mediation’ and children use a range of social-media affordances to challenge existing political and intellectual order.