The paper presents the methodology and preliminary findings of a quantitative and qualitative study of Danish children’s and adolescents’ use of audiovisual fiction and their notion of quality and relevance in fictional films and series across platforms that are being carried out in the spring and summer of 2021. Based on already existing reports on the topic in Denmark and elsewhere (e.g. Hansen et al. 2020, Ofcom 2018), the study is designed to answer questions such as: How do Danish children and adolescents think of quality in audiovisual fiction – and why? What is relevant to them – and why? What do they take away from the fiction they watch? What is the value and impact of the cultural experience of watching fiction for children and adolescents in denmark?
The study, thus, takes its theoretical point of departure in the the benefits of audiovisual fiction in the individual child or adolescent (Carnwath et al. 2014). That is, the value of cultural experiences to individuals, which, most scholars agree, cannot be measured solely in economic terms.
In order to take our point of departure in the actual lived media experience of Danish children and adolescents, methodologically, the study consists of a national survey, on the one hand, and the collection of mobile ethnographies from a smaller number of children and adolescents, on the other (Donkin et al. 2015, Standlee 2017). The survey is divided into a traditional questionnaire, consisting of questions regarding demography, and habits and questionnaire ‘activities’ in which respondents are asked to evaluate series, film and YouTube videos selected by us. The mobile ethnographies will be collected via a mobile app, via which a selected number of children and adolescents are asked to do certain tasks related to their use of fictional content. These tasks will be designed to get more in-depth knowledge of the tendencies and results we see in the survey data.