Purpose -The present study aims to examine girls' perception of gender roles and gender identities in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach -A total of 16 girls aged 10 to 12 were asked to take pictures from the media that could illustrate ''what girls or women should or should not be; and what girls or women should or should not do''. Qualitative interviews were conducted.Findings -Analysis of interviews and images captured found that tween girls' perceived gender roles for females were based on a mixture of traditional and contemporary role models. Girls in Hong Kong demonstrated conservatism in sexuality. Sexy outlook and pre-marital sexual relations were considered inappropriate. Tween girls showed concern about global as well as domestic social agendas. They used a variety of media and showed interest in contents primarily for adults.Research limitations/implications -The study was based on a convenience sample. The interviewees came from middle to lower income families, limiting the validity for generalization. Further quantitative study is needed to establish benchmarks.Practical implications -This study will help in understanding the kinds of media images that attract the attention of female tweens and what those images mean to them. The study can serve as a guideline for marketing communication aimed at this target group, particularly for skincare, beauty, and cosmetic marketers.Originality/value -The first novel idea that is being used in this research is the combination of visual method and the application of qualitative methodology to the study of media effects. The second novel idea is the use of interviewees as data-collectors. The methodology enables contextually relevant questions and to understand the meaning of the images captured.

This study presents the preliminary findings of the first round of implementation of a case study included in the Horizon 2020 project SMOOTH. The project's main objective is to introduce and study the emergent paradigm of the educational commons as an alternative system of values and actions for promoting intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and establishing spaces of democratic citizenship that support the development of local communities. Our case study adopts this paradigm with insights derived from the field of media education. Hence, our research questions were as follows: (a) How do young people collectively experience and build the educational commons? (b) How do participants (youth and adults) in educational commons experience peer governance and how do they handle and resolve conflicts? (c) How does the co-creation of a photo-blog as a shared space of work help young people discover and develop a "civic intentionality" in the (digital) public sphere? (d) What are the effects of applying a commons' logic to address inequalities and achieve social inclusion of young people from vulnerable social groups? Fieldwork, framed in an ethnographic and action-research approach, was developed by examining the three dimensions of the notion of educational commons (commoners, commoning practices, and community). Although data collection and analysis are still in progress, our preliminary results allow us to draw some initial reflections on what worked well in the first round and what could hinder the achievement of the project's objectives. We also propose hypotheses for re-designing the second round to overcome the weaknesses that emerged during the first experimental phase and foster its strengths.

This study suggests to look at the audiences of religious television programmes as a possible common field of interest for both the sociology of religion and communication research. The current visibility of religion on Italian television, amplified by the Jubilee 2000 and confirmed by the repeated successes of fictions dedicated to religious characters, put unusual questions to sociological theory. We argue here that such visibility must be interpreted within the 'process of de-secularization', i.e. one of the many processes which are currently de-constructing modernity and confusing the distinction between the public and the private sphere. The 'mediated' religion is the result of the ambiguous rediscovery of religion in the post-modern society. From this point of view, the Jubilee 2000 appears as a media event typical of the global media society, in that religion is spread throughout the world but within the limits of media (and especially television) formats.

In Italy, the media literacy (ML) movement has a long grassroots tradition. Main actors are from civil society (academics, associations, church communities, teachers, media professionals, educators), with some growing support from local and national institutions. While digital literacy has stably entered the school system through funds, projects, and teaching resources aimed at improving students' digital skills, only recently has a more sociocultural view of digital technologies developed, thanks also to the National Plan for Digital School issued by the Ministry of Education in 2015. For the future, more commitment to developing the following three important directions is needed: conducting evaluative research on ML in order to have more evidence‐based knowledge of its impact on educational contexts, both formal and nonformal; enhancing training and producing quality resources for teachers and educators alike; fostering more coordination and networking among the various stakeholders involved in the field.

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