Andra Siibak

University of Tartu · Institute of Social Studies

This chapter maps currently ongoing debates on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools and universities to highlight the main enthusiasms and concerns these debates have sparked both amongst the scholars of critical data studies, media and communication, and educational sciences. Our analysis is framed around a wider notion of the “schoo...

(eprints: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/H69MNXW9J4VFKY8GHHAQ/full?target=10.1080/07380569.2023.2244941) Our paper traces the dominant social imaginaries of ChatGPT in educational contexts as these present in news media discourses. While media plays a central role in shaping the sociotechnical imaginaries we share on specific topics, media tex...

p>An analysis of a sample of 143 news stories and opinion pieces published in the first two months since ChatGPT's release. The method of analysis is critical discursive psychology. </p

p>An analysis of a sample of 143 news stories and opinion pieces published in the first two months since ChatGPT's release. The method of analysis is critical discursive psychology. </p

Our paper traces the dominant social imaginaries of ChatGPT in educational contexts as these present in news media discourses. While media plays a central role in shaping the sociotechnical imaginaries we share on specific topics, media texts have thus far been used as the basis for such analysis only in limited instances. To remedy this gap, we ap...

Background: Growing public concern about the safety and security of schools has led many schools and school districts within the United States to hire private companies to monitor students' online interactions and the content they create, including on social media. The use of such technologies supposedly increases schools' awareness of what studen...

Digitehnoloogiatel on Eesti perede igapäevaelus täita keskne roll. Digivahendeid peetakse lapsi arendavateks ning vanemale puhkepause võimaldavateks, kuid nii lapsed kui ka vanemad muretsevad nende potentsiaalse kahjuliku mõju pärast. Reaalajas geopositsioneeringut võimaldavad rakendused pakuvad turvatunnet ja meelerahu nii lastele kui ka vanemate...

Relying on the diffusion of innovations theory by Everett Rogers (1962 [2003]), the current paper traces the five steps of the innovation-decision process for adopting microchip implants in a workplace. Semi-structured individual interviews with microchipped employees (n=14) from six different organisations in Estonia were carried out to explore th...

Nine focus group interviews with Estonian primary - (N= 25) and secondary school (N=20) students who had “friended” their teachers on social media, were carried out to study their experiences with teacher-student interactions on social media. We aimed to explore how teachers’ self-disclosure on social media affected teacher credibility and professi...

Resumen Se exploran los posibles usos y riesgos en el lugar de trabajo de las aplicaciones de rastreo de contactos y otras tecnologías de vigilancia implantadas para contener la COVID‐19, tomando como referencia el Reglamento General de Protección de Datos de la Unión Europea. Dado el desequilibrio de poder inherente a la relación de trabajo, las l...

Résumé Les autrices s'intéressent aux outils de suivi des contacts et autres dispositifs de surveillance utilisés par les employeurs pendant la pandémie. Elles se demandent s'ils sont bien compatibles avec les dispositions du Règlement général sur la protection des données de l'Union européenne. Rappelant que la relation de travail est par nature d...

p>The first months of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a surge of social engineering attacks. Although the pandemic is certainly not the first occurrence of socially disruptive circumstances that drive cybercriminals to action, relevant academic scholarship has remained scarce. To fill this gap in literature, and propose the analytical framework of...

Inspired by the communication privacy management theory the aim of our study was to explore pre-teens’ viewpoints and experiences related to their parents’ usage of child-tracking technologies. Relying on Q methodology and semi-structured individual interviews with 8- to 13-year-old Estonian pre-teens (n = 20) who were aware of parental tracking, w...

The first months of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a surge of social engineering attacks. Although the pandemic is certainly not the first occurrence of socially disruptive circumstances that drive cybercrime, relevant academic scholarship has remained scarce. To fill this gap in literature, and propose the analytical framework of mazephishing tha...

The objective of this research was to determine the kind of financial tips and advice people have received from the Facebook group Kogumispäevik (Savings Diary) and find out whether and how they have implemented those tips in their daily lives. The authors were also interested in the role played by other members of the Kogumispäevik group. The obje...

The COVID-19 crisis is a potential watershed moment for privacy with profound long-term effects on the organization and practices of work, education, and civic engagement. In this study we focus on the profound re-negotiation of mediated personal boundaries in times of mass lockdowns and social distancing. To understand how these new social conditi...

The aim of the article is to explore potential ways employers could use contact-tracing apps and other monitoring technologies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and potential concerns in the context of the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The analysis indicates that, due to the imbalance of power in the employment relationship, nation...

Digital parenting tools, such as child-tracking technologies, play an ever-increasing role in contemporary child rearing. To explore opinions and experiences related to the use of such tracking devices, we conducted Q methodology and a semi-structured individual interview-study with Estonian parents (n=20) and their 8- to 13-year-old pre-teens (n=2...

p>The first months of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a surge of social engineering attacks. Although the pandemic is certainly not the first occurrence of socially disruptive circumstances that drive cybercriminals to action, relevant academic scholarship has remained scarce. To fill this gap in literature, and propose the analytical framework of...

p>The first months of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a surge of social engineering attacks. Although the pandemic is certainly not the first occurrence of socially disruptive circumstances that drive cybercriminals to action, relevant academic scholarship has remained scarce. To fill this gap in literature, and propose the analytical framework of...

FULL TEXT available on request --- Purpose: The study makes use of situational crime prevention framework for analyzing online community reactions to the banning of deepfake pornographic content from Reddit. Methodology/approach: Qualitative text analysis of user comments posted to Reddit’s rule change announcement (N= 582) was carried out. Analy...

Meediakasutust puudutavad isiksuseomadused on kujunenud olulisteks põlvkondliku enesemääratluse ja identiteedi osisteks. Artiklis tutvustatakse meediapõlvkondade kultuurilisest käsitlusest lähtuvat lähenemist, mis näeb tänapäeva lapsi ja noori sotsiaalmeedia põlvkonnana. Mitmete empiiriliste uuringute tulemustele tuginevalt antakse artiklis ülevaad...

What children count as their favourite things tell us not only about children but also about their social and cultural experiences. This study, based on the outcomes of a children's drawing competition organised by the Estonian National Museum and applying a combined framework of visual sociology and participatory research, proposes an innovative a...

The concept of social vulnerability has been increasingly applied in disaster literature, but its communicative drivers have remained understudied. In this article, we put forward a heuristic framework for explaining how communication-related factors may adversely affect people's capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. This will help rese...

Artikli eesmärk on analüüsida õpilastepoolset küberkiusamist kogenud Eesti üldhariduskooli õpetajate (N = 14) arvamusi ja kogemusi ning uurida, milliseid koolipoolseid sekkumisvõimalusi õpetajad selliste küberkiusamise juhtumite lahendamiseks näevad. Poolstruktureeritud individuaalintervjuu meetodil otsiti vastuseid järgmistele uurimisküsimuste...

Although employers around the world (e.g. USA, Mexico, Sweden, Belgium, Estonia) have started to implant employees with microchips (Esfola, 2018; Petersen 2019), there is still not enough empirical insights about the opportunities and risks microchipped employees associate with the technology. Semi-structured individual interviews with microchipped...

Eesti noored on aktiivsed internetikasutajad: nende seas ei esine märkimisväärset digikihistumist, nende netitegevused on mitmekülgsed ning hinnangud oma digioskustele head. Ometi osalevad Eesti noored interneti ja sotsiaalmeedia vahendusel ühiskonnaelus ja poliitikas tagasihoidlikult. Enamgi veel, kohati on noored virtuaalse arvamusruumi suhtes kr...

Emerging digital data sources provide opportunities for explaining social processes, but also challenge knowledge production practices within social sciences. This article contributes to the ‘end of theory’ discussions, which have intensified in the social sciences since the widening practice of big data and computational methods. Adopting a system...

Many parents of today are feeling increasingly concerned not only for the well-being and safety of their children, but also for their own abilities to take up the role of a "good" and "responsible" parent. Empirical research evidence is used in the chapter to illustrate how the data religion cultivated by tech industry, popular press, marketing dis...

The article indicates some main trends in the field of intergenerational communication in new media environments, while exploring how new technological possibilities have been introduced and rooted inside the family. The aim of the study was to investigate the reasons and motivations for why the representatives of three different generations belong...

Focus group interviews with preschool children (N=61) and parents (N=20) were carried out to study their perceptions of young children's computer use and parental mediation strategies. Our results indicate that young children make active use of computers mainly for entertainment and less so for educational reasons. However, rather than enhancing ch...

Semi-structured interviews (N=21) with young SNS Rate profile owners were carried out in order to analyse the main trends in visual self-presentation strategies that 10-12-year-old Estonians use, and have perceived to be in use by others, on SNS. The aim of the study was to capture the role that the norms and rules of mediated culture , as well as...

Wie sehen estnische Erzieherinnen ihre eigene als auch die Rolle der El-tern bei der Entwicklung von Medienkompetenz und bei der Begleitung der Mediennutzung von Vorschulkindern? Anhand von Interviews wird gezeigt, was Erzieherinnen unter Medienerziehung verstehen, und es wird untersucht, welche Hilfe sie bei der Förderung der Medienkompe-tenz der...

Previous research has indicated that media technologies and media use form an important cultural glue within generations. Younger generations, in particular, have been noted to build their generational identity around the technology and devices that they use. We believe it is important to explore how generations and shared identities are constructe...

The prevalence of using email as a communication tool for personal and professional purposes makes it a significant attack vector for cybercriminals. Consensus exists that phishing, i.e. use of socially engineered messages to convince recipients into performing actions that benefit the sender, is widespread as a negative phenomenon. However, little...

Present day parents have become accustomed to regularly posting information and disclosing details about their children on social media, i.e. engaging in sharenting. Although many parents value the practice as it not only enables to involve distant family members and friends in the growing up of the children, but has also become a practice for coll...

Preliminary findings of the EU Kids Online 2018 Estonian survey

Semi-structured individual interviews with 14 Estonian mothers and their children (aged 9–13 years) pairs who had ‘friended’ each other on Facebook were carried out to study pre-teens’ and parents’ reflections and experiences regarding information disclosures and sharenting on Facebook. We wanted to know what kind of information mothers shared abou...

This study strives to contribute in explaining the mechanisms and role of homogeneous social media communities in formation of ethnic prejudice, the phenomena being often named in the literature as echo chamber effect. The paper will present the findings of a qualitative study carried out with the active members of the biggest public Estonian-langu...

The aim of this interdisciplinary paper is to study the social reality surrounding the data processing practices employers and employees engage in on social networking sites (SNS). Considering the lack of empirical studies, as well as the considerable uncertainty in the way personal data protection is implemented across the European Union (EU), the...

The authors of the chapter analyse trends in internet use amongst Estonian population and show that the amount of internet users have been grown to 87 per cent (15-74 years old). Internet users are as varied in their usage practices as are their offline lives virtual spaces recreate the hierarchies found in social relations and amplify inequalities...

This study explored the relationship of in-service teacher achievement goal orientation and practices of educational technology use. Semi-structured individual interviews with secondary school teachers in Latvia (N = 16) and Estonia (N = 10) revealed that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in pedagogical work and the ways in...

Semi-structured interviews (N=21) with young SNS „Rate“ profile owners were carried out in order to analyse the main trends in visual self-presentation strategies that 10-12-year-old Estonians use, and have perceived to be in use by others, on SNS. The aim of the study was to capture the role that the norms and rules of mediated culture, as well as...

The aim of this ethnographic case study was twofold. Firstly, we aimed to find out which mediation strategies parents used to regulate the touchscreen technology use of their toddlers and how these strategies were embedded in the family's everyday life. Secondly, we aimed to study older siblings' influence and the mediation practices of toddlers' t...

Info- ja kommunikatsioonitehnoloogia omandab järjest suuremat rolli peaaegu kõikides inimtegevuse valdkondades, pakkudes võimalusi sotsiaalseks suhtluseks, info otsimiseks ja haldamiseks, meelelahutuseks, e-teenuste osutamiseks ja kasutamiseks, kuid arvesse tuleb võtta ka internetikasutuse pahupoolt. Nimelt kuulub Eesti nende riikide hulka, mis pai...

This short essay will try to capture some of the lessons social media users have come to learn during the existence of social media era. I will highlight the need to take responsibility of the posts one makes and shares on social media and thus emphasize the importance of one’s critical thinking and digital literacy skills.

Drawing on the data from 26 interviews with different subject teachers in two countries, Estonia and Latvia, this study aimed to reveal how pedagogical beliefs and subject cultures shape the ways primary and secondary school teachers mediate students` use of digital technology. Teachers are acknowledged to be important socializing agents, affecting...

Artikli eesmärk on anda ülevaade õpetajate arvamustest ja kogemustest, mis puudutavad õpetajate ja õpilaste interaktsiooni ja sisuloomet suhtlusportaalides. Fookusgrupi intervjuudes nelja kooli keskkooliõpetajatega (N = 21) uuriti, milliseid erinevusi on õpetajad täheldanud enda ja õpilaste loodud veebisisus ning millistel juhtudel ja mil viisil on...

Although children often look for guidance on what is gender-appropriate behaviour from the media, children’s media favourites are still an underused learning resource in preschools, especially in the context of engaging in gender and values education. Focus-group interviews were conducted with 61 children aged from 5.5 to 7 years from three geograp...

This Themed Section of Participations aims at illuminating the relationship between media audiences, their media consumption cultures and the social formations called “generations”. It has been influenced by the inspirational cross working-group initiative meetings of the scholars working on the field of media and generations in COST Action IS0906...

This study explored Estonian teachers’ perceptions and practices about student-teacher interaction on Facebook. Four focus group interviews with high-school teachers (n=21) revealed that educators are used to monitoring their students’ posts on Facebook and consider it their role to intervene whenever something inappropriate is posted. Teachers vie...

While acknowledging that the Internet has brought new opportunities and challenges to children’s lives, this chapter proceeds from the assumption that offline institutions and practices tend to be reproduced and reinforced online. We employ classical conceptualizations of the quality of life to define and structure the aspects of child well-being a...

This paper explores the ways in which teachers have integrated ICTs in teaching humanities and science classes at the elementary and primary school levels. The research is based in Estonia, looking at five Estonian and one Russianspeaking primary and elementary schools. Data were gathered through classroom observations and two consecutive interview...

The aim of the study was to explore the reasons that Estonian three-generation families use different web-based platforms for family interaction. Semi-structured interviews (N=13) were carried out with representatives of four Estonian families to study their motivations for communicating with each other through web-based communication channels. Fur...

The aim of the paper is to analyse the perceptions Estonian 13-16-year-olds have about privacy and imagined audience on SNS, blogs and Instant Messenger. Semi-structured interviews (N = 15) were carried out to explore the various privacy strategies teens implement in order to manage their extended audience. The findings indicate that the majority o...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The chapter aims to illuminate the relationship between the condition of permanent transformation of audiences (and technological media landscape) and the social formations called “generations”. The chapter is based on the idea that “generational identity” or “generational belonging”, based on social relationships (mediated or not), define the so...

This chapter explores, first, the extent to which social support from teachers and peers is related to children's uptake of online opportunities and their levels of digital literacy and safety skills; and second, whether and how teachers' and peers' mediation are related to the main online risks and harm experienced by children. Socio-demographic v...

Introduction A distinctive feature of the EU Kids Online survey is that it asked children about mediation of internet use practised by parents, teachers and peers (Livingstone et al, 2011). This chapter starts from the assumption that these three agents, by virtue of their different social relationships with children, play distinct roles in influen...

In this article we discuss our experiences from setting up workshops, inspired by creative research methods (Gauntlett, 2005, 2007), on the theme of construction of online identities by young people (aged 13–14 years) in Estonia and in Sweden. Our primary focus is on the opportunities and possible challenges involved when using creative research me...

This paper analyses Estonian high-school students (N=15) perceptions about the imagined audience on Facebook. Students' sketches (N=39) and reflections on focus group interviews indicate that the youth are well aware of the plurality of the imagined audience on Facebook. From the total of six prevalent user types and sub-types that emerged, just on...

Tweens (10-14-year-olds) in Estonia and Sweden were interviewed about their experience and understanding of gender construction on social networking sites (SNS). The interviews indicate that peer culture is the most important dimension and a source of inspiration for the young when writing their identity online. Gendered norms and values are promin...

The aim of this article is to analyse how tween girls in Estonia and in Sweden describe and discover their gender identities when selecting profi le images for social networking sites (SNSs). To this end, interviews with tweens in Estonia (N=21) and in Sweden (N=31) were carried out. As SNSs largely exist without the recognisable surveillance of ad...

The aim of the current study was to explore the reasons why Estonian teenagers tend to over-share their private and intimate information on social media, especially on Facebook. Two focus-group interviews were carried out with 16-20 year old high school students (N=15), in June 2010, in order to study their experiences and opinions about the percei...

The aim of this study was to identify the strongest predictors of individual differences in Internet use, taking into account personality traits, socio-demographic variables, and indicators of habitus and lifestyle. To this purpose, an empirically robust and theoretically easily interpretable classification of online activities and their underlying...

The study provides an overview of teacher perceptions regarding young children’s internet use and media education in pre-schools. Two focus-group interviews with 24 Estonian pre-school teachers were carried out in order to analyze their experiences and opinions about factors that influence pre-school children’s computer and Internet use. Pre-school...

Social networking website (SNS) Rate is the most popular online environment for young Estonians, which has more than 290000 active users. The study aims to examine visual self-presentations of young men (N = 108) in Rate. Quantitative content analysis methodology was used to analyze 599 profile images of young men belonging to a community 'Damn I'm...

This article analyses practices of online content creation, with a focus on blogging and personal homepages, among Estonian schoolchildren in the comparative context of Europe. The MEDIAPPRO survey of 11–18 year-old pupils, carried out in eight European countries (including Estonia) in Autumn 2005, various sources from the EU Kids Online Data Repos...

This chapter focuses on different types of online opportunities taken up by children across Europe. Although the take-up of online opportunities by children across European countries varies in its detail, overall it follows a general pattern, according to which the advancing experience in internet use as children grow older and their changing prior...

The internet and other online technologies provide children across Europe with a range of opportunities and benefits. The main opportunities can be classified into four categories: education, learning and digital literacy; participation and civic engagement; creativity and self-expression; and identity and social connection (Livingstone and Haddon,...

This article focuses on practices of online content creation among young Internet users in Estonia. The data are derived from a questionnaire survey carried out in schools in 3 cities in autumn 2007 (N = 713) among 11- to 18-year-old students. Our findings suggest that content creation practices in more structured online environments such as social...

This article takes as a point of departure Erving Goffman's (1959) ideas and the self-discrepancy theory of Higgins (1987) in order to introduce the habits of self-presentation of young people in the online environments. The aim of my article is to examine the reasons for joining SNS and the aspects young people would hope to emphasize on their pro...

In general, Internet availability is good in Estonia. There are more problems in rural areas, but recent initiatives have emphasised an increased focus on rural availability. ISPs offer guidance in technical safety of computer use (e.g., virus protection, spyware and executable files). However, content protection is generally not provided. Microsof...

The aim of the MA thesis was to describe and analyse the opinions and ideas the women audience had about the talk show „Mamma Mia”. The analysis of the production practices of „Mamma Mia” is provided in a form of background knowledge. Different studies concentrating on the talk show genre (Abt & Seesholtz 1995; Shattuc 1997; Rapping 2000), and the...

As the identity of the young is largely shaped through the feedback they receive from their peers the impression-management has become an essential part in the lives of young people, both in the real and in the virtual worlds. The aim of the paper is to analyse how young people present themselves on the photographs of dating and communication websi...

As the identity of the young is largely shaped through the feedback they receive from their peers, the impression-management has become an essential part in the lives of the youth, both in the real world and also in the virtual worlds of the Internet. The aim of the paper is to analyse how young men present themselves in the photographs of dating w...

Portal Rate, the most popular website in Estonia, is meant mostly for young people aged 13-30. Rate is known as a dating website where people can post a short description of themselves and photos, so that other Rate users could give comments and rate their looks. Content analysis involving elements of Kress and van Leeuwen` s (1996) and Bell` s (20...

Veronika Kalmus ja Andra Siibak analüüsivad artiklis Eesti noorte harrastusi suhtlusportaalis RATE.EE. Artikkel on ilmunud Õpetajate Lehes 8. juunil 2007.