Project leader: David Brake
David Brake (while with at Media@LSE, related to his PhD thesis) interviewed young people in the UK aged 16-19 who had produced MySpace profiles, examining the influences and constraints on such storytelling. This research for Mediatized Stories focused primarily on understanding the meaning of MySpace use for young people but also considered the technological characteristics of MySpace at the time of the research (2007). His research suggests that the process of profile creation and maintenance on MySpace as a means of identity work may be of less importance to young people than MySpace's role as an apparently secure communicative space.
Brake's contribution to Mediatized Stories was initially shaped with Nick Couldry while he was working at LSE.
Brake also, with Sonia Livingstone, did a report for Mediatized Stories on policy implications of the rapid rise of social networking sites.
Publications
Brake, D. (2010) 'As if nobody's reading'?: Imagined contexts and socio-technical biases in personal blogging practice in the UK. PhD thesis. London School of Economics and Political Science. [Published at http://bit.ly/8MBZBT under Creative Commons].
Livingstone, S. & D. Brake (2009) On the Rapid Rise of Social Networking Sites: New Findings and Policy Implications. Research Review. Children & Society, 24(1): 75-83.
Brake, D. (2008) Shaping the 'me' in MySpace: The framing of profiles on a social network site. In K. Lundby (Ed.) Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media. New York: Peter Lang.
Couldry, N. (2008) Mediatization or mediation? Alternative understandings of the emergent space of digital storytelling. New Media & Society, 10(3): 439-457.
Couldry, N. (2008) Digital storytelling, media research and democracy: Conceptual choices and alternative futures. In K. Lundby (Ed.) Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media. New York: Peter Lang.
Presentations
Brake, D. (2010) Lifelogging: Visions of Absent Audiences. Paper presented at International Communication Association (ICA), Singapore, 22-26 June.
Brake, D. (2009) The cost of self-presentation: dimensions of potential harm to content producers. Paper presented at Transforming Audiences 2. London: University of Westminster, 4 September.
Couldry, N (2009) Comment to all presentations at the Mediatized Stories preconference on 'The presentation of self in everyday digital life', 2 September at the University of Westminster, London.
Brake, D. (2007) Personal webloggers and their audiences: one medium, many communicative contexts. Transforming Audiences, University of Westminister. London 6-7 September 2007.
Brake, D. (2007) Filling the 'About Me' Box. Presentation to the International Communication Association. San Francisco, 24-28 May 2007.