1. Cross-national news coverage of the social media ban for youth
Beginning with Australia in December 2025, countries across the globe have considered banning youth under 16 from social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.). This project examines news coverage of this policy area across various countries. In particular, the intern will code news articles about the social media ban. The interns will code: 1) what the reasons are for the ban, 2) the reported challenges related to policy implementation, 3) whether youth are quoted in the news articles, and 4) who is quoted as an expert about social media's effects. The project is an extension of a SSHRC-funded project that examined what scientists/studies were cited in policy documents related to the ban. In 2027, we will examine news coverage across the globe, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the U.K., and the US (countries that the researcher has strong ties to). Additional countries will depend on the interns’ backgrounds, interests, and language skills. The goal is to have approximately 250 news stories per country. If there is time remaining in the project, we will also code the 20 most-cited experts’ social media posts to assess the frequency with which they discuss the ban and how their messaging aligns with news coverage. The project involves training two interns to conduct content analysis (1 week), testing the codebook (1 week), reading and coding news articles/posts (8 weeks), as well as analyzing the data and writing a report (2 weeks).
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Cross-national news coverage of social media ban for youth
Student roles:
Two interns will be hired to code news articles in various countries. The interns will work together to ensure that they have a common understanding of how the codebook works. Upon completion of the coding, they will work together to provide a summary report, which will be written with the professor. This report will be published online with the two interns' and the professor's names.
The professor has worked with a previous Mitacs intern to conduct similar research, except the intern coded exclusively social media posts. This report is available: https://roam.macewan.ca:8443/server/api/core/bitstreams/ee9a19be-311b-4cc5-89ee-5df7d82a1dc9/content
Skills required:
*Completion of at least one research methods course in any social science (sociology, psychology, political science, communication, etc.)
*critical thinking skills
*ability to work as part of a team
*detail-oriented