The Significance of Technology Videos for Girls' Interest in Technology

Abstract

One reason for the near-absent growth of girls’ interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) professions could be the culturally and media perpetuated images of technology and people. As a cultural studies approach suggests, societal structures such as male-dominated engineering professions depend on power over the production of knowledge and meaning. Today, the digital public sphere offers spaces for empowering and active media use by girls and women that can highlight their perspectives on future technologies. Using performative social research, this study explored how 12- to 16-year-old girls would like to have technology topics communicated to them. The research question was investigated using a multi-method design, consisting of workshops in which 21 girls produced their own videos on technology topics, individual interviews to evaluate the published videos, and an online questionnaire with 108 girls and a comparison group of 52 boys who watched and rated the videos. Findings suggest the need to prioritise topics that are close to the everyday lives of the target group (in this case, girls), to link technology to other areas of life, such as sport, art, or health, and to show challenges and problems in using technology.