Qualitative study. Communication processes, practices and experiences of children and adolescents in Greater Caracas during the Covid-19 quarantine

Abstract

In the current Venezuelan context, the relationship that children and adolescents have with the media and digital culture is full of inequalities. Inequalities that have deepened due to the COVID-19 quarantine and that forced the Venezuelan population to completely modify their habits, due to the obligation to remain confined at home. Thus, interactions with media content, sources of information and contact devices have differentiated characteristics and are marked by inequality, which coincides with the results of the Report "Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond the present: Inequalities in human development in the 21st century" (UNDP, 2019). In this sense, this study, conceived under a qualitative approach, aimed to understand the specificities acquired by the communication practices and experiences of children and adolescents, in a context like the current one, based on their own voices and the voices of parents, representatives and teachers. To this end, a multidimensional Ad Hoc model was created, which allowed us to study the various relationships established with content, information sources and devices. This model includes the instrumental and technological dimension, the sociocultural dimension, the civic dimension, the emotional dimension and the aesthetic dimension.

Data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with residents of Greater Caracas and the rural areas of Carayaca and El Hatillo between April and May 2020. The findings, conclusions, and recommendations of this study are important input when it comes to generating plans to address the inequality situation that will continue in our country beyond the COVID-19 crisis and that, in order to address it, requires the concerted participation of various social actors: civil society, universities, private companies, and public and government institutions and bodies.