Vulnerable Youth as Researchers? Participatory Research Methodology Co-Producing a Transmedia Resource

Abstract

This study examines how transmedia principles can be operationalized within participatory research to engage adolescents in situations of vulnerability as co-researchers. A qualitative participatory design was implemented with 12 adolescents, structured across four sequential phases: preparation, audience, validation, and transference. Findings indicate that transmedia principles (participatory culture, media convergence and deconvergence, and collective intelligence) enhance engagement, creativity, and epistemic agency when supported by appropriate relational and methodological conditions. Participation was found to depend on the availability of diverse expressive formats and on the sequential interdependence of research stages. The introduction of participatory culture fostered a sense of ownership and responsibility among participants. Adolescents acted not only as knowledge producers but as active disseminators of findings, extending the co-research logic beyond the production setting. The study concludes that transmedia logic constituted a structural condition for enabling inclusive, co-produced knowledge in participatory research with adolescents in the social work ambit.