Biography

Lynn completed her PhD from University of Glasgow in 2011. Funded as an AHRC ‘collaborative doctoral award’, the project examined the contemporary production of children’s public service broadcasting using BBC Scotland Children’s Department as an extended case study. Lynn also holds an MLitt in Film and Television studies from the University of Glasgow (2007). Before commencing her postgraduate degrees, Lynn was a teacher of English and drama in secondary education; she has a PGCE and holds undergraduate degrees in Drama and English (Lancaster, 1989) and in Law (Strathclyde, 2004). In addition to media-based subjects, Lynn has taught across various disciplines in Higher Education, including children’s literature, socio-legal studies and childhood studies; prior to commencing her role at CCPR she was based in the Centre for Rural Childhood, an interdisciplinary research centre at University of the Highlands and Islands.
Lynn is a fellow of the RSA (elected February 2014) and she is currently serving on the Scottish Law Commission review of defamation law, representing the interests of media consumers. Previously Lynn was inaugural editor of The Children’s Media Yearbook (2013, 2014 and 2015), an annual publication of The Children’s Media Foundation. She served as a trustee of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV) 2013-16.

Research projects

Lynn recently completed a one-year research project funded by Royal Society of Edinburgh, on ‘Regulating and Understanding Children’s in-app purchasing’. The project entailed a substantial programme of fieldwork focus groups and discussions with children in school settings and seeks to understand the concepts children aged 6-12 have of value and fairness in online video games, particularly ‘free to play’ games in which they may come under pressure to spend money. Lynn also interviewed parents who have experienced problems relating to this issue. Recently Lynn joined the COST (European co-operation on science and technology) action on early years digital literacy, headed by Jackie Marsh at University of Sheffield, and is particularly interested in the children’s media production industry and policy aspects of that action.

Lynn previously received Carnegie Trust funding to undertake research with children (and parents) on their experience of ‘in-app purchasing’ in online games. This research was an adjunct to the investigation carried out by the Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets authority) which became enforceable in April 2014. Lynn has considerable prior experience of conducting media research with children and was responsible (with Dr Alexandra Swann, University of Ulster) for the UK leg of a large scale international audience research study, funded by IZI (Central institute of Children and Young People’s Media, Munich), which examined children’s preferences for television presenters and looked at children’s television learning experiences. She has also carried out consultancy for Disney UK and for BBC Scotland and has supervised a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership funded by the Technology Strategy Board.
Lynn was the research assistant on a nine-month, action-based research project raising awareness of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, under the directorship of Professor Rebecca Wallace, UHI Centre for Rural Childhood.

List by: Type | Date

• Understanding and regulating children’s ‘in-app’ purchasing’, (PI), Royal Society of Edinburgh, January 2015 - March 2016.
• Office of Fair Trading Investigation into children’s spending in online games: children’s own views, (PI), Carnegie Trust, October 2013 – January 2014.

• Fang, Kun
  Exploring the Impacts of ‘Douyin’ on Young People’s Self-expression in Rural China
• Zeng, Jing
  Production and Distribution of Original Web Series on Chinese Video Websites: Patterns and Benefits

Lynn currently teaches on MSc Media Management on the Media Economics; Media and Cultural Policy; and Research Methods 1&2 courses, as well as extensive dissertation supervision across both Master’s programmes.

Lynn developed and convenes the second core course of the new MSc in Creative Industries and Cultural Policy, ‘Creative Lives’. The course features industry guest speakers along with a cultural field trip.

Committees 

• CCPR’s Ethics Officer
• Committee member of SCCA’s 'Collaborations and Cultural Activities'

Other Publications

Whitaker, Lynn and Hewitt, Beth (2015) (eds) The Children’s Media Yearbook 2015. London: The Children’s Media Foundation.

Whitaker, Lynn (2014) (ed.) The Children’s Media Yearbook 2014. London: The Children’s Media Foundation.

Whitaker, Lynn (2013) (ed.) The Children’s Media Yearbook 2013. London: The Children’s Media Foundation.

Whitaker, Lynn (2012) What’s the story in Balamory now?: preschool drama at BBC Scotland. Critical Studies in Television, Special Issue, Ed. Stephen Lacey, ‘Drama production in the Nations and Regions’. Vol.6/2 (January).

Whitaker, Lynn (2011) ‘No one’s lazy in LazyTown!’: the making of ideal citizens in preschool programming. In Rankin, Sandy & Neighbors, Ryan (eds) (2011) The Galaxy is Rated G: Essays on Children’s Science Fiction Film and Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Whitaker, Lynn (2011) Current research in children’s television. Media Education Journal (Association of Media Education in Scotland). No 49 (Spring/Summer). 

Conferences, Exhibitions

‘Problems in Children’s in-app purchasing’. Research presentation given at Game Think 2.0, University of Glasgow, February 2017. 

‘Free to play? Children’s experience and understanding of in-app purchasing’. Research presentation at Game On research symposium and workshop, University of Glasgow, March 2016.

Panellist on ‘Commercialisation and Childhood: Resilience, Responsibility, and Media Literacy’, Policy UK seminar, London, February 2016.

Panellist on ‘Scotland, Public Service Broadcasting and the PSB landscape’, Joint CCPR/RSA/SMCA/VLV event, January 2016.

‘Children’s (6-12) views on the fairness and value of in-app purchasing’, Research presentation given at Ofcom launch of 2015 Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report, Ofcom, November 2015.

COST Action ‘The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children (DigiLitEY)’, Working group participant, University of Tallinn, Estonia, October 2015.

‘Understanding and regulating children’s ‘in-app’ purchasing: the UK model’, Paper given at Comparing Children’s Media around the World: Policies, Texts and Audiences, University of Westminster, August 2015.

‘Children’s (6-12) views on the fairness and value of in-app purchasing’, Research presentation given at Ofcom launch of 2015 Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report, Ofcom, November 2015.

COST Action ‘The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children (DigiLitEY)’, Working group participant, University of Tallinn, Estonia, October 2015.

‘Understanding and regulating children’s ‘in-app’ purchasing: the UK model’, Paper given at Comparing Children’s Media around the World: Policies, Texts and Audiences, University of Westminster, August 2015.

‘Ethics in Children’s In-app Purchasing’, Paper given at JMComm 2014, Singapore, September 2014. Presentation on Scotland’s Creative Industries Policy to Taiwanese Ministerial Delegation, Centre for Government, University of Edinburgh, September 2014.

‘The Future of Broadcasting in Scotland’, Panellist at Scottish Parliament Festival of Politics, August 2014.

‘Bad Games and Bad Children: Issues of children’s in-app purchasing’. Children’s Media Conference, Sheffield, July 2014.

‘Issues in children’s in-app purchasing.’ Research paper given at Renfrewshire Council Child protection day, Paisley Town Hall, March 2014.

'Researching child consumers experience of freemium content’. Research presentation along with Marc Goodchild and OFT staff. Market Research Conference, London, November 2013.

‘Holding on to the children’s audience in convergence culture’: Panel chair – panel includes Joe Godwin, Melanie Stokes and representatives of Disney and Nickelodeon. Salford Media Festival, November 2013.

‘Challenges and opportunities of Freemium games’. Panel chair – panellists Dan Wood (Ukie), Mark Sorrell and Marc Goodchild. Salford Media Festival Next Generation, November 2013.

‘New directions in children’s media’. Panellist along with Joe Godwin, Melanie Stokes and Greg Childs (Chair Beth Hewitt). Launch of Children’s Media Yearbook 2013, University of Salford, May 2013.

‘Inside and outside the box: the magic of children’s television.’ Narrative Magic: Transformations through Storytelling, University of Glasgow (in conjunction with Goethe Institute and Scottish Storytelling Centre), November 2012.
‘The Hobbit: celebrating 75 years’. Edinburgh International Book Festival: Children’s Festival, August 2012.

‘Learning from TV – what children want’: IZI international audience research study with children’. Paper commissioned for Children’s Media Conference, Sheffield University, July 2012.

‘The role of the national in children’s public service broadcasting’. Paper given as part of children’s media panel, ‘Evaluating children’s screen media for value and impact’, MeCCSA annual conference, Luton University, Jan 2012. (with Jeanette Steemers, Maire Messenger Davies and Alexandra Swann).

‘Knowing the audience: producers’ construction of the child audience’. Guest speaker and panellist at ‘Something for the kids - writing children's TV drama’, University of Leeds with BBC Writers’ Room, May 2011.