The presentation refers to a current research project, which focusses on the question how various networked online media are used especially by adolescents with regards to an increasing commercialisation of online spaces. Next to processes like globalisation, individualisation or mediatisation it can be argued that commercialisation constitutes a central social metaprocess currently happening.

Adolescents spend a major part of their time online in commercialised spaces often funded by advertising. In these contexts adolescents are confronted with various forms of advertising in many different ways as the spectrum of advertisements differs from easily identifiable to intransparent, making it difficult to realise and reflect on. For that reason a reflexive handling of online advertising in the sense of advertising literacy is of great importance. At the same time it has to be expected that the everyday handling of media and advertising does not automatically and in the same way for all adolescents lead to a competent way of usage (Baacke, 1996, Jenkins, 2009).

In recent years questions of how adolescents handle new ways of advertising especially in the internet or social web have been a focus of media pedagogic research (Livingstone, Helsper 2006; Ofcom 2009; Dreyer, Turow 2012; Lampert, Schulze, 2014; Brüggen, Dirr, Schemmerling, Wagner, 2014).

Our project will use the previous research as basic connecting factors, however it will also methodically and content-wise go beyond these studies by focusing the research on a infrastructural-technological level (Lessig, 2006) in relation to online advertising, which can be seen most likely when looking at advertising networks, who collect and analyse personal data in order to create personal profiles. These personal profiles are used in order for individualising and personalising advertising based on principles of big-data. Research shows that every fifth german adolescent currently has no idea on these basic principles (MPFS, 2011, p. 52), which further highlights the importance of research in this particular area.

Hence, the presentation discusses the following questions:

-       Which changes can currently be observed structurally and content-wise in the area of online advertising in the context of the social web?

-       What is the relationship between these structural changes and advertising networks as well as personal profiles?

-       How can a reflective and competent handling of adolescents with these structural changes and the new forms of online advertising be facilitated?

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