Taking an approach grounded in the media effects tradition, this book provides a comprehensive, research-oriented treatment of how children and adolescents interact with the media. Chapters review the latest findings as well as seminal studies that have helped frame the issues in such areas as advertising, violence, video games, sexuality, drugs, body image and eating disorders, music, and the Internet. Each chapter is liberally sprinkled with illustrations, examples from the media, policy debates, and real-life instances of media impact.

The book presents a well edited review and integration of current research findings from both communication and psychological literature to provide a comprehensive view of current media use by children and adolescents, and its impact on their developing

The material presented in this second edition provides a current and complete summary and synthesis of what is known about television's role in, and impact on, children's cognitive and social development. Unlike other books on television or child development, this text directly combines communication and psychological perspectives for a more comprehensive and accurate look at children's television experiences. The integration of information from these diverse sources addresses the complexity of the interactions among child, content, technological, and contextual variables, and provides a broader conceptualization of both theoretical and practical issues. In short, this volume carefully considers the complex and significant interplay between other forces in a child's life with the television viewing experience. Providing updated research findings in the major areas and including changing trends in television content and viewing patterns, this new edition offers new sections on technology and its influence and an entirely new chapter on television's impact on exceptional and high risk children. Also included are research findings on the many other media uses now available to children besides television, as well as those that affect children's use of television--VCRs, cable programs, computers, the Internet, video games, and virtual reality--in addition to a chapter on intervention and critical viewing strategies.

This seminal volume is a comprehensive review of the literature on children's television, covering fifty years of academic research on children and television. The work includes studies of content, effects, and policy, and offers research conducted by social scientists and cultural studies scholars. The research questions represented here consider the content of programming, children's responses to television, regulation concerning children's television policies, issues of advertising, and concerns about sex and race stereotyping, often voicing concerns that children's entertainment be held to a higher standard. The volume also offers essays by scholars who have been seeking answers to some of the most critical questions addressed by this research. It represents the interdisciplinary nature of research on children and television, and draws on many academic traditions, including communication studies, psychology, sociology, education, economics, and medicine. The full bibliography is included on CD. Arguably the most comprehensive bibliography of research on children and television, this work illustrates the ongoing evolution of scholarship in this area, and establishes how it informs or changes public policy, as well as defining its role in shaping a future agenda. The volume will be a required resource for scholars, researchers, and policy makers concerned with issues of children and television, media policy, media literacy and education, and family studies.

The third edition of this book provides an updated account of the theory and research which has a direct bearing on television and children's attitudes, development, and behavior. The authors explore the social, political, and economic factors that surround the issues--TV violence integrating aggressive or antisocial behavior in children; TV portrayals of minorities and women cultivating social attitudes; television commercials and advertising content that children see and their censorship by government or private groups; and the use of TV for educating and/or socializing children. ISBN 0-08-034679-0 (pbk.): $12.95.