20 Questions about Youth and the Media | Revised Edition

20 Questions
about Youth and the Media

REVISED EDITION

edited by Nancy A. Jennings
and Sharon R. Mazzarella

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jennings, Nancy A., editor. | Mazzarella, Sharon R., editor.

Title: 20 questions about youth and the media / edited by Nancy A. Jennings and Sharon R. Mazzarella.

Other titles: Twenty questions about youth and the media.

Description: Revised edition. | New York: Peter Lang, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017034501 | ISBN 978-1-4331-4391-5 (paperback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4331-3935-2 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-3936-9 (epub)

ISBN 978-1-4331-3937-6 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Mass media and children—United States. | Mass media and youth—United States.

Mass media and children—Government policy—United States. | Mass media—Social aspects—United States.

Classification: LCC HQ799.2.M35 A17 2017 | DDC 302.23083—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017034501

DOI 10.3726/978-1-4331-3935-2

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the "Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie"; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

Cover design by Lisa Barfield

© 2018 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006

www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the editors

Nancy A. Jennings (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Cincinnati. She is Director of the Children’s Education and Entertainment Research Lab (CHEER) and author of Tween Girls and Their Mediated Friends (Peter Lang, 2014).

Sharon R. Mazzarella (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is Professor of Communication Studies at James Madison University. She is the editor or co-editor of seven academic anthologies, including the recently published The Mediated Youth Reader (Peter Lang, 2016).

About the book

The revised edition of 20 Questions about Youth and the Media is an updated and comprehensive guide to today’s most compelling issues in the study of children, tweens, teens and the media. The editors bring together leading experts to answer the kinds of questions an undergraduate student might ask about the relationship between young people and media. In so doing, the book addresses a range of media, from cartoons to the Internet, from advertising to popular music, and from mobile phones to educational television. The diverse array of topics include government regulation, race and gender, effects (both prosocial and risky), kids’ use of digital media, and the commercialization of youth culture. This book is designed with the undergraduate youth/children and media classroom in mind, and features accessible writing and end-of-chapter discussion questions and exercises.

“For youth born digital, 20 Questions about Youth and the Media will be as immersive as a novel. The world’s leading scholars compellingly dissect children’s media’s evolution, disruption and repetition over more than a half-century. Their personal writing styles invite curiosity, then reward it with stimulating questions and exercises that would challenge industry veterans as well as students.”

David Kleeman, Children’s Media Analyst and Strategist

Praise for the First Edition of

20 Questions about Youth and the Media

"This readable, comprehensive compendium could be titled ‘Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Youth and Media.’ Its broad scope covers politics, research, social aspects, and history, providing background, insights, and up-to-date information on numerous topics, from longtime debates over violence and television, to the recent controversy over indecency in broadcasting, to contemporary research on how young people are using the Internet and digital media. It is an essential resource for students, parents, policy makers, and the press."

Kathryn C. Montgomery, Professor, School of Communication, American University; Author, Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

Illustration

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Sometimes Things Do Change: Children and Media Studies Today

Ellen Wartella

PART 1

The Players: Corporations, Government, Parents & Child Advocacy Organizations & Scholars

1. How Has the Kids’ Media Industry Evolved?

J. Alison Bryant

2. How Does the U.S. Government Regulate Children’s Media?

Alison Alexander and Keisha L. Hoerrner

3. Why Is Everybody Always Pickin’ on Youth? Moral Panics about Youth, Media, and Culture

Sharon R. Mazzarella

4. How Are the Needs of Children Considered in Children’s Media?

Sherri Hope Culver

5. What Is Media Literacy Education?

Renee Hobbs

6. Piaget and Pokémon: What Can Theories of Developmental Psychology Tell Us about
Children and Media?

Cyndy Scheibe←vii | viii→

7. How Do Researchers Study Young People and the Media?

Dafna Lemish

PART 2

The Concerns: Media Use, Content, & Effects

8. Should We Be Concerned about Media Violence?

Erica Scharrer

9. Is Media Use Really Risky for Young People?

Sahara Byrne

10. Why Do Kids Think Dora the Explorer Is Their Friend?

Nancy A. Jennings

11. What Do Television and Film Teach Kids about Gender?

Rebecca C. Hains and Kyra Hunting

12. Is Educational Media an Oxymoron?

Jessica Taylor Piotrowski

13. Can Media Contribute to Happiness in Children and Adolescents?

Rebecca N. H. de Leeuw and Moniek Buijzen

14. Are Children Buying What Marketers Are Selling?

Matthew A. Lapierre and Chelsie Akers

PART 3

The Kids: Youth, Culture & Media

15. Just How Commercialized Is Children’s Culture?

Matthew P. McAllister and Azeta Hatef

16. How Are Internet Practices Embedded in Teens’ Everyday Lives?

Susannah R. Stern and Olivia A. Gonzalez

17. How Are Young People Connecting with Their Families through Mobile Communication?

Sun Sun Lim and Yang Wang

18. Snoops, Bullies and Hucksters: What Rights Do Young People
Have in a Networked Environment?

Valerie Steeves

19. How Do Social Differences Influence Young People’s
Media Experiences?

Vikki S. Katz

20. How Do We Move Toward a Global Youth Media Studies?

Divya McMillin

Contributors ←viii | ix→

Illustration

Figure 19.1: Explaining Intersectionality. Source: Cassie Peng ←ix | x→ ←x | xi→

Acknowledgments