20 Questions about Youth and the Media | Revised Edition

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).

• Illustration – Acknowledgments – Ellen Wartella: Introduction: Sometimes Things Do Change: Children and Media Studies Today – Part 1: The Players: Corporations, Government, Parents and Child Advocacy Organizations and Scholars – J. Alison Bryant: How Has the Kids’ Media Industry Evolved? – Alison Alexander and Keisha L. Hoerrner: How Does the U.S. Government Regulate Children’s Media? – Sharon R. Mazzarella: Why Is Everybody Always Pickin’ on Youth? Moral Panics about Youth, Media, and Culture – Sherri Hope Culver: How Are the Needs of Children Considered in Children’s Media? – Renee Hobbs: What Is Media Literacy Education? – Cyndy Scheibe: Piaget and Pokémon: What Can Theories of Developmental Psychology Tell Us about Children and Media? – Dafna Lemish: How Do Researchers Study Young People and the Media? – Part 2: The Concerns: Media Use, Content, and Effects – Erica Scharrer: Should We Be Concerned about Media Violence? – Sahara Byrne: Is Media Use Really Risky for Young People? – Nancy A. Jennings: Why Do Kids Think Dora the Explorer Is Their Friend? – Rebecca C. Hains and Kyra Hunting: What Do Television and Film Teach Kids about Gender? – Jessica Taylor Piotrowski: Is Educational Media an Oxymoron? – Rebecca N. H. de Leeuw and Moniek Buijzen: Can Media Contribute to Happiness in Children and Adolescents? – Matthew A. Lapierre and Chelsie Akers: Are Children Buying What Marketers Are Selling? – Part 3: The Kids: Youth, Culture and Media – Matthew P. McAllister and Azeta Hatef: Just How Commercialized Is Children’s Culture? – Susannah R. Stern and Olivia A. Gonzalez: How Are Internet Practices Embedded in Teens’ Everyday Lives? – Sun Sun Lim and Yang Wang: H ow Are Young People Connecting with Their Families through Mobile Communication? – Valerie Steeves: Snoops, Bullies and Hucksters: What Rights Do Young People Have in a Networked Environment? – Vikki S. Katz: How Do Social Differences Influence Young People’s Media Experiences? – Divya McMillin: How Do We Move Toward a Global Youth Media Studies? Contributors.

‘‘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 recentcontroversy 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