8/26 Course IntroChild at different ages will learn differently/interpret differentlyAdults/olderAble to engage & talk bc they put things together in terms of motiveKidsShiny/visual images, violent imagery is potent8/28 A Brief Review of The Research on Children’s Media HabitsIntroduction-Definition of children2-18, before b/c of media, 0-18, broad-why just kids?Habits and thoughts originatePerceive children to be most vulnerable to effects-Why study mostly television?Largest medium of choice-Social science approachSo we can feel comfortable making generalizationsTypes of effects-BehavioralMost common, change in overt responseAggression, 9/11-AttitudinalInconvenient truth -> global warming attitude changes-Cognitive/informationalLearning English, barney, blue’s clues-EmotionalPositiveMusicNegative9/11, scary movie-Healthdoes SpongeBob cause ADHD?Obesity/advertisingCharacteristics of effects-short term vs. long termshortbrother wrestlinglongeating disorder, hard to research-singular vs. cumulative exposuresingularshort termcumulative exposurelong termTMNT over & over-direct vs. indirectdirectimmediate impact, rare9/11 effect everyoneindirectmass media effect depends on viewersociologicallow income housesenvironmentalhow much attention you pay-hardest effect to access?EmotionalEveryone feels differently & hard to expressCognitiveAppropriate ?s per childAttitudinalSocial desirability, desire to please, not answer honestly 100% of timeHistory of researchDevelopment of new technologiesFundingParents are worriedExplains research agenda todayNew technology -> public debate -> research agendaThe Research Cycle-Film EraPayne fund studiesHow content affected kidsMajor finding was the affects depended-Radio Erawar of the worldspeople thought aliens were real, 1 million people-Television Eraparents were worried about how much time they we watching-Internet Eraprivacy, carpel tunnel surgery up 35%keeping marketers from soliciting informationprevent sexually explicit images, online predatorswhitehouse.gov-Social MediaRecurring Issues-Use of the mediumtime? Use?Displacement effect?Different devices-Physical effect-Effect on attitudes and behavior change9/2 Children’s Media HabitsMedia Use (8-18)Average child spends 7 hours and 38 minutes with the media each dayTV still dominates4:28kids are working “overtime”only 16 min of time spent with internet is for homeworkHow are kids able to spend so much time with media?-Reason #1Mobile media66% of 8-18 own a cell phone-Reason #2kids are using more than one media at onceknown as “media multitasking”if you account for multitasking, then kids are actually viewing with over 10 hours of media content in that 7 hour window of exposureReason #3parents have few rules about media50% - tv is on most of the time64% - tv is on during meals71% - kids have tv in their roomdifferences by race/ethnicity-African Americans and Latinos spend more time with the media than Anglo Americans. Over 4 hours more per day.Mobile mediaBedroom ownership of mediaTV centric homesUses and gratificationsDifferences by SESLower SES kids spend more time with the mediaLower SES children more likely to more media in their bedrooms“pass-back” phenomenondiversity of contentdoes increased access/use of technology lead to greater diversity of content for kidschildhoodsome scholars argue that childhood is disappearing in today’s modern societydo you agreedo you think the media is responsible for this phenomenonimagination & creative playcreative play fosters the development of thinking skillshelps with fantasy/reality distinctionsdelayed gratificationverbal abilitycreative play is in danger because-Too much access to screen mediaThe restaurant exampleLooking at screens instead of environment for stimulationExpectation for entertainmentEating is something you do while you are doing something else.-Repeated viewingThe princess exampleKids rely on “scripts” instead of their own imagination.What can parents doSurround your child with open-ended toys that need creativity to be fully imaginedLimit time with screen mediaIf a child wants to see a movie based on a book, read book firstMake time for play9/4 Researching KidsThe Scientific Perspective-What is sciencethe exploration for a generalized understanding of a specific phenomenon using systematic methods and procedures-Non-scientific ways of “knowing”personal experience, intuition, custom/tradition you’re apart of-Problemsnot generalizable, not objective-Characteristicssystematicset of rules that must be followedreplicablecan repeat the findings again in another studypublishedshared with other researches, students, and the publicThe scientific process-many researchers begin by personal observationswatching kids aggression while playing in the park-can really start at any point in the cycleTheoryHypothesesObservationsGeneralizationAccessing knowledge-the hierarchy of published sciencepeer-reviewed journal articlespeer-reviewed conference papersbooks, web sites, mainstream press, etc-where to find itwww.google.comwww.iub.edu-how to read itgenerating knowledge-content analysisusesdescribe messagesmake comparisonsover timebetween groupsto realityadvantages (when done well)systematic and replicablestandard set of procedures when studying media messagesunobtrusivedoes not requires participantseasy to make comparisonslimitationsno info about processes or effectscan’t make any claims about effects-surveyusesdescribe characteristics of a populationexamine relationships between variablestime spent playing video games vs. success in schooladvantages (when done well)representativeusually a couple hundred people taking part in the studynaturalisticpeople don’t have to be in a lablimitationscannot establish causationperhaps kids doing poorly in school seek out video games to forget about itvideo game play & academic achievement-> parent involvement-experimentusesisolate effect of specific variablesstudy not only blood vs. no blood in video gamealso study effects of color of bloodgreen does not have as much of an impact as redestablish causalitybasic designx ---- M1 (treatment group)treatment group gets exposure to whatever you are studyingM1 (control group)Does not get any exposureAdvantages (when done well)ControlLimitationsLimited generalizabilityCan be artificialBc experiments often take place in very unnatural settings-final pointswhich method to usejust bc experiments allow to prove causality, it doesn’t mean you