Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

From the beginnings of life, children in the twenty-first century typically develop in front of a screen (Wartella & Robb, Chapter 1 ). Once solely television based, these screen media have now evolved to be digital, interactive, pervasive, and increasingly under the control of those who use them. Media continue to advance rapidly, making it challenging for scholars to keep pace with the rate of adaptation and adoption of technologies in children's lives. This handbook is an effort to address the role of digital media in children's development at this point in time, and to place media in context with what we know from the past as well as what we expect as we look forward to the future. In this handbook, experts in the interdisciplinary field of children and the media bring their diverse perspectives to bear on the range of topics associated with young people's media experiences. The handbook is divided into six sections. Part I addresses the historical and financial underpinnings of children's media. In Part II, access patterns as a function of viewer qualities and family constellations are considered. Part III focuses on the cognitive influences of media. Social influences of media are examined in Part IV. Media and health issues are the topic of Part V. We end with a discussion of media and policy issues in Part VI. Chapters are designed to be concise overviews of a rapidly ... log in or subscribe to read full text