Ellen Wartella

Digital Childhood: Electronic Media and Technology Use Among Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

OBJECTIVES. The objectives of this study were to describe media access and use among US children aged 0 to 6, to assess how many young children fall within the American Academy of Pediatrics media-use guidelines, to identify demographic and family factors predicting American Academy of Pediatrics media-use guideline adherence, and to assess the relation of guideline adherence to reading and playing outdoors. METHODS. Data from a representative sample of parents of children aged 0 to 6 (N = 1051) in 2005 were used. Descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and multivariate analyses of covariance were used as appropriate. RESULTS. On a typical day, 75% of children watched television and 32% watched videos/DVDs, for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes, on average. New media are also making inroads with young children: 27% of 5- to 6-year-olds used a computer (for 50 minutes on average) on a typical day. Many young children (one fifth of 0- to 2-year-olds and more than one third of 3- to 6-year-olds) also have a television in their bedroom. The most common reason given was that it frees up other televisions in the house so that other family members can watch their own shows (54%). The majority of children aged 3 to 6 fell within the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, but 70% of 0- to 2-year-olds did not. CONCLUSIONS. This study is the first to provide comprehensive information regarding the extent of media use among young children in the United States. These children are growing up in a media-saturated environment with almost universal access to television, and a striking number have a television in their bedroom. Media and technology are here to stay and are virtually guaranteed to play an ever-increasing role in daily life, even among the very young. Additional research on their developmental impact is crucial to public health.

Children and computers: New technology - Old concerns

Computer technology has ushered in a new era of mass media, bringing with it great promise and great concerns about the effect on childrens development and well-being. Although we tend to see these issues as being new, similar promises and concerns have accompanied each new wave of media technology throughout the past century: films in the early 1900s, radio in the 1920s, and television in the 1940s. With the introduction of each of these technologies, proponents touted the educational benefits for children, while opponents voiced fears about exposure to inappropriate commercial, sexual, and violent content. This article places current studies on children and computers in a historical context, noting the recurrent themes and patterns in media research during the twentieth century. Initial research concerning each innovation has tended to focus on issues of access and the amount of time children were spending with the new medium. As use of the technology became more prevalent, research shifted to issues related to content and its effects on children. Current research on childrens use of computers is again following this pattern. But the increased level of interactivity now possible with computer games and with the communication features of the Internet has heightened both the promise of greatly enriched learning and the concerns related to increased risk of harm. As a result, research on the effects of exposure to various types of content has taken on a new sense of urgency. The authors conclude that to help inform and sustain the creation of more quality content for children, further research is needed on the effects of media on children, and new partnerships must be forged between industry, academia, and advocacy groups.

No - You can't watch that: Parental rules and young children's media use

This study addresses the relations between parental rules regarding television use (for time and program, respectively) and television use among very young children (ages 0 to 6). Higher education level was related to rules of both types, whereas higher household income was related to having program rules. Parents with time rules reported their children watching less television, but parents with program rules reported their children watching more television. Parents with program rules were more likely to have positive attitudes toward television and more likely to be present when their children were viewing. Parents with both types of rules were more likely to see their children imitating positive behaviors from television, whereas parents with program rules were more likely to see their children imitating negative behaviors. Exploratory path models suggest that the processes by which television time rules and television program rules are related to young children’s viewing differ in important ways.

When the Television Is Always On Heavy Television Exposure and Young Children’s Development

In American homes, the television is on approximately 6 hours a day on average. Yet little is known about the impact of growing up in the near constant presence of television. This study examines the prevalence and developmental impact of “heavy-television” households on very young children aged 0 to 6 drawn from a nationally representative sample (N = 756). Thirty-five percent of the children lived in a home where the television is on “always” or “most of the time,” even if no one is watching. Regardless of their age, children from heavy-television households watched more television and read less than other children. Furthermore, children exposed to constant television were less likely to be able to read than other children.

The Audience and Its Landscape

* Introduction James Hay, Lawrence Grossberg, and Ellen Wartella. Audience Studies And The Convergence Of Research Traditions * Viewers Work Elihu Katz. * Combinations, Comparisons, and Confrontations: Toward a Comprehensive Theory of Audience Research Karl Erik Rosengren. * Audience Research: Antinomies, Intersection, and the Prospect of Comprehensive Theory David L. Swanson. * After Convergence: Constituents of a Social Semiotics of Mass Media Reception Klaus Bruhn Jensen. * The Pragmatics of Audience in Research and Theory James A. Anderson. Rethinking The Audience As An Object Of Study * Recasting the Audience in the New Television Marketplace? Jay G. Blumler. * Toward a Qualitative Methodology of Audience Study: Using Ethnography to Study the Popular Culture Audience Andrea L. Press. * Notes on Children as a Television Audience Ellen Seiter. * Figuring Audiences and Readers Tony Bennett. * Marginal Texts, Marginal Audiences Larry Gross. * Notes on the Struggle to Define Involvement in Television Viewing Tamar Liebes. * On Not Finding Media Effects: Conceptual Problems in the Notion of an Active Audience (with a Reply to Elihu Katz) Robert Kubey. The Politics Of Audience Studies * The Politics of Producing Audiences Martin Allor. * Power Viewing: A Glance at Pervasion in the Postmodern Perplex John Hartley. * The Hegemony of Specificity and the Impasse in Audience Research: Cultural Studies and the Problem of Ethnography Janice Radway. * Ethnography and Radical Contextualism in Audience Studies Ien Ang. Locating Audiences * Hemispheres of Scholarship: Psychological and Other Approaches to Studying Media Audiences Byron Reeves. * From Audiences to Consumers: The Household and the Consumption of Communication and Information Technologies Roger Silverstone. * Audiencing Violence: Watching Homeless Men Watch Die Hard John Fiske and Robert Dawson. * The Geography of Television: Ethnography, Communications, and Community David Morley. * Satellite Dishes and the Landscapes of Taste Charlotte Brunsdon. * Afterword: The Place of the Audience: Beyond Audience Studies James Hay.

Just a talking book? Word learning from watching baby videos.

This study examined the relationship between viewing an infant DVD and expressive and receptive language outcomes. Children between 12 and 15 months were randomly assigned to view Baby Wordsworth, a DVD highlighting words around the house marketed for children beginning at 12 months of age. Viewings took place in home settings over 6 weeks. After every 2 weeks and five exposures to the DVD, children were assessed on expressive and receptive communication measures. Results indicated there was no increased growth on either outcome for children who had viewed the DVD as compared to children in the control group, even after multiple exposures. After controlling for age, gender, cognitive developmental level, income, and parent education, the most significant predictor of vocabulary comprehension and production scores was the amount of time children were read to.

Factors influencing digital technology use in early childhood education

The current study uses path modeling to investigate the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic factors that influence early childhood educators’ digital technology use. Survey data from 1234 early childhood educators indicate that attitudes toward the value of technology to aid children’s learning have the strongest effect on technology use, followed by confidence and support in using technology. Additionally, student SES has the strongest effect on attitudes, while support and technology policy influence teacher confidence, which in turn influences attitudes. In contrast, more experienced teachers have more negative attitudes. Overall, the study provides the first path model investigating early childhood educators’ technology use and provides practical considerations to aid teachers’ use of technology in the classroom.

Word learning from baby videos.

OBJECTIVE To examine whether children between 12 and 25 months of age learn words from an infant-directed DVD designed for that purpose. DESIGN Half of the children received a DVD to watch in their home over the course of 6 weeks. SETTING All participants returned to a laboratory for testing on vocabulary acquisition every 2 weeks. PARTICIPANTS Ninety-six 12- to 24-month-old children. MAIN EXPOSURE Baby videos. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Parent report and observational measures of vocabulary acquisition related to words highlighted in the DVD; parent report of general language development; and parent report of childrens media use. RESULTS The age at first viewing of baby DVDs was related to childrens general language development. There was no evidence of learning words highlighted in the infant-directed DVD independent of parental intervention. CONCLUSIONS Researchers should continue to examine whether infant-directed media are effective in teaching infants and toddlers content and consider the cognitive factors related to whether very young viewers should be expected to learn from a DVD.

Youth and reading: A survey of leisure reading pursuits of female and male adolescents

Abstract In order to explore adolescent use of the media for leisure and, in particular, adolescent leisure reading of books, this study is a preliminary look at adolescent leisure and reading with a view towards comparing reading to other leisure practices that require mass, or popular, media forms and practices. Through a survey of many adolescents, this study seeks to measure the popularity of leisure reading compared to other leisure options, with a view toward contrasting female and male leisure reading pursuits.

Introduction Electronic Media Use in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

Recent years have seen an explosion in electronic media marketed directly at the very youngest children in our society: a booming market of videotapes and DVDs aimed at infants aged 1 to 18 months, the launching of the first television show specifically targeting children as young as 12 months old, and a multimillion dollar industry selling computer games and even special keyboard toppers for children as young as 9 months old. Despite this plethora of new media aimed at very young children, very little is known about young children’s use of such media or the impact of such media use on their development. Few existing studies focus on the media use of children younger than age 5. The striking dearth of empirically based knowledge stands in stark contrast to popular, policy, parental, and academic interest in the impact of media on young children. Given that the recent explosion in availability and affordability of many forms of electronic technology can reasonably be expected to increase, perhaps even accelerate, in the next 20 to 50 years, this lack of knowledge is particularly troubling. However, the lack of scientific knowledge in this area does not seem to have prevented as yet unsubstantiated claims regarding the positive impact of interactive media on young children’s development. Toy and video companies prey on the belief of parents that such toys have important effects and have fostered notions that simply watching certain videos or listening to tapes can enhance infant IQ and reading ability. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (1999) recommended that television viewing should be discouraged for children younger than the age of 2. This recommendation rests on the assumption that television viewing takes time away from social interactions with parents and caretakers. Although this assumption may be valid, it is