Erica Biely

Sexual Socialization Messages on Entertainment Television: Comparing Content Trends 1997–2002

Previous content analyses of sex on television have relied on differing measures and sampling strategies, which makes it difficult to compare patterns of sexual portrayals over time. This large-scale study (N = 2,817 programs) examines the sexual messages presented on television across both broadcast and cable channels over a 5-year period, applying identical measures to three biennial samples of program content. Results demonstrate that sexual talk and behavior are highly frequent aspects of the television environment. Talk about sex is shown more often than sexual behavior, though both types of content increased significantly from 1997/1998 to 2001/2002. Over that time span, the percentage of shows portraying sexual intercourse doubled from 7 to 14%. Results also show that topics related to sexual risks or responsibilities (e.g., condom use, abstinence) are increasingly included on television, but nonetheless remain infrequent overall. Such safe sex messages occur most frequently in program environments where they are most relevant (i.e., when sexual intercourse is included in the story). The content analysis findings are discussed in terms of their implications for audience effects.

Sexual messages on television: Comparing findings from three studies

Television portrayals may contribute to the sexual socialization of children and adolescents, and therefore it is important to examine the patterns of sexual content presented on television. This report presents a summary view across three related studies of sexual messages on television. The content examined ranges from programs most popular with adolescents to a comprehensive, composite week sample of shows aired across the full range of broadcast and cable channels. The results across the three studies identify a number of consistent patterns in televisions treatment of sexual content. Talk about sex and sexual behaviors are both found frequently across the television landscape, although talk about sex is more common. Most sexual behaviors tend to be precursory in nature (such as physical flirting and kissing), although intercourse is depicted or strongly implied in roughly one of every eight shows on television. Perhaps most importantly, the studies find that TV rarely presents messages about the ris...

Digital Games for Young Children Ages Three to Six: From Research to Design

Young children ages 3 to 6 play a wide range of digital games, which are now available on large screens, handheld screens, electronic learning systems, and electronic toys, and their time spent with games is growing. This article examines effects of digital games and how they could be designed to best serve childrens needs. A small body of research has found that games—when well designed—can provide rich, fun, interactive experiences that can foster young childrens learning, cognitive development, skill building, social interactions, physical activity, and healthy behaviors. Research on games that are not well designed has found that violent content can lead to fear, hostility, desensitization, and aggressive behavior; stereotyped portrayals of characters can lead to stereotyped beliefs about others and oneself; and game playing can consume valuable time that could have been better spent in exploratory play, direct manipulation of objects in the environment, physical activity, and social interaction. More research is needed to discover the potential strengths and drawbacks of games for this age group to improve game design and guide decision-making about game purchases and implementation. Since young children are especially vulnerable to media messages, it is important that their media match their developmental needs, interests, and abilities. New data collection methods are enabling researchers to investigate childrens responses to digital games with greater depth and accuracy and to discover how those responses are associated with outcomes. For example, software can record the time spent playing a game, time spent on specific game challenges, errors made, use of help and remediation, amount of exposure to educational content, and areas of success in the game. Data can also be collected with systems that record eye movements, technologies that recognize emotional responses to games by recording subtle shifts in facial expression, and functional magnetic resonance imaging of brain activity during game play, all of which can contribute to our understanding of processes and effects of young childrens game playing. The results of research using these new methods and more traditional methods will help to discover principles of game design that can help make games more developmentally appropriate and beneficial, building on the ways young children naturally play and learn.