How Media Attract and Affect Youth

341 Pages·2016·18.67 MB·English

PLUGGED IN
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plugged
in
How Media Attract
and Affect Youth
Patti M. Valkenburg
Jessica Taylor Piotrowski
New Haven and London
Copyright © 2017 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
Subject to the exception immediately following, this book may not
be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any
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without written permission from the publishers.
The author has made an online version of this work available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0
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sites at www.ccam-ascor.nl, www.jessicataylorpiotrowski.com, and
www.pattivalkenburg.nl.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953447
ISBN 978-0-300-21887-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FOR PAUL AND JOHN
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
1 Youth and Media 1
2 Then and Now 10
3 Themes and Theoretical Perspectives 28
4 Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers 44
5 Children 63
6 Adolescents 78
7 Media and Violence 96
8 Media and Emotions 116
9 Advertising and Commercialism 137
10 Media and Sex 158
11 Media and Education 175
12 Digital Games 195
13 Social Media 218
14 Media and Parenting 244
15 The End 267
viii CONTENTS
Notes 277
Acknowledgments 313
Index 315
PREFACE
In the past decades, a dazzling number of studies have investigated
the effects of old and new media on children and teens. These studies have
greatly improved our understanding of why youth are so massively attracted
to media. And they have also shown how children and teens can be affected
by media, in positive and negative ways. Plugged In provides insight into
the most important issues and debates regarding media, children, and
teens.
Plugged In discusses the dark sides of media, such as the effects of media
violence and pornography. But it also discusses their sunny sides, such as
the countless opportunities of educational media for learning, and the
potential of social media for identity development. Each chapter gives an
overview of existing theories and research on a particular topic. This general
literature review is occasionally illustrated by our own research findings.
The book covers research among infants (up to 1 year old), toddlers
(1–3 years), preschoolers (4–5 years), children (5–12 years), and teens or
adolescents (12–19 years). Within these general age groups, we sometimes
refer to subgroups, such as tweens (8–12 years), early adolescents (12–15
years), and late adolescents (15–19 years). We use the term “youth” to refer
to both children and adolescents.
Plugged In is based, in part, on Responses to the Screen (Erlbaum, 2004),
by Patti Valkenburg. Additionally, it draws on her Dutch book published
in 2014 by Prometheus. But whereas that book focused primarily on Dutch
data, this one internationalizes and updates both the research and the
ix