Teenagers and the Media

This text provides a survey of the relationship between children and those mass media found in the home-radio, television, and the Internet. Using a theory-based approach, with attention to developmental, gender, ethnic, and generational differences, author Rose M. Kundanis explores the nature of these relationships and their influences on children and families, looking at the experiences children have at various developmental ages and across generations. She reviews children's own experiences with media and examines the variety of effects that can operate due to children's perceptions at different ages, including fear, aggression, and sexuality. The text includes theory and research from mass communication, developmental psychology, education, and other areas, representing the broad spectrum of influences at work. Features of this text include: side-bar interviews with teens who work in media and people who develop policy or programming for children's media; in-depth explanations of the Generational Theory and the Developmental Theory as they apply to children and the media, plus a survey of other applicable theories; description of the key points of the Children's Television Act of 1990, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and other relevant legislation; and questions and activities to extend the exploration of topics. This text will help students develop a critical understanding of the relationship of children and the media; the variables affecting and influencing children's response to media; the theories that explain and predict this relationship; and the ways in which children use the media and can develop media literacy. It is appropriate for courses at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level, including children and media, media literacy, mass communication and society, and media processes and effects, as well as special topics courses in education, communication, and psychology.

Examining the full array of media available to children and adolescents, this book describes not only the amount of time they spend with each medium, but the kinds of content they choose, and the physical, social, and psychological context of much of their exposure. This national sample study provides a comprehensive picture of young people's media behavior.

Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Left Behind series are but the latest manifestations of American teenagers' longstanding fascination with the supernatural and the paranormal. In this groundbreaking book, Lynn Schofield Clark explores the implications of this fascination for contemporary religious and spiritual practices. Relying on stories gleaned from more than 250 in-depth interviews with teens and their families, Clark seeks to discover what today's teens really believe and why. She finds that as adherence to formal religious bodies declines, interest in alternative spiritualities as well as belief in "superstition" grow accordingly. Ironically, she argues, fundamentalist Christian alarmism about the forces of evil has also fed belief in a wider array of supernatural entities. Resisting the claim that the media "brainwash" teens, Clark argues that today's popular stories of demons, hell, and the afterlife actually have their roots in the U.S.'s religious heritage. She considers why some young people are nervous about supernatural stories in the media, while others comfortably and often unselfconsciously blur the boundaries between those stories of the realm beyond that belong to traditional religion and those offered by the entertainment media. At a time of increased religious pluralism and declining participation in formal religious institutions, Clark says, we must completely reexamine what young people mean--and what they may believe--when they identify themselves as "spiritual" or "religious." Offering provocative insights into how the entertainment media shape contemporary religious ideas and practices, From Angels to Aliens paints a surprising--and perhaps alarming--portrait of the spiritual state of America's youth.