The influence of media violence on youth

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83429/1/2003.Anderson_etal.InfluenceofMediaViolenceonYouth.PsychologicalScienceinthePublicInterest.pd

Asian Childhoods: exploring the lifeworlds of students in contemporary Hong Kong

In this article, the authors discuss the findings of two surveys that were conducted with 10-year-old primary students and their parents in Hong Kong. They sought to gather empirical data about how the students spend their time in out-of-school contexts in order to interrogate the view that Asian students often spend much of their time studying, with little leisure time. The authors were concerned that there was an absence of empirical data on this topic. Increasingly, there is a recognition that Asian students perform well in high-stakes international tests, and a widely held view is that this is because they dedicate so much time to intensive academic study in contrast to their ‘Western’ counterparts. The social and cultural capital derived from doing well in school systems is an established feature of many global contexts. In the competitive environment that characterises education in Hong Kong, progression through the system is based solely on examination scores, and justified on the basis that this is both equitable and allows the best students to thrive. Tutorial schools that train attendees in the art of testing are multimillion-dollar industries – but who are the clients? In this article, the authors reveal that at 10 years of age, the out-of-school lives of the students surveyed contain many and varied activities. They attend school and, in out-of-school contexts, complete homework, participate in activities that both incorporate new media (for example, television and computers) and others (for example, indoor and outdoor play), and do not

Baby, it`s you : international capital discovers the under threes

Well-established international entertainment firms such as Disney and Fisher-Price are joining new start-up firms such as Baby Einstein to create a \u27Baby\u27 market of products (including toys, games and videos) specifically targeted at children aged 0-3 years. Despite its novelty, the \u27Baby\u27 market mirrors older markets that these firms have created around other demographic groups (e.g. older children, adolescents and adults) - it redefines its target demographic group around specific commodities and promotes its redefinition as \u27common sense\u27. The \u27Baby\u27 firms redefine babies solely as early learners whose potential to learn can be released by these firms\u27 brand-name \u27educational\u27 or \u27developmental\u27 products. Many adults buy these products because they accept the firms\u27 redefinition of babies, but other adults ignore the firms\u27 promotional messages and buy the products to give themselves some time apart from their babies. The \u27Baby\u27 market is significant for children and adults because it changes young children\u27s relationships with adults and because it subordinates local cultural differences to a children\u27s culture that purports to be \u27global\u27 but has, in reality, extremely narrow foundations in class, race and gender.<br /