Zezulkova, Marketa

Bournemouth University Research Online

74 Media Education Research JournalChildren, Adolescence, and the Media, 3rd Edition [date], London: Sage Publications Starsburger, V. C., Wislon, B. J., and Jordan A. B., Eds.   After the well-received second edition (Strasburger and Wilson, 2002), Sage Publications brings us another edition of this cross-disciplinary and research-orientated book which draws upon a media-effects tradition. The core question of this 3rd edition is how media impact cognitive, social and emotional development of children and adolescence, and vice versa; how developmental differences influence the ways in which they process and make sense of media. Even though the discourse is predominantly centred around cause-and-effect studies of TV from the 1970s and social and media statistics from the 1990s and the early 21st century, the actuality and relevance of the literature is demonstrated through the real world examples of current media narratives and children’s and youth media practices. The authors build on the idea that media are good or bad depending on ‘the type and frequency of their use’ (p. 438), which sets the nature of one’s reading. Among the negative effects of entertainment media, the focus is on violence, sexualisation, drug use, gender and racial stereotypes, materialism, unhealthy lifestyles, emotional distractions, and antisocial behaviour. In contrast, prosocial and educational media are discussed as a pleasurable and effective learning environment and a stimulus for active citizenship and prosocial behaviour. While being US-focused, international differences and similarities are occasionally explored in order to widen the target audience. This review highlights summaries, novel or interesting ideas from each chapter with the aim of exploring the potential value for a variety of readers.    To begin with, the first chapter tasks the reader to acknowledge that children and adolescents are different from adults and from each other when they use and interact with media. However, they do share an eagerness to learn and a lack of real world experience, which makes them more vulnerable than adults to media messages. This vulnerability, which marketers can potentially take advantage of, is further discussed in the second chapter on advertising. The ‘Educational and Prosocial Media’ section is inspired by Joan Cooney’s (Sesame Street) statement, ‘it is not whether children learn from television, it is what they learn’ (p. 104). The writers state the possible effects of a TV viewing peak at the age of seven and subsequent rapid fall (Mares and Woodard, 2005, 2012), and suggest that digital media and Web 2.0 have a great potential to become a platform for personal and social change among older children and adolescents. The following emphasis is on the relationship between media violence and aggression as a learnt behaviour, which Book and Resources Reviews 75‘can be acquired, reinforced, and primed by media messages’ (p. 179). One particularly valuable and interesting recommendation says, ‘if a parent is concerned about a child learning aggressive behaviours from the media, then programs that feature heroes or good characters engaging in justified violence that is not punished and results in minimal consequences should be avoided… [whereas] portrayals that feature less attractive perpetrators who are punished in the plot and whose violence results in serious negative consequences can actually teach youth that aggression is not necessarily a good way to solve problems’ (p. 157).‘Sex, Sexuality and the Media’ provides a number of compelling examples from a number of media genres (e.g. push-up bra advertising for 7 year olds), which represents increasingly suggestive and explicit sexual content. In contrast, the amount of responsible sexual narratives, recognised for their positive influence on attitudes toward intimacy and adolescents’ sexual behaviour, is considerably lower. ‘Drugs and the Media’ shows the associations between exposure to alcohol consumption and smoking in media and the subsequent use of these two drugs among adolescents (e.g. Smith and Foxcroft, 2009; Anderson et al., 2009). ‘Obesity, Eating Disorders and the Media’ warns people about the real dangers of obesity and eating disorders instead of ‘showing them impossibly thin role models seems an ideal solution’, but claim this approach is ‘impractical in today’s society’ (p. 369). With a balanced focus on TV, chapters 8 to 10 are written by guest contributors who discuss ‘new media’. Firstly, the aim of Edward Donnestrein’s input, titled simply ‘The Internet’, is to decrease parents’ fear of knowing less about this medium than their kids. Secondly, Jeanne Brockmyer talks about video games as natural teachers, because according to her ‘the gaming environment is a powerful combination of carefully graded challenges and immediate feedback and reward, [which makes it an] ideal learning environment’ about behavioural patterns (p. 474). Lastly, Megan Moreno and Rajitha Kota ascribe the uniqueness of social networks users’ vulnerability to peer relationships, influences and pressures, because it is where adolescents are provided with overly glamorised videos, pictures and comments portraying their peers’ irresponsible behaviours stripped of the consequences. Although each chapter includes sections for parents and policy makers, Chapter 11 is specifically devoted to ‘The Family and Media’ and Chapter 13 to ‘Children’s Media Policy’. For parents, the key is a higher awareness of media effects, increased control and interest in their children’s media habits, and empowerment of their role as monitors, supervisors and participators in children’s media consumption. Government bodies’ future steps should be to develop consistency in ratings, enforce existing rules, and provide greater funding for beneficial media and for parent education.76 Media Education Research JournalFrom the media education point of view, a number of chapters propose increased media literacy among children and adolescents as one of the key solutions to the issues previously highlighted. For instance, decoding and analysing media images could support dealing with eating disorders and the increasing self-esteem. Likewise, the authors advise incorporating media education principles into schools’ sex education and drug prevention programmes and to teach advertising literacy toward critical and responsible consumerism. This makes the negative core of the twelfth chapter, ‘Media Literacy/Media Education’, surprising and in some way disappointing. The guest author Robert McCannon’s main emphasis is on the underdeveloped measurement of media literacy’s impact on changing students’ behaviours. According to him this makes it difficult to prove the value of media education. Probably the only uncritical acknowledgment McCannon gives are to his own media education practice and to Austin and his colleagues’ (1993 – 2006) media literacy research and theories. Trying to cover an extensive number of topics, the analysis becomes inconsistent, difficult to follow, and the recommendations inadequately grounded in the literature. Yet the chapter might have a certain value for those interested in measurement systems, or for already experienced media literacy schoolteachers, who will be able to make an informed judgement of his practical advice. In general, it is a comprehensive textbook for university students and lecturers exploring different methodologies, especially correlational research and literature and projects on media effects, as well as for the theories embedded at the end of the chapters’ exercises. Another well-established topic is children’s media policy in the USA, which is contextually strong and therefore understandable to an international audience. The media industry can be inspired to enforce self-regulation and ‘rather than being part of the problem, [to] become part of the solution’ (p. 374). Non-profit organisations might find the proposed prosocial and educational cross-platform campaigns that were evaluated effective and useful not only for the target audience of children and youth, but also for those nurturing them. The literature can be stimulating and reflective for both teachers and parents, although the practical parts may be challenging to apply in different cultural, social, political and educational environments. Without doubt though, the reading experience can significantly increase teachers’ and parents’ awareness, knowledge and understanding of ‘growing up with media’ issues, as long as they keep a cool head and do not start blaming entertainment media for all children’s and adolescences’ personal, social, physical, mental and emotional problems. As the writers claim, rather than causing these problems, media have a certain power to contribute to them and this book’s ultimate goal is to encourage diverse agents to weaken the negative and strengthen the positive effects.Reviewer – Marketa Zezulkova  – PhD student at CEMP, Bournemouth University

Review: Children, Adolescence, and the Media, 3rd Ed

http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/22695/1/Review%20Children%2C%20Adolescence%2C%20and%20the%20Media%2C%203rd%20Ed.pdf

Review: Children, Adolescence, and the Media, 3rd Ed

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Bournemouth University Research Online