Center on Media and Child Health

2010 Positive Media Use Research Wrap-Up

What research has been done on positive children's media use? The good news is that media researchers around the world are exploring the positive ways in which the media are impacting children's learning, identity, physical and emotional well-being.

We have highlighed a few positive media studies in our blog that have been published in 2010. Click here to see a comprehensive list of studies.

Borzekowski, D. L.G & Henry, H.K. (2010). The impact of Jalan Sesama on the educational and healthy development of Indonesian preschool children: An experimental study. International Journal of Behavioral Development,  Avaliable Online December 5.

• The study results revealed that chidlren with the greatest exposure to Jalan Sesama perfomed better at early cognitive skills, literacy, mathematics, health and safety knowledge, social development, environmental awareness, and cultural awareness.

Durant, N.H. (2010). Not just fun and games: Harnessing technology to address childhood obesity
Childhood Obesity, 6(5), 283-284.

• From PDAs, computer kiosks to cell phones, this study highlights how emerging technologies provide a novel approach to fight childhood obesity.

Eliaa, I.; van den Heuvel-Panhuizenb, M.; &  Georgioua, A. (2010). The role of pictures in picture books on children's cognitive engagement with mathematics. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 18(3),125-147.

• This study found that  the pictures in books as a whole has the potential for cognitively engaging young children and supporting children's learning of mathematics.

Kupersmidt, J.B.; Scull, T.M. & Austin,  E.W. (2010). Media literacy education for elementary school substance use prevention: Study of media detective. Pediatrics, Published online August 23.

• The authors found that after using the Media Detective program, boys reported significantly less interest in alcohol-branded merchandise than boys that did not participated in the program. Also, students who were in the Media Detective group and had used alcohol or tobacco in the past reported significantly less intention to use and more self-efficacy to refuse substances.

Lin, W.-Y., et al. (2010). Becoming citizens: Youths’ civic uses of new media in five digital cities in East Asia. Journal of Adolescent Research, 25(6),839-857.

• The study results suggest that the Internet may facilitate citizenship among Asian youths although entertainment-related activities such as downloading music or playing games remain the most popular activities online.

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Use the free CMCH Database of Research to find other studies on children, media, and health.

 

Research Toolbox: Media Literacy Resources

What’s Media Literacy?

Media literacy is the ability to understand how mass media works and media literacy education is the approach to protect children and adolescents from the unhealthy effects of media by giving them tools to think critically about messages in the media. Media literacy is also about engaging young people in creating media so that they begin to understand and appreciate how producers use specific techniques to influence the audience.

Here's a list of media literacy organizations and resources:

Media Literacy- Definition

• What is Media Literacy? by Media Awareness Network

• Key Facts-Media Literacy by Kaiser Family Foundation 

• What is Media Literacy? A Definition...and More by Center on Media Literacy

Media Literacy Organizations

• The Center for Media Literacy is an educational organization that provides leadership, public education, professional development and educational resources nationally.
  

• Media Awareness Network is a Canadian group with a wealth of information for parents.  In English and French. 

• Media Literacy Clearinghouse: An internationally recognized website for K-12 educators.

• National Association of Media Literacy Education is a national membership organization dedicated to advancing the field of media literacy education in the United States.

• The Media Education Foundation produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical reflection on the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media.

• iKeepSafe-C3 Matrix helps educators integrate the essentials of cyber-safety, cyber-security, and cyber-ethics (C3 concepts) into existing technology and literacy standards and curricula.

• Gateway Media Literacy Partners aims to attract individuals, organizations and institutions who as community citizens strongly believe media literacy is a democracy skill, is a survival skill and a nexus for change, vital to developing critical thinking, and media literacy empowers citizens to make intelligent and healthy choices throughout their lifetime.

Media Literacy Journals

• Journal of Media Literacy Education

• The Journal of Media Literacy

Media Literacy Reports

• Digital World of Young Children: Impact of Emergent Literacy - research white paper from the Pearson Foundation on the effects of digital media on young children’s learning.

• Cable in the Classroom-reports and briefs about media literacy in the classroom

Using Digital Games to Improve Children's Learning and Health

How can we best use digital games to improve children's learning and health?  A new report entitled Game Changer: Investing in digital play to advance children's learning and health, by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, tackles this question with renewed vigor.

Digital games have been shown to aid in learning in particular contexts, but the question of how far this potential goes has yet to be fully explored. For that reason, in addition to discussing specific games that encourage physical health, development of healthy long-term habits, and disease management, the report calls for strategic investment in this field to maximize the potential of this technology.

The report also outlines a strategy of research and development, innovative partnerships, support for the adults who guide children's digital lives, modernization of public media, and increased public dialogue about digital media.

Using Media to Show Instead of Tell

Last week, we blogged about an op-ed on photo retouching and body image by filmmaker Jesse Epstein.  Here, Jesse joins us as a guest blogger to expand upon the educational efforts she is working on. 

I spent my formative childhood years in Mozambique Africa, where full bodies and “child bearing hips” were celebrated. When I returned to the US as a pre-teen I was confused to find my friends obsessed with their weight, counting calories, and saying that they “hated their thighs”. I admired their magazine collages of models with flat bellies and joined my peers in the fight to stay slim. But this post isn’t just about my personal story, it’s about a public health issue.

People living in media-saturated cultures are exposed to hundreds of idealized images per day through advertising and magazines; almost all of which have been altered to perfection.  According to a magazine photo re-toucher I interviewed,

“Every picture has been worked on some twenty to thirty rounds, going back between the re-touchers and the agencies and the clients – they have been perfected to death. Just look at the magazines, and all that is there to alter your mind, alter your perception of what physical beauty is, and what the means of obtaining it are.” 

When even the models and actors themselves don’t “measure up” to their own perfected images, it is crucial for people to understand how images are constructed, and what massages they are sending. Providing the tools to examine these media messages, through Media Literacy, is pivotal at this point in time.

Many problems and poor choices, especially among teens and pre-teens, can be traced to poor self-esteem and the inability to reach an unrealizable ideal. These may include the decision to smoke, participate in unsafe sex and early sexual initiation, academic failure, and other very risky, often life-threatening, behaviors.

I strive, through the power of film, to tell stories than can show rather than tell. While mass media is often pegged as a culprit of social ills, it can also play a key role in education toward behavioral change.  So, I’m currently creating a series of films on media and physical perfection to be used as powerful public health tools –- to start often-difficult discussions, raise consciousness, and ultimately empower youth to make healthy choices.  I hope they are used by as many educators as possible.

34x25x36 - A documentary about mannequins and perfection.

Wet Dreams and False Images - Interviews with photo re-touchers expose how much alteration goes on before an ad is released.

The Guarantee - A dancer's story about his prominent nose and the effect it has on his career.

More information about Jesse's work:

>> Jesse's website

>> New Day Films

 

 

Our Readers' New Year's Media Resolutions

CMCH is ringing in the new year by compiling a list of our readers' media resolutions for 2009. We hope that they help you come up with practical ideas for making your family's media use the most positive experience it can be. To submit your own media resolution, please comment on this post. 

We asked those who have written Parent Perspectives for our Parents' Newsletter to submit their resolutions to help us get the ball rolling. Here are some that we've received so far:

Beth: "I will learn how to set the one-hour automatic shut-off parental controls feature on our XBox 360."

Nanami: "One night each week will be a storytelling night where everyone gets a chance to tell a story to the family."

We look forward to your contribution!

How Young People Educate Themselves...Digitally

The recently published findings from the Digital Youth Project, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, shed some interesting light on how young people use media and on the benefits of that use. Contrary to what the report calls common adult perceptions, the findings suggest that digital media are important to young people's development and socialization in today's world.

The research summary explains that "the digital world is creating new opportunities for youth to grapple with social norms, explore interests, develop technical skills, and experiment with new forms of self-expression." It also found that digital media allow young people to explore their own interests in ways that formal education often does not.

According to the three-year ethnographic study, in which researchers conducted hundreds of interviews, collected thousands of online profiles, and observed youth using media for thousands of hours, young people's time online is mostly spent developing pre-existing offline friendships or exploring specific interests. The authors recommend that educators and other adults support this engagement with digital media and consider ways of using it more effectively in formal education.

Youth Make Media to Fight Violence

Starting this fall, Boston youth will take to the streets--with video cameras and tape recorders. There they will capture words and images from their communities, which they will use to create an anti-violence media campaign through the city's Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Initiative.

An article in Monday's Boston Globe explained that this project will start with the help of city workers and members of SEIU Local 1199 United Healthcare Workers East. In a city where there have been 38 homicides and 171 shootings between January 1 and August 10 this year, the project addresses violence as a public health issue.

Do teen raps, poems, and performances molded into a media campaigns affect behavior? There is some evidence that they do. One study found that youth-created public service announcements (PSAs) encouraged pro-social behavior, like diffusing potential conflicts, and another showed that young people found PSAs about violence to be effective--especially when, like VIP does, they involved real youth.

The Problems and Promises of Video Games

In April, Dr. David Bickham, Staff Scientist at CMCH, spoke at Penn State's Institute for Information Policy conference titled Playing to Win: The Business and Social Frontier of Videogames.  The goal of the meeting was to bring together experts whose work centers on the economic, social and cultural aspects of videogames. 

A video of Dr. Bickham's 30 minute presentation is available online (seems to work best in Internet Explorer).  He outlines the benefits and concerns about video games according to recent research, and explains how research on this topic is conducted. 

Should Children Get Fit Using Video Games?

Some players already use the Nintendo Wii as a form of exercise, but the new Wii Fit brings the concept to a new level. The game includes a weight-sensing balance board on which players stand and move to participate in strength-training, yoga, and balancing via video game. Nintendo calls it “a combination of fitness and fun.” Buyers seem to agree.

This new release highlights some growing questions about exercise-focused video games. In particular, what effects do they have on children (especially those under 6) who use them? In a recent San Diego Union Tribune article, Dr. Don Shifrin explained that we don’t really know yet, and Dr. Daniel Anderson said that parents should limit children’s video game time and make sure that they don’t play even mildly violent games. There is plenty of research to support these recommendations, but when it comes to fitness by video game—at least for the moment—the jury is still out. For more information, see the following links

• Energy expenditure of sedentary screen time compared with active screen time for children
• Selecting appropriate toys for young children: The pediatrician’s role

 

Take This Game and Run With It

Back in April we told you about an "active-adventure" video game in development by students at Carnegie Mellon.  The Pittsburgh News interviewed the creators and got to see the game in action! 

Players run on a pad when they want their character to run on-screen; jump when they want the character to jump; and step forward and swing their arm when they want the character to punch. The creators are hoping that this game offers a full-body action experience to combat the sedentary nature of most video games.  See video of game play