ABSTRACT

Bringing together the leading researchers on children, adolescents, and the media, this books offers their cutting-edge, ‘big picture’ ideas for the future of research and scholarship in the field. Individual chapters focus on topics such as the role of big data in media research, digital literacy, parenting in the era of mobile media, media diversity in the digital age, the impact of media on child development, children’s digital rights, the implications of ‘intelligent’ characters and parasocial relationships, and the effectiveness of transmedia for informal education. Several chapters also explore the theoretical and methodological challenges facing children’s media researchers. Offering new directions for research, the contributors consider the implications of the changing media landscape for parents, educators, advocates, and producers. Leading scholars from North America, Europe and Asia, grounded in different theoretical and methodological traditions, join forces to discuss the impact of growing up in a media- saturated world, and to stimulate thinking about the field of children and media in unexpected ways. This book was originally published as two special issues of the Journal of Children and Media.