ABSTRACT
The three chapters in this section offer fascinating glimpses into what we know about the interface of two of our more important contemporary social institutions-family and media-and how these entities collude, catalyze, and corrupt interactions with other societal agencies and agents. Clearly, the increasingly intrusive and transparent role of diverse media technologies and message systems in the everyday lives of family members, as well as in family life more generally, are among the true revolutions in today’s digital societies. How such technologically extended interpersonal and family communication affects interactions with external publics in the greater social system raises important questions that, for the most part, have yet to be addressed.
