ABSTRACT
Drawing on interviews with parents in Nanjing, China, and mothers in Ontario, Canada, this chapter explores the shifting temporal and spatial dimensions of families’ media practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a relational lens, the authors complicate a focus on parents as the sole decision makers and actors that affect children’s screen media use. Attending to the networks of relations that parents are embedded in, including individuals, material objects, discourses, time, space, and broader socio-political contexts, adds nuance to understanding families’ experiences of screen media during the COVID-19 pandemic. By foregrounding the networks of relations which affect children’s use of screen media, this chapter aims to acknowledge the relational, contested, and complicated nature of screen media in children’s and families’ lives.
