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International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture
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International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture

Edited by:
  • Kirsten Drotner - University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  • Sonia Livingstone - London School of Economics and Political Science, London School of Economics, UK, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

March 2008 | 560 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
"What a wide-ranging international approach to studies of children and the media-there is nothing else like it in the literature. This Handbook provides a rich description of both cultural variations in how children around the world use media and how cultural variations influence the world's youth, by some of the world's best media scholars...a remarkable achievement."
Ellen Wartella, University of California

"...a truly international collaboration of academics and traditions of thought...Children's media cultures emerge as a new spectrum through which to view globalization and social change and to ignite a fresh range of issues in both theory and methodology."
—Chris Jenks, Brunel University

This essential volume brings together the work of internationally-renowned researchers, each experts in their field, in order to capture the diversity of children and young people's media cultures around the world.

Why are the media such a crucial part of children's daily lives? Are they becoming more important, more influential, and in what ways? Or does a historical perspective reveal how past media have long framed children's cultural horizons or, perhaps, how families - however constituted - have long shaped the ways children relate to media?

In addressing such questions, the contributors present detailed empirical cases to uncover how children weave together diverse forms and technologies to create a rich symbolic tapestry which, in turn, shapes their social relationships. At the same time, many concerns - even public panics - arise regarding children's engagement with media, leading the contributors also to inquire into the risky or problematic aspects of today's highly mediated world.

Deliberately selected to represent as many parts of the globe as possible, and with a commitment to recognizing both the similarities and differences in children and young people's lives - from China to Denmark, from Canada to India, from Japan to Iceland, from - the authors offer a rich contextualization of children's engagement with their particular media and communication environment, while also pursuing cross-cutting themes in terms of comparative and global trends.

Each chapter provides a clear orientation for new readers to the main debates and core issues addressed, combined with a depth of analysis and argumentation to stimulate the thinking of advanced students and established scholars. Since children and young people are a focus of study across different disciplines, the volume is thoroughly multi-disciplinary. Yet since children and young people are all too easily neglected by these same disciplines, this volume hopes to accord their interests and concerns they surely merit.


 
CONTINUITIES AND CHANGE
Alan Prout
Culture-Nature and the Construction of Childhood
Patricia Holland
The Child in the Picture
Dan Fleming
Managing Monsters
Videogames and the `Mediatization' of the Toy

 
Jacqueline Reid-Walsh
Harlequin Meets the SIMS
A History of Interactive Narrative Media for Children and Youth From Early Flap Books to Contemporary Multi Media

 
 
PROBLEMATICS
Chas Critcher
Making Waves
Panic Discourses about the Media and Children or Young People, Past and Present

 
Stewart Hoover and Lynn Schofield Clark
Children and Media in the Context of the Home and Family
Máire Messenger Davies
Reality and Fantasy in Media
Can Children Tell the Difference and How Do We Know?

 
Rich Ling and Leslie Haddon
Mobile Emancipation
Children, Youth and the Mobile Phone

 
Dafna Lemish
The Mediated Playground
Media in Early Childhood

 
Jane Kenway and Elizabeth Bullen
Dividing Delights
Children, Adults and the Search for Sales

 
Anne Jerslev
Horror Films and Youthful Film Cultures
James Gee
Learning Theory, Videogames, and Popular Culture
 
CULTURES AND CONTEXTS
David Buckingham
Children and Media
A Cultural Studies Approach

 
Larry Strelitz and Priscilla Boshoff
The African Reception of Global Media
Jette Rygaard
Relations Between Globalization and Localization
Young People's Media Culture in Greenland

 
Maria Heller
Games and Media
The Acquisition of Social Structure and Social Rules

 
Stephanie Donald
Uses of Media
Participant Researchers in Asian Contexts

 
Bu Wei
Media and Girls' Issues in China
Media as Strategy for Gender Equality

 
Usha Nayar and Amita Bhide
Contextualizing Media Competencies Amongst Young People in Indian Culture
Interface with Globalization

 
Marwan Kraidy and Joe Khalil
Youth, Media and Culture in the Arab World
Norbert Wildermuth
Situated Media Appropriations in Brazil
Imagination, Empowerment and Exclusion

 
Letizia Caronia and André H. Caron
Has Television Become a Connecting Culture?
A Cross-Cultural Study

 
 
PERSPECTIVES
Mizuko Ito
Trans-National Media Mixing
Cultural Production and Exchange in International Anime Cultures

 
Toshie Takahashi
Japanese Young People, Media and Everyday Life
Towards the De-Westernising of Media Studies

 
Renee Hobbs
New Visions of Literacy
The Great Debates Continue

 
Dominique Pasquier
From Parental Control to Peer Pressure
Cultural Transmission and Conformism

 
Janet Wasko
The Commodification of Kids' Culture
David Oswell
Media and Communications Regulation and Child Protection
An Overview of the Field

 
Peter Dahlgren
Facilitating Political Participation
Young Citizens, Internet and Civic Cultures

 
Cees Hamelink
Children's Communication Rights
Beyond Intentions

 

This volume breaks new ground. Its ambitious goal is to deliver a holistic approach to children’s culture... Sonia Livingstone and Kirsten Drotner are well equipped for the job of attempting such a radically inclusive approach. Both scholars have conducted transnational empirical audience research, and are therefore not naive when it comes to the difficulties of such an enterprise. They are appropriate public intellectuals to embark on a job of creating bridges between a range of geographically dispersed scholarly and political discourses... The volume provides a stimulating read for researchers in a range of disciplines. It also deserves to be recommended to media regulators, politicians and journalism students.

International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics

Sample Materials & Chapters

Part One PDF


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