The Protective Role of Parental Media Monitoring Style from Early to Late Adolescence

The goal of the current study was to examine the protective role that maternal media monitoring might have for adolescents. This was done by considering whether styles of media monitoring either directly reduced media use, or whether they buffered the associations between aggressive media use and adolescents’ prosocial behavior, aggression, and delinquency. Participants were 681 adolescents from two cities in the United States (51% female; 73% white), and their mothers, who provided data at two different time points, 2 years apart (when adolescents were roughly ages 13 and 15). Mixture modeling results revealed that mothers used four different styles of media monitoring made up of combinations of active and restrictive monitoring as well as forms of co-use. Styles that included active monitoring and connective co-use (i.e., engaging in media with the intent to connect with children) were directly associated with less media use, and moderated links between adolescents’ media use and behavioral outcomes concurrently but not longitudinally. The discussion was focused on the strength of considering multiple strategies of media monitoring together, and how this approach can inform future research in the area of parental media monitoring.     

Parental Control of the Time Preadolescents Spend on Social Media: Links with Preadolescents’ Social Media Appearance Comparisons and Mental Health

Time spent on social media and making online comparisons with others may influence users’ mental health. This study examined links between parental control over the time their child spends on social media, preadolescents’ time spent browsing social media, preadolescents’ appearance comparisons on social media, and preadolescents’ appearance satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction. Preadolescent social media users (N?=?284, 49.1% female; aged 10–12) and one of their parents completed online surveys. Preadolescents, whose parents reported greater control over their child’s time on social media, reported better mental health. This relationship was mediated by preadolescents spending less time browsing and making fewer appearance comparisons on social media. Parental control over time spent on social media may be associated with benefits for mental health among preadolescents.     

Concurrent and Prospective Analyses of Peer, Television and Social Media Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls

The degree to which media contributes to body dissatisfaction, life satisfaction and eating disorder symptoms in teenage girls continues to be debated. The current study examines television, social media and peer competition influences on body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms and life satisfaction in a sample of 237 mostly Hispanic girls. 101 of these girls were reassessed in a later 6-month follow-up. Neither television exposure to thin ideal media nor social media predicted negative outcomes either concurrently nor prospectively with the exception of a small concurrent correlation between social media use and life satisfaction. Social media use was found to contribute to later peer competition in prospective analysis, however, suggesting potential indirect but not direct effects on body related outcomes. Peer competition proved to be a moderate strong predictor of negative outcomes both concurrently and prospectively. It is concluded that the negative influences of social comparison are focused on peers rather than television or social media exposure.     

Motivations for Social Media Use: Associations with Social Media Engagement and Body Satisfaction and Well-Being among Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Adolescents are spending considerable time on social media, yet it is unclear whether motivations for social media use drive different forms of social media...     

Reciprocal Relationships Between Friends’ and Parental Mediation of Adolescents’ Media Use and Their Sexual Attitudes and Behavior

Research has argued that adolescents are at risk for harmful effects of sexual media, but little is known about the role of parents and friends on adolescents’ media use in regard of these effects. The present two-wave study investigated whether prior parental and friends’ influences on adolescents’ use of sexual media shape their sexual attitudes and behaviors, and vice versa if prior sexual attitudes and behaviors predict parental and friends’ media mediation. At two measurement points 18 months apart, 528 adolescents (12–17 years; 51.3 % girls) reported on permissive sexual attitudes, sexual experience, perceived parental and friends’ mediation of sexual media use, and communication with parents and friends about sex. Structural Equation Modeling shows that parents’ mediation activities on adolescents’ media use were not followed by less sexual experience and less permissive attitudes. On the contrary, parental restrictive mediation of girls’ media use unexpectedly was followed by somewhat more sexual experience. Friends’ interventions with media use did not predict adolescents’ sexual experience and attitudes neither. Inverse relationships showed that prior sexual experience was followed by less restrictive parental mediation among boys, and both among boys and girls that permissive sexual attitudes were followed by less restrictive and less active parental mediation. At the same time, sexually more experienced and more permissive boys and girls did report more media pressure from and sexual communication with their friends later on. Our study thus indicates that the opposite agent roles of parents and friends for adolescents also applies to their usage of sexual media.     

(Un)twisted: talking back to media representations of eating disorders

In 2014–2015, there were several news reports about a rise in the diagnoses of eating disorders (EDs), as attributed to the use of image-driven social media. Such coverage can be situated within a long history of concern in which those diagnosed with an ED are constructed as ‘especially vulnerable’ to the power of media images – a subjectivity which is pathologised and devalued precisely through its association with femininity. The most incisive objections to EDs being presented as a response to the ‘weight’ of media representation have come from Abigail Bray (2005) in her work on how anorexia is constructed as a reading as well as an eating disorder. In exploring the results of 17 semi-structured interviews with people who have experience of an ED discussing their encounters with media representations of EDs (material that is often co-opted into debates about the ‘toxic’ nature of media culture in this regard), this article uses empirical evidence to intervene in how ‘ED’ media subjectivities are often defined. In particular, it aims to explore the qualitative responses in the context of more ‘every day’ understandings of media engagement, thus working against the gendered pathologising which has persistently occurred.     

Tangles,tears and messy conversations: using a media discussion group to explore notions of strong women

In this article, we discuss the experiences of six female secondary-school students participating in a media group that encouraged critical discussion and analysis of gender, particularly with respect to notions of strong women in popular media texts. Throughout the study, the participants viewed various forms of media and critically discussed gender representations. We describe the ways that we encouraged critical discussion that prompted the participants to challenge dominant perspectives and develop personal positions regarding gendered representations in popular media. Many discussions were convoluted and often contradictory. Throughout these debates, however, moments emerged in which participants identified complexities associated with gendered representations of strong women as related to privilege, beauty ideals and autonomy. We identify these moments as messy yet critical, requiring the researchers to challenge participants’ postfeminist notions of strong women. We emphasize the importance of ongoing dialogue and the potential of media for encouraging discussion.     

Adolescent room culture: Studying media in the context of everyday life

For the past several years, the authors have been investigating adolescent room culture in order to learn more about the relationship between teens and the media. The bedroom, they have found, is an important haven for most teenagers, a private, personal space often decorated to reflect teens' emerging sense of themselves and where they fit in the larger culture. Teens listen to music, read magazines, watch television, do homework, and consider the events of the day in their rooms. They appropriate and transform media messages and images to help them make sense of their lives. By looking closely at how teens draw from the media as they construct their identities and personal worlds, the authors have come to see adolescent media use as a dialectical process played out through everyday practices. Their Adolescents' Media Practice Model highlights the connections between adolescents' identities and media selection, interaction, and application.An earlier draft was presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence conference in San Diego, California, February 1994.Received M.S. in television-radio from the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. Research focus is on the relationship between the media and public health.Received Ph.D. in mass communication from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Research focus is on adolescent health and mass media.     

Adolescents' uses of media for self-socialization

The emphasis of this paper is on the role of media in the socialization of adolescents. First, a typology of adolescent media uses is presented, including entertainment, identity formation, high sensation, coping, and youth culture identification. Then, these five uses are discussed in relation to adolescent socialization. The central point of this discussion is that media differ from socializing agents such as family, school, community, and the legal system in that adolescents have greater control over their media choices than they do over their socialization from these other sources. The result is a substantial degree of self-socialization, in the sense that adolescents may choose from a diverse range of media materials the ones that best suit their individual preferences and personalities. Another result is that there is often a lack of integration in the socialization of adolescents, in the sense that they may receive different socialization messages from media (and peers) than they do from the adult socializes in their immediate environment.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the fifth biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, Califormia, February 10–13, 1994.Received Ph.D. from University of Virginia. Research interests include adolescent reckless behavior, adolescents' uses of media, and the transition to adulthood.     

Like a tree

The contemporary mediascape has been marked by a proliferation of popular TV genres in which the public appear as central protagonists. These genres are part of a broader shift in the relationship between media and audiences which challenges traditional conceptions of public service broadcasting and appear to represent a shift from media as public knowledge to media as constituting a space for diffuse popular engagement. A central feature of this shift has been the growing role of popular forms of expertise on television. This paper maps the main critical debates around participatory television and the role of the expert, from earlier work on talk shows to more recent discussions of reality and makeover TV. It notes a transition within the critical media and cultural studies literature from a focus on public sphere theory and questions of democratization to a growing concern with the role played by popular media culture in supporting new modes of governance based on the expert mediation of normative self-control. In this paper we analyze the role of experts on Oprah Winfrey's popular website Oprah.com, noting both the utility and limitations of a governmental perspective. Extending upon Foucault's notion of the productive nature of liberal subjecthood, the paper suggests the more positive role played by popular expertise in contributing to a media–civic culture articulated to a politics of recognition.     

大众媒介对职工影响的现状与问题

大众媒介对职工群体日常生活和思想具有重要的影响,特别是随着互联网的日益普及,网络新媒体成为职工舆情表达的重要平台.但当前大众媒介对职工的影响存在三大失衡:职工对新闻媒介的满意度与媒介对职工的影响力不相称、工人新闻的数量与庞大的工人队伍不平衡、工人对新闻的需求与新闻媒介的现状还有距离.为此,应加大对职工群体的报道,充分利...     

新媒体时代提升政府公信力的对策研究

随着互联网和通讯技术的发展,我国已步入新媒体时代.我国近两年新媒体发展迅速,但政府公信力却面临各种挑战.政府本身的管理缺陷、法律法规的不健全和新媒体自身的特质等是造成政府公信力缺失的原因.要提高我国政府公信力就需要建立“整体政府”、加强法律法规建设、建立有效的监督机制和信息公开制度.     

Adjustment Correlates of Social Media Engagement Among Early Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Social media engagement is common among adolescents, yet not all adolescents use social media in the same ways or experience the same adjustment correlates. This...     

THE TERMS ON WHICH CHILD ABUSE IS MADE TO MATTER

In 2007 the Australian mainstream news media extensively covered a child rape case in the Indigenous community of Aurukun. In this coverage, the media positioned themselves as having a moral requirement to report the ‘Aurukun rape case’ in order to bring issues of Indigenous child sexual abuse to the attention of the public. This paper examines the representations of this case made available by mainstream news media, and specifically examines both the depiction of Indigenous communities as dysfunctional and the claim made by the media that Indigenous child sexual abuse is ‘our business’. The paper concludes that the coverage of this case represents a form of ‘war porn’ that became more about white control over Indigenous lives and less an investigation into child sexual abuse.     

How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

Although media exposure has been related to cognitive preoccupation with appearance, research rarely investigated adolescents’ behavioral self-sexualization. To address this gap, the present study among 12- to 16-year-olds (N?=?1527; 50.2% girls) in Austria, Belgium, Spain, and South-Korea (1) investigates whether different types of media use relate to self-sexualization, (2) explores the explanatory value of rewarded appearance ideals, and (3) considers culture and gender as moderating factors. Despite cultural variation, a general trend of increasing self-sexualization with social media use and magazine reading appeared across the countries. Moreover, women’s magazine reading and rewards were related to self-sexualization among all the girls across the countries, which suggests that girls may be more vulnerable to the examined effects. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of the unique contribution of specific media genres to youth’s self-sexualization and points at the importance of social media use in girls’ and boys’ engagement in sexualizing appearance behaviors across four countries.     

Beyond effects: Adolescents as active media users

This is an overview of the special Issue, Adolescents Uses of Media. The articles in the special issue are described as taking the uses and gratifications approach, which emphasizes that people make choices about the media they consume and that people differ in their interpretations of media content. The common goal of the articles is to integrate this approach with developmental perspectives on adolescence. Common themes include adolescents as active media users, the developmental context of adolescence, the cultural context of media use, and integrative and innovative methodological approaches.Received Ph.D. from University of Virginia. Research interests include adolescent reckless behavior, adolescents' uses of media, and the transition to adulthood.Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago.     

寻求实践方案：当前劳动关系治理参与中媒体建设性的核心内涵

劳动关系是构成社会运行基础的重要社会经济关系，实现对它的良好治理是一个重大而迫切的 现实问题。作为一种社会中介机制，无论政治逻辑赋予的应然角色，抑或过往事实蕴含的实然经验，皆表明媒 体需要成为治理参与的行动者。通过观察具体经验现实，在与源自域外的建设性新闻理念对话的基础上，研究 发现：当前语境下劳动关系治理中媒体的建设性，其核心内涵应理解为一种以“寻求实践方案为重心”的理念。 贯彻媒体的建设性，意味着观念上应秉持“积极的专业参与”立场，行动上则重在寻求“实践导向的方案”。其间， 如何妥善处理结构与能动性的关系是媒体面临的普遍挑战。     

Efficacy of an Intervention to Reduce the Use of Media Violence and Aggression: An Experimental Evaluation with Adolescents in Germany

Several longitudinal studies and meta-analytic reviews have demonstrated that exposure to violent media is linked to aggression over time. However, evidence on effective interventions to reduce the use of violent media and promote critical viewing skills is limited. The current study examined the efficacy of an intervention designed to reduce the use of media violence and aggression in adolescence, covering a total period of about 12 months. A sample of 683 7th and 8th graders in Germany (50.1% girls) were assigned to two conditions: a 5-week intervention and a no-intervention control group. Measures of exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior were obtained about 3 months prior to the intervention (T1) and about 7 months post-intervention (T2). The intervention group showed a significantly larger decrease in the use of violent media from T1 to T2 than the control group. Participants in the intervention group also scored significantly lower on self-reported aggressive behavior (physical aggression and relational aggression) at T2 than those in the control group, but the effect was limited to those with high levels of initial aggression. This effect was mediated by an intervention-induced decrease in the normative acceptance of aggression. No gender differences in program efficacy were found. The results show that a 5-week school-based intervention can produce changes in the use of media violence, aggressive norms, and behaviors sustained over several months.     

微媒体构建的非工具发展路径——基于广州共青团的实践应用研究

在信息化时代微博、微信等微媒体在悄然崛起并迅速发展。站在共青团服务青少年的角度,可以看到微媒体与青少年群体有着天然的契合性,但作为工具的微媒体更具丰富的非工具内涵。广州共青团在对作为工具的微媒体的功能运用存在一系列问题,需要从非工具的角度加以完善,尤其是对未来发展路径做深层的探索。     

The Effects of Media Violence on Anxiety in Late Adolescence

Exposure to media violence is related to anxiety in youth, but the causality of the effect has not been established. This experimental study examined the effects of media violence on anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate in late adolescents. We also examined whether these responses varied by previous exposure to media and real-life violence. College students (N = 209; M age = 18.74; 75 % female; 50 % Caucasian, 34 % African American, 9 % Asian, 3 % Hispanic, and 3 % other racial minorities) were randomized to view either violent or nonviolent high-action movie clips. Participants reported on their anxiety before and after watching the clips, as well as their previous exposure to violence. Measures of blood pressure and heart rate were taken at baseline and during movie viewing. Participants watching violent movie clips showed a greater anxiety increase than those watching nonviolent clips. Both groups experienced increased blood pressure and reduced heart rate during movie watching compared to baseline. Prior exposure to media violence was associated with diminished heart rate response. Additionally, students previously exposed to high levels of real-life violence showed lower blood pressure increases when watching violent clips compared to nonviolent clips. Thus, relatively brief exposure to violent movie clips increased anxiety among late adolescents. Prior exposure to media and real-life violence were associated with lower physiological reactivity to high-action and violent movies, respectively, possibly indicating desensitization. Future studies should investigate long-term anxiety and physiological consequences of regular exposure to media violence in adolescence.