Media and its role in the lives of children and adolescents is an ongoing area of research for the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Over the years, the Center has examined media policies and their impact, including: program ratings, closed captioning, the V-Chip technology, and food/beverage marketing. The sector has focused its research on the effects of media on children’s educational, social, and physical well-being. Through research, conferences, seminars, and meetings, the Center creates a forum for bringing together policy-makers, industry, scholars, and educators to inform best practices to increase the positive role of media in the life of the developing child.
Media and the Developing Child
How Kids’ TV Has Evolved: New Book from Visiting APPC Scholar
In "Kids' TV Grows Up," former APPC professional-in-residence Jo Holz looks at the evolution of children's programming from Howdy Doody to SpongeBob SquarePants.
Book Review: ‘Media and the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents’
"Media and the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents," edited by Amy B. Jordan and Dan Romer, was called a "scientifically rigorous and timely volume on youth media use" in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.
Reducing Nighttime Viewing a Promising Way to Curb Children’s TV Diet
Excessive television viewing has been linked to childhood obesity, behavioral and attention issues, reading problems and poor educational achievement. A study suggests that one promising approach for parents to curb kids' excess viewing is to focus on curtailing TV time right before bed.
Children’s TV Pioneer Peggy Charren, an APPC Honoree, Dies at 86
Peggy Charren, a major force in improving children's television -- and a grassroots activist whose work was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom as well as the inaugural Annenberg Public Policy Center award for distinguished lifetime contribution to children's television -- died Jan. 22 at her home outside Boston.
Interview: Visiting scholar Jo Holz on writing a history of children’s television
Visiting Scholar Jo Holz (ASC ’81) joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center in July to begin work on a sociocultural history of American children’s television. Her resulting book will cover the development of major television shows from the beginning of children’s programming up through present-day offerings.
Sarah Vaala published in the Journal of Children and Media
Sarah E. Vaala, Ph.D., Martin Fishbein Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and Robert Hornik, Ph.D., Wilbur Schramm Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, have published the article “Predicting US Infants’ and Toddlers’ TV/Video Viewing Rates: Mothers’ Cognitions and Structural Life Circumstances” in the Journal of Children and Media. Abstract: