Children and Television in the Digital Age

October 11, 2014 , 0

CMF is supporting a new study from the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds, in collaboration with CBeebies, to explore the way that very young children engage with TV and related media.

Fiona Scott, from The University of Sheffield, is looking for families to participate in her survey…

Watching 'traditional’ television is still the dominant media activity for children (Ofcom, 2012). And yet we actually still have very little evidence about how young children and their families engage with television in everyday life, the meaning they make from it and how it contributes to their world-view. A lot of research to date has been carried out by children’s doctors and psychologists, who have adopted an approach that focuses on the negative ‘effects’ of television.
Supervised by Professor Jackie Marsh and Dr. Becky Parry, the new study aims to understand how real 3-6 year olds engage with television and other forms of digital media in their homes every day. It will merge a critical psychological approach with awareness of wider developments in cultural, media and new literacy studies. It will explore how television is embedded in everyday family life and how children make meaning from what they view and the media they engage with.
The study will include a large-scale survey followed by in-depth, qualitative case study research carried out in the homes of families.

In next month’s newsletter, Fiona will be reaching out to parents with children aged between 3 and 6 to take part in the survey. All participants will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a £50 shopping voucher. If you, or anyone you know might be interested in taking part, full information will be available next month. Meanwhile you might want to line up some families in advance and ask permission to send the CMF newsletter on to them.

Event – “Transnational Children’s TV and Audiences” Founder Patron No. 12