Telecommunications | Children and Media
T317 | 20717 | Schwartz, N.
Children and Media
The purpose of this course is to learn about children and media. We
will do this by examining questions such as: What makes children a
unique audience? What do they watch? Why do they watch? How do
children process media messages? What do they do with media? What do
media do to them? Should children be a protected group? How is
children’s media regulated? What is media literacy? How does the
business of children’s entertainment work? Much of the reading and
discussion will be about TV. This is because TV is the largest and
most universal children’s medium and most of the research and
writing to date tends to focus on children and TV. However,
television is not the only medium, and recent research and writing
has begun to focus on the ‘new’ computer-based information
technologies. We will broaden our perspective to include these ‘new’
technologies as well as the long-standing mediums of magazines,
newspapers, books, radio, music, video, and film/movies.
The class meets MW 2:30 – 3:45pm.
There are two required texts:
Calvert, S. (1999). Children’s Journeys Through the Information Age.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Van Evra, J. (2004). Television and Child Development (3rd Edition).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Course sessions will involve lecture, discussion, and small group
activities based on assigned readings and in-class media. Grades
will be based on 2 individual papers, 5 in-class response papers, 1
out-of-class experience, and 2 exams (midterm and final).
This course counts toward Social and Historical Studies distribution
requirements in the College of Arts and Sciences. It may, or may
not, also count toward other degree requirements. For more
information about which requirements this course could fulfill see
the College of Arts and Sciences Bulletin at
http://www.indiana.edu/~bulletin/iub/coas/index.html. If you have
questions, or need additional help, see your academic advisor.