For over 20 years, the development of children's television programming has been subsidized by toy manufacturers. The result has been an increased commercialisation of children's popular culture - the creation of a "material world" of childhood characterized by brand-name toys, games, clothing, and television characters. Drawing on historical background and case studies, this book presents a unique look at the development of children as targets of the media and commercial industries, and examines the economic and social forces that have defined the evolution of children's entertainment. This volume is of interest to professionals and students in media studies, mass communication, and related fields; readers interested in contemporary children's culture and the content of children's programming.

Childhood and children's culture are regularly in the forefront of debates about how society is changing - often, it is argued, for the worse. Some of the most visible changes are new media technology; digital television; the internet; portable entertainment systems such as games, mobile phones, i-pods and so on. Television, the most popular medium with children for the last thirty years, is becoming less so. This book is intended to broaden the public debate about the role of popular media in children's lives. Its definition of 'media' is wide-ranging: not just television and the internet, but also still-popular forms such as fairy tales, children's literature - including the triumphantly successful Harry Potter series - and playground games. It sets these discussions within a framework of historical, sociological and psychological approaches to the study of children and childhood. At times of rapid technological change, public anxieties always arise about how children can be protected from new harmful influences. The book addresses the perennial controversies around media 'effects' from a range of academic perspectives. It examines critically the view that technology has dramatically changed modern children's lives, and looks at how technology has both changed, and sustained, children's cultural experiences in different times and places. Does new interactive technology give children a 'voice'? It can permit children to be their own authors and to engage in civil society, as well as to explore taboo and potentially dangerous areas. The book discusses how children can use technology to enhance their role as 'citizens in the making', as well its utilizing more playful applications. The book includes interviews with both producers and consumers - media workers, and children and their families, and has historical and contemporary illustrations.

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.

The Handbook of Children, Media and Development brings together an interdisciplinary group of experts in the fields of developmental psychology, developmental science, communication, and medicine to provide an authoritative, comprehensive look at the empirical research on media and media policies within the field. 25 newly-commissioned essays bring new research to the forefront, especially on digital media, developmental research, and public policy debates Includes helpful introductions to each section, a theoretical overview of the field, and a final chapter that offers a vision of future research Contributors include key, international authorities in the field

Collection of essays that consider television as a digital media form and the aesthetic, cultural, and industrial changes that this shift has provoked.

In Kids Rule! Sarah Banet-Weiser examines the cable network Nickelodeon in order to rethink the relationship between children, media, citizenship, and consumerism. Nickelodeon is arguably the most commercially successful cable network ever. Broadcasting original programs such as Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Rugrats (and producing related movies, Web sites, and merchandise), Nickelodeon has worked aggressively to claim and maintain its position as the preeminent creator and distributor of television programs for America’s young children, tweens, and teens. Banet-Weiser argues that a key to its success is its construction of children as citizens within a commercial context. The network’s self-conscious engagement with kids—its creation of a “Nickelodeon Nation” offering choices and empowerment within a world structured by rigid adult rules—combines an appeal to kids’ formidable purchasing power with assertions of their political and cultural power. Banet-Weiser draws on interviews with nearly fifty children as well as with network professionals; coverage of Nickelodeon in both trade and mass media publications; and analysis of the network’s programs. She provides an overview of the media industry within which Nickelodeon emerged in the early 1980s as well as a detailed investigation of its brand-development strategies. She also explores Nickelodeon’s commitment to “girl power,” its ambivalent stance on multiculturalism and diversity, and its oft-remarked appeal to adult viewers. Banet-Weiser does not condemn commercial culture nor dismiss the opportunities for community and belonging it can facilitate. Rather she contends that in the contemporary media environment, the discourses of political citizenship and commercial citizenship so thoroughly inform one another that they must be analyzed in tandem. Together they play a fundamental role in structuring children’s interactions with television.