Children, adolescent and media

Students will interview 2 parents ** from different families (that is, one parent from each family) to children/ adolescents between the ages of birth to 19 years of age (each parent should refer in the interview to one of their children, even if there are more children in the household, in order to focus the discussion). In the interview, ask the parents about their children’s exposure to media during the Coronavirus crisis. For example, ask the parents if there were differences between the Coronavirus days and their child’s previous routine in terms of exposure to and use of media as well as in terms of their own treatment of these behaviors. Also, for example, ask what were the challenges they faced in this context during this time? Do they feel that there were also new (positive) opportunities that began during the Coronavirus crisis in terms of their children’s exposure to and use of media? Were the challenges and opportunities related to the media themselves? The content? The time of exposure? The duration of exposure? The composition of participants in the exposure (e.g., siblings)? Did they face social challenges? Cognitive challenges? Emotional challenges? Did family conflicts arise in this context during the crisis? It is important to ask the interviewees how they coped with the challenges and whether they feel that they were successful. If not, why not? What did they learn from this period? Are there any lessons that they would be happy to apply in the future, even after the crisis? Etc. Etc.

In the paper, students should analyze the content of the interviews according to themes that will emerge from them and present a comprehensive picture about the challenges, opportunities, and coping of parents with their children’s media exposure and use during the Coronavirus crisis. Present complete and clear arguments based on the interviews and support your conclusions with quotes and examples from the interviews. You can also compare the interviews and address similarities in and differences between the different parents based on relevant dimensions. *** The analysis should be clearly linked to the course materials (lectures and reading materials) and reflect an understanding of child/adolescent development and their relationship with media and their content, uses, and effects.

In addition, students need to locate one article that is related to the topic of parental media mediation or the parent-child relationship in the context of media, and integrate it into the paper. The article must be academic, empirical or theoretical, credible, contemporary, and relevant. The article’s integration into the paper can be minimal but it must be logical and clear as it relates to the paper and should be done following the rules of using external sources in academia according to the APA (including noting the source in the text and writing it in a reference list).