Media and Childhood Obesity (Danny)

Two articles:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4NnExNjBFTEF3clE/view?usp=sharing



https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4ZHRXbWJ2X01YS28/view?usp=sharing

World as Portrayed by Media (Michaela)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4Qi0tSUtaaEJYNjg/view?usp=sharing

Employment and internships in Sports Production

If you're interested in a career in sports production, don't miss this: 

Representatives from Game Creek Video, live event mobile production, will visit the Park School Feb. 19 and 20 to recruit for their postgrad one-year apprentice program, and summer internships. 

 Meet with Game Creek in the first floor Park Photo Gallery #184 either Thurs. at 5:00 p.m. or Friday at 11:00 a.m. If neither time works, please contact Eloise Greene atEloise@ithaca.edu.  

Game Creek clients include ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, The NFL Network, The YES Network and MSG Network.

Media Socialization article (online assignment for Week of February 16, 2015)

Here's the article:

http://public.psych.iastate.edu/caa/abstracts/2010-2014/15PAGWSGB.pdf

Your task is to read the article and to write a reaction to it.

Email the finished reaction to jpowers@ithaca.edu by Wednesday, February 25, 2015.

The reaction piece WILL count as one of your five.

(Everyone is required to submit a reaction piece on this article).

Thanks!

Jack

FYI (Week of February 16)

Greetings,

As you may or may not recall, there was a chance that I would be at a conference this week (and that our class would be online).

As it turns out, however, I will not be at a conference. Instead, I need to be with my mom as she is facing some serious health issues.

If all goes well, I'll be back on campus on Friday.

There are no traditional articles to read this week.

There is an online assignment that I will post by Monday. You'll have ten days to complete it.

I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Jack

Popular Media Misconception #3: We don't need to worry about Social Media in the same way we do regarding content of traditional media (TV, movies, music, etc.)- Michaela

From PEDIATRICS

RISKS OF YOUTH USING SOCIAL MEDIA

Using social media becomes a risk to adolescents more often than most adults realize. Most risks fall into the following categories: peer-to-peer; inappropriate content; lack of understanding of online privacy issues; and outside influences of third-party advertising groups.

Cyberbullying and Online Harassment

Cyberbullying is deliberately using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about another person. It is the most common online risk for all teens and is a peer-to-peer risk.

Although “online harassment” is often used interchangeably with the term “cyberbullying,” it is actually a different entity. Current data suggest that online harassment is not as common as offline harassment,¹⁵ and participation in social networking sites does not put most children at risk of online harassment.¹⁶On the other hand, cyberbullying is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and, tragically, suicide.¹⁷

Sexting

Sexting can be defined as “sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or images via cell phone, computer, or other digital devices.”¹⁸ Many of these images become distributed rapidly via cell phones or the Internet. This phenomenon does occur among the teen population; a recent survey revealed that 20% of teens have sent or posted nude or seminude photographs or videos of themselves.¹⁹ Some teens who have engaged in sexting have been threatened or charged with felony child pornography charges, although some states have started characterizing such behaviors as juvenile-law misdemeanors.^20,21 Additional consequences include school suspension for perpetrators and emotional distress with accompanying mental health conditions for victims. In many circumstances, however, the sexting incident is not shared beyond a small peer group or a couple and is not found to be distressing at all.⁴

Facebook Depression

Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” defined as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.^22,–,27 Acceptance by and contact with peers is an important element of adolescent life. The intensity of the online world is thought to be a factor that may trigger depression in some adolescents. As with offline depression, preadolescents and adolescents who suffer from Facebook depression are at risk for social isolation and sometimes turn to risky Internet sites and blogs for “help” that may promote substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices, or aggressive or self-destructive behaviors.

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PRIVACY CONCERNS AND THE DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

The main risk to preadolescents and adolescents online today are risks from each other, risks of improper use of technology, lack of privacy, sharing too much information, or posting false information about themselves or others.²⁸ These types of behavior put their privacy at risk.

When Internet users visit various Web sites, they can leave behind evidence of which sites they have visited. This collective, ongoing record of one's Web activity is called the “digital footprint.” One of the biggest threats to young people on social media sites is to their digital footprint and future reputations. Preadolescents and adolescents who lack an awareness of privacy issues often post inappropriate messages, pictures, and videos without understanding that “what goes online stays online.”⁸ As a result, future jobs and college acceptance may be put into jeopardy by inexperienced and rash clicks of the mouse. Indiscriminate Internet activity also can make children and teenagers easier for marketers and fraudsters to target.

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INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISEMENTS ON BUYING

Many social media sites display multiple advertisements such as banner ads, behavior ads (ads that target people on the basis of their Web-browsing behavior), and demographic-based ads (ads that target people on the basis of a specific factor such as age, gender, education, marital status, etc) that influence not only the buying tendencies of preadolescents and adolescents but also their views of what is normal. It is particularly important for parents to be aware of the behavioral ads, because they are common on social media sites and operate by gathering information on the person using a site and then targeting that person's profile to influence purchasing decisions. Such powerful influences start as soon as children begin to go online and post.²⁹ Many online venues are now prohibiting ads on sites where children and adolescents are participating. It is important to educate parents, children, and adolescents about this practice so that children can develop into media-literate consumers and understand how advertisements can easily manipulate them.

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ON TOO YOUNG: MIXED MESSAGES FROM PARENTS AND THE LAW

Many parents are aware that 13 years is the minimum age for most social media sites but do not understand why. There are 2 major reasons. First, 13 years is the age set by Congress in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits Web sites from collecting information on children younger than 13 years without parental permission. Second, the official terms of service for many popular sites now mirror the COPPA regulations and state that 13 years is the minimum age to sign up and have a profile. This is the minimum age to sign on to sites such as Facebook and MySpace. There are many sites for preadolescents and younger children that do not have such an age restriction, such as Disney sites, Club Penguin, and others.

It is important that parents evaluate the sites on which their child wishes to participate to be sure that the site is appropriate for that child's age. For sites without age stipulations, however, there is room for negotiation, and parents should evaluate the situation via active conversation with their preadolescents and adolescents.

In general, if a Web site specifies a minimum age for use in its terms of service, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages that age to be respected. Falsifying age has become common practice by some preadolescents and some parents. Parents must be thoughtful about this practice to be sure that they are not sending mixed messages about lying and that online safety is always the main message being emphasized.

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THE ROLE OF PEDIATRICIANS

Pediatricians are in a unique position to educate families about both the complexities of the digital world and the challenging social and health issues that online youth experience by encouraging families to face the core issues of bullying, popularity and status, depression and social anxiety, risk-taking, and sexual development. Pediatricians can help parents understand that what is happening online is an extension of these underlying issues and that parents can be most helpful if they understand the core issues and have strategies for dealing with them whether they take place online, offline, or, increasingly, both.

Some specific ways in which pediatricians can assist parents include:

1. Advise parents to talk to their children and adolescents about their online use and the specific issues that today's online kids face.
2. Advise parents to work on their own participation gap in their homes by becoming better educated about the many technologies their youngsters are using.
3. Discuss with families the need for a family online-use plan that involves regular family meetings to discuss online topics and checks of privacy settings and online profiles for inappropriate posts. The emphasis should be on citizenship and healthy behavior and not punitive action, unless truly warranted.
4. Discuss with parents the importance of supervising online activities via active participation and communication, as opposed to remote monitoring with a “net-nanny” program (software used to monitor the Internet in the absence of parents).

In addition, the AAP encourages all pediatricians to increase their knowledge of digital technology so that they can have a more educated frame of reference for the tools their patients and families are using, which will aid in providing timely anticipatory media guidance as well as diagnosing media-related issues should they arise.

To assist families in discussing the more challenging issues that kids face online, pediatricians can provide families with reputable online resources, including “Social Media and Sexting Tips” from the AAP (www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/june09socialmedia.htm),³⁰the AAP Internet safety site (http://safetynet.aap.org),³¹ and the AAP public education site, HealthyChildren.org (www.healthychildren.org/english/search/pages/results.aspx?Type=Keyword&Keyword=Internet+safety),³² and encourage parents to discuss these resources with their children. Pediatricians with Web sites or blogs may wish to create a section with resources for parents and children about these issues and may suggest a list of or links to social media sites that are appropriate for the different age groups. In this way, pediatricians can support the efforts of parents to engage and educate youth to be responsible, sensible, and respectful digital citizens.

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LEAD AUTHORS

Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, MD

Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, MD

Popular Media Misconception #2: Kids Don't Read (Michaela)

Below are the key findings from the latest annual research report conducted by Scholastic (Kids & Family Reading Report). Published in February 2015. 

Key Findings

In fall 2014, Scholastic, in conjunction with YouGov, conducted a survey to explore family attitudes and behaviors around reading books for fun. The key findings of this research, based on a nationally representative sample of 2,558 parents and children, including 506 parents of children ages 0–5; 1,026 parents of children ages 6–17; plus one child age 6–17 from the same household, are as follows:

The State of Kids & Reading

See the full data 

• Half of all children ages 6–17 (51%) are currently reading a book for fun and another one in five (20%) just finished one.
• Both parents of children ages 6–17 (71%) and kids (54%) rank strong reading skills as the most important skill a child should have. Yet while 86% of parents say reading books for fun is extremely or very important, only 46% of kids say the same.
• Three-quarters of parents with children ages 6–17 (75%) agree “I wish my child would read more books for fun,” and 71% agree “I wish my child would do more things that did not involve screen time.”

Spotlight: What Makes Frequent Readers

• Frequent readers, defined as children who read books for fun 5–7 days a week, differ substantially in a number of ways from infrequent readers—those who read books for fun less than one day a week. For instance, 97% of frequent readers ages 6–17 say they are currently reading a book for fun or have just finished one, while 75% of infrequent readers say they haven’t read a book for fun in a while.
• Children ages 6–11 who are frequent readers read an average of 43.4 books per year, whereas infrequent readers in this age group read only 21.1 books annually. An even more profound difference occurs among children ages 12–17, with frequent readers reading 39.6 books annually and infrequent readers reading only 4.7 books per year.
• There are several predictors that children ages 6–17 will be frequent readers. Three dynamics among the most powerful predictors are:
• being more likely to rate themselves as “really enjoying reading”
• a strong belief that reading for fun is important and
• having parents who are frequent readers.
• Additional factors that predict children ages 6–11 will be frequent readers include reading aloud early and often, specific characteristics kids want in books and spending less time online using a computer.
• Additional factors that predict children ages 12–17 will be frequent readers include reading a book of choice independently in school, ereading experiences, a large home library, having been told their reading level and having parents involved in their reading habits.

Reading Aloud at Home

See the full data 

• More than half of children ages 0–5 (54%) are read aloud to at home 5–7 days a week. This declines to only one in three kids ages 6–8 (34%) and to one in six kids ages 9–11 (17%); four in 10 children ages 6–11 who were read books aloud at home (40%) say they wished their parents had continued reading aloud to them.
• When it comes to being read aloud to at home, more than eight in 10 children (83%) across age groups say they love(d) or like(d) it a lot—the main reason being it was a special time with parents.

Spotlight: Reading with Kids from Birth

• Nearly three-quarters of parents with children ages 0–5 (73%) say they started reading aloud to their child before age one, yet only 30% say they began before the age of three months.
• Six in 10 parents with children ages 0–5 (60%) have received advice that children should be read aloud to from birth; however, just under half of parents in the lowest-income households (47%) received this advice vs. 74% in the highest-income households.

Reading in School

See the full data 

• One third of children ages 6–17 (33%) say their class has a designated time during the school day to read a book of choice independently, but only 17% do this every or almost every school day.
• Half of children ages 6–17 who read independently as a class or school (52%) say it’s one of their favorite parts of the day or wish it would happen more often.
• School plays a bigger role in reading books for fun among children in lower-income homes. Sixty-one percent of children ages 6–17 from the lowest-income homes say they read for fun mostly in school or equally at school and at home, while 32% of kids ages 6–17 from the highest-income homes say the same.

What Kids Want in Books

See the full data 

• Ninety-one percent of children ages 6–17 say “my favorite books are the ones that I have picked out myself.”
• The majority of kids ages 6–17 (70%) say they want books that “make me laugh.” Kids also want books that “let me use my imagination” (54%), “tell a made-up story” (48%), “have characters I wish I could be like because they’re smart, strong or brave” (43%), “teach me something new” (43%) and “have a mystery or a problem to solve” (41%).

Spotlight: Print Books in a Digital World

• While the percentage of children who have read an ebook has increased across all age groups since 2010 (25% vs. 61%), the majority of children who have read an ebook say most of the books they read are in print (77%).
• Nearly two-thirds of children (65%)—up from 2012 (60%)—agree that they’ll always want to read books in print even through there are ebooks available.