Patti M. Valkenburg and Jessica Taylor Piotrowski: Plugged in: How Media Attract and Affect Youth

Excerpt

Youth and their peculiar vulnerability to the effects of media are a frequent area of concern. Typically, this is presented in some form of generational tribalism looking down on the new habits of youth and harkening back to the “simpler times” before the media had such an impact. In Plugged In: How Media Attract and Affect Youth, authors Valkenburg and Piotrowski address these concerns head on and make the case that the effects of media cannot be expressed in simple negative scaremongering. Beginning with a history of the understanding of childhood, and the history of the research in the field of communication studies that accompanies it, Plugged In sets the foundation to demonstrate that the effects of the media on youth is a richly complex and multi-faceted topic. Deep dives into various phases of the development of youth and the physical, social, and educational needs that accompany them provide a central focus from which various aspects of media’s effects can be analyzed. Following chapters tie these developmental phases to topics of emotions, violence, sex, and education to discover how each interacts with a child’s needs and desires. Such needs and desires inform media consumption, as well as present potential vulnerabilities media influence. Plugged In makes a point to provide a wide-ranging summary of research in the area of youth and media, but does not attempt to prescribe any specific actions which should be taken in response to these effects. Though it was written to be an informative device, it still serves as an actionable work for parents or caretakers hoping to understand media influence on children in a clinical way. Plugged In strikes a middle ground on most topics, focusing more on the claim that effects are complex, rather than on any specific impact. In this way, it is valuable because it defines the various areas of effect, allowing further research to be done based on that foundation. …