Media+and+Family+Interaction



=**Media and Family Interactions**= By Bo Peng The purpose of this article is to let scholars and researchers to know that media has huge impact on children and their family, and the environment of media use can be effective to children. Media devices and technologies are growing rapidly; they impact family in some ways. Whenever there are new technologies come out, families seem to be adapting with it quickly, and it soon becomes engaging with families. It is interesting that these new media technologies can get families to use it and even later on they cannot live without. The article talks about some researchers have studied about when media technologies like TV or internet just appeared. At the beginning not many families use them often, but later it became part of family that they cannot live without. Some other researchers also did a research that when some new technologies like video games or internet became popular, kids spend less time with their families and they spend more time to stay alone with these new media technologies. From the research of McDonagh, Stewart and Andreasen, they found out that the families which spend more time together with media, it will be better for them to have better family relationships. The research explored questions of what is the role of media play in the family and how it impacts children and their family? From the research, 621 children between age of 2-7 years old spend 19% of viewing time and 14-18 years old spend 2% of viewing time. 3,155childrenages 2to18, 90% have radios, tape players, and CD players; 70% have a video game system; and 69% have a computer.

500 children ages 9 to15 respondents watched music videos alone—accounting for 62% of their music video use whereas younger respondents watched music videos alone only about one third of their music video use.

Two-parent families were almost twice as likely to own a computer (57%) as single-parent households, with male-headed households faring slightly better than female-headed households, 31% to 25%.

The variables they measured are media technologies that families usually use and how long they spend time with it. Also they asked families the reason of using these media technologies. The research asked 621 children to do a week long diaries. Children have been divided to 2 aged groups. 2-7 years old children recorded they spend 19% of time to watch with their parents. 14- 18 ages spend only 2% of their time to watch television with their parents. The second research divided families with different race and income during the year of 1994 and 1997. Based on increase of their incomes during these 3 years, it also increased the use of media. How was the data analyzed? The researchers asked children between different ages and their media usage during certain of time. The data shows the younger ages children spend more time with their parents, but older children prefer to spend more time by themselves in the room to use internet. Also the researchers asked different income and different race families about the reason of using different media technologies. The study of this is finding the reason of why these media technologies have been used and how do they affect family and family relationship. But the researchers have to think about does media isolating family members or bring family together? From the research of Wartella and Jennings, it shows me how important media is for every family. Because of these media technologies, they brought children and parents together which has a huge impact to children’s education and behaviors. I grow up with these media technologies and I use them everyday. From my own experience, I think media is everything in our society and it changes our life in some ways, we cannot live without it anymore.

APA Citation Wartella, E. & Jennings, N. (2001). The new member of the family: The digital revolution in the home. The Journal of Family Communication, 1(1) 59-69.