The invisible children of media research

ABSTRACT

The Journal of Children and Media (JOCAM) provides an important home for scholars who focus on children and adolescents. It is committed to publishing research from underrepresented countries. Despite this commitment, however, much of what is published in JOCAM, as well as in other youth-focused journals, draws its samples from so-called WEIRD settings (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). Moreover, research on children, adolescents and media (CAM) often fails to recognize children who are at the margins of society because they are poor, housing insecure, or living with disability. In this commentary we examine the invisible children of CAM research and explore why their experiences remain largely unexamined. We highlight the barriers to conducting research with these particularly vulnerable populations, and we suggest opportunities for reducing such barriers. We conclude by arguing that it is our moral and ethical duty to do our best to represent the role of media within the diverse experiences of childhood.

KEYWORDS:

• WEIRD samples
• institutional review board
• vulnerable population
• children and media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy Jordan

Amy Jordan is professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University. She studies the role of media in the lives children and adolescents. She is co-editor (with Vikki Katz) of the Journal of Children and Media and past president (2015–2016) of the International Communication Association. Her most recent co-book (with Dafna Lemish and Vicky Rideout) is Children, adolescents, and media: The future of research and action (2017, Routledge).

Kate Prendella

Kate Prendella is a doctoral student in Media Studies at Rutgers University in the School of Communication and Information Studies. Her research focuses on the relationship between individuals with intellectual disabilities and the media. She is invested in unpacking the cycle of sub-humanization that is constructed between mediated representations and society. Her work examines representation of intellectual disability in popular culture and the ways in which individuals with intellectual disabilities engage with the media.