New Media for Children and Young Adults

This course will survey the emerging media forms and formats which affect the lives of many young people.  “New Media” in this course is broadly defined to encompass a wide array of artifacts and technologies which flavor modern childhood, including but not limited to:  movies, games, websites, virtual worlds, toys and television programs.  The goal is to engage critically with these media forms, examining how children incorporate them (or don’t) in their daily lives, and how adults shape and reshape notions of child culture and play.  In the process, we will grapple with diverse conceptions of both media and children, and confront issues that sometimes lie below the surface of media creation and use, such as power and control, privacy, safety, gender bias, cultural stereotypes, authority and violence.