Children, Adolescents, and the Media

Victor C. Strasburger is Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico. He graduated from Yale College, where he studied fiction writing with Robert Penn Warren, and from Harvard Medical School. He trained at the Children′s Hospital in Seattle, St. Mary′s Hospital Medical School in London, and the Boston Children′s Hospital. He has authored more than 160 articles and papers and 12 books on the subject of adolescent medicine and the effects of television on children and adolescents. In 2000, he was recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics′ Adele Delenbaugh Hofmann Award for outstanding lifetime achievement in Adolescent Medicine and the Holroyd-Sherry Awrd for outstanding achievement in public health and the media. He is a consultant to the American Academy of Pediatrics′ Committee on Communications, has served as a consultant to the National PTA and the American Medical Association on the subject of children and television, and lectures frequently throughout the country.

Barbara J. Wilson is the Executive Vice Provost of Faculty and Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and also the Kathryn Lee Baynes Dallenbach Professor in the Department of Communication at UIUC. Her research focuses on the social and psychological effects of the media on youth. She is coauthor of three book volumes of the National Television Violence Study (1997–1998).She also co-edited the Handbook of Children, Media, and Development (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008), and has published over 100 articles, chapters, and technical reports on media effects and their implications for media policy. She currently serves on the editorial boards of five academic journals, including Media Psychology and the Journal of Media and Children. In 2008, she was elected as Fellow of the International Communication Association. She has served as a research consultant for Nickelodeon, the National Association of Television Program Executives, Discovery Channel Pictures, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Amy B. Jordan is director of the Media and the Developing Child sector of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, where she oversees research on children′s media policy. Her studies have examined the implementation and public reception of the educational television mandate known as the Three-Hour Rule, the V-Chip legislation, the American Academy of Pediatrics′ media use recommendations and the industry′s efforts to self-regulate food marketing to children. Dr. Jordan has published the findings of her research in dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and has edited special issues of academic journals, including the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and The Bulletin. Dr. Jordan is the recipient of the International Communication Association′s Best Applied/Policy Research Award and the National Communication Association′s Stanley L. Saxon Applied Research Award.