Search

It has become increasingly common for parents and children to engage in individual digital activities which disconnect them from each other while remaining in each other’s presence. Accordingly, th...

The socialization process of media use begins in the first year ofa child’s life. Infants and toddlers are exposed to media in thebackground, they learn from screens, and acquire media-related skills from watching their family members’ behavior. Hence, it is of great importance to examine the family context in which young children develop their initial media habits, as well as how they learn from screens during a critical period of their lives. This article explores how young children are socialized into becoming media users in a longitudinal study that closely followed the development of the media habits and preferences of children from the age of three months to two years old. A combination of two qualitative methods was applied: observations at the families’ homes were conducted every three months; and in- depth interviews with parents were conducted at the beginning, the middle, and at the end of the study. Families expecting their second or third child were recruited for the study, to create comparable familial circumstances of having older siblings. The study’s findings expose parents’ limited awareness of the importance of instructive and technological mediation, as well asthe need to facilitate proper conditions that would maximize thebenefits of these forms of mediation. Therefore, there is a need for enhancing parental media literacy, which would enable parents to support children’s media uses and lead to the development ofricher and healthier children’s media experiences.

The present paper sought to assess some physico-chemical parameters above permissible guidelines of irrigation water standard, the study was carried during establishment of Ecotourism Park. The field survey design was used and it was accompanied by laboratory tests to analyze the levels of physico-chemical parameters in both seasons (dry season and wet seasons) for water bodies as well as groundwater. The physical chemical parameters analysed were Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP) Magnesium Adsorption Ratio (MAR) Kelly Index (KI) Total Hardness (TH), pH, the Electric conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). Our analyzed samples fall into permissible limit of irrigation water quality, the mean values of electrical conductivity were high. The knowledge from this study will be used in establishment of Nyandungu recreation park irrigating with water quality on gardens surrounding recreation park and local community.

This study aimed at revealing the factors determining grandparental mediation of their grandchildren’s screen viewing and interactive media use, based on online surveys conducted among 291 American and 356 Israeli grandparents who reported taking care of 2-to-7 years old grandchildren at least once a week. Past mediation, familiarity with children’s media, parental instructions and joint leisure activities were positively associated with mediation of both interactive and non-interactive media use, whereas country of residence was not significantly associated with mediation. These findings provide initial knowledge about the universal aspects of grandparental mediation in early childhood.

Recent studies point to the heavy rate of smartphone use by parents while they are accompanied by their children in public places This, in turn, leads to parental technoference, which raises concer...

Studies of television programs and films targeting children at elementary school age systematically reveal a vast spectrum of sexist and ageist stereotypes regarding older women and men, presenting...

Although many grandparents are involved in caring for their grandchildren, they were completely ignored in previous research on mediation of children's media use. Informed by the Grandfather Involv...

The amount of time that children spend using various screen devices and the factors predicting it have long been the subject of empirical inquiry because of the negative outcomes associated with extensive media exposure. Most research has focused on factors such as parents’ sociodemographic characteristics and their attitudes regarding media, with little attention to parents’ child-rearing needs and their screen-assisted practices. This oversight is indeed critical, as children’s media use takes place within the context of the parent–child relational dynamic. Furthermore, no substantive attempts have been made to distinguish between factors associated with children’s screen time on weekdays and those determining weekend media exposure. This differentiation is especially relevant because parents may face different challenges during each of these respective parts of the week. The present study aims at filling these gaps by explaining screen viewing time of toddlers aged 1.5 to 3 years, with special emphasis on screen use as a parenting tool.

Research suggests that parent–child communication is rapidly changing as a result of the massive adoption of mobile devices and their penetration into interpersonal interaction within the family. Accordingly, this study aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of the impact of mobile device use on the quality of parent–child interaction in early childhood, based on ethnographic observations of 60 families at two playgrounds in the United States. The research findings suggest that parental behavior can be classified along a continuum of high engagement, divided engagement, and disengagement, often dependent upon whether and how parents use their mobile phone. Though mobile phones were not the only distracting factor during playground visits, their use was more highly correlated with parents’ disengagement from their children as compared to other distractors. Parents’ mobile phone use also corresponded to two main consequences for their children: safety concerns and emotional concerns, both resulting in missed opportunities for social learning. The results of this study call for closer attention to parental uses of mobile phones in public spaces.

A substantial effort was made over the years to reveal predictors of children’s screen time in an attempt to suggest effective ways to minimize its negative effects. Studies were mostly based on pa...

[Excerto] A investigação sobre crianças, jovens e media registou, nas últimas duas décadas, um avanço considerável no que diz respeito ao número de estudos produzidos, aos temas abordados e às metodologias utilizadas. Esta área, por natureza multidisciplinar, foi-se afirmando no campo das Ciências da Comunicação, marcando a agenda científica e abrindo o debate público sobre o impacto dos media na vida das crianças e dos jovens e o modo como usam, compreendem, se apropriam e produzem conteúdos mediáticos. A era digital trouxe novos meios e plataformas, gerou uma maior diversidade de conteúdos e suscitou diferentes modos de acesso e diferentes práticas de consumo e de comunicação por parte deste público. Uma realidade que trouxe outros desafios à investigação, fornecendo novos tópicos e pistas para estudar o mundo mediático e a sua ação nas identidades e nas culturas infantis e juvenis.[...], [Excerpt] Over the past two decades, there has been a surge in research about the relationship between children, young people and the media, in terms of the number of studies produced, topics addressed and methodologies used. Due to its multidisciplinary nature, this area has affirmed its position in the field of Communication Sciences and has marked the scientific agenda and inspired public debate about the impact of the media on the lives of children and young people and how they use and appropriate information and produce media content. The digital age has created new media and platforms and generated a greater diversity of content, with children and young people using different ways of access and distinct consumption and communication practices. This situation has generated new research challenges, raised new topics and offers new clues to study the media world and its action on the identities, cultures and rights of children and young people.[...], Este trabalho é financiado por fundos nacionais através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., no âmbito do projeto UIDB/00736/2020. O financiamento plurianual do Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade (UIDB/00736/2020) apoiou a tradução desta introdução.

Though prior research has examined how parents use mobile devices in public, we know less about children’s use of mobile devices outside the home. The present study therefore explores how children use mobile devices in public places they visit with their parents in order to conceptualize how device use affects children’s interactions with their parents and environments. We used naturalistic non-participant observational methods in three locations in the US: eateries, laundromats, and airports. We observed 77 families with at least one parent and one child estimated to be between 2-6 years old. The observers wrote detailed field notes that we analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. We found that children used mobile devices in 31% of the observed families. We categorized children’s behaviors under three themes: immersion, distraction, and co-use. Children were highly engaged with their parents and environment during co-use. However, when children asked for a device or were provided with a device that they used on their own, they were less engaged with parents and environments. Engagement levels between children and parents therefore corresponded with the circumstances of children’s device use and whether they used devices with their parents or in isolation from them. The themes we develop here may be applied to future qualitative and quantitative studies of children’s mobile device use in public and at home.

A content analysis of seventy episodes of infants’ and toddlers’ programs broadcast during 2017 on BabyTV and Luli channels in Israel revealed a mixed bag of conservative and more progressive gender-related messages, with persistent domination of white male characters and gender-appropriate characteristics and appearances. The analysis uncovered a significant category of genderless characters who were constructed, to a large degree, as devoid of meaning: They do not have personality characteristics, they are not part of a family and do not have friends, they do not lead activities, and most importantly, they have no voice. The implications of these representations and the messages they convey about gender for the very young are discussed.

This article examines the representation of social workers in the Russian-language immigrant press in Israel. Social work is a public service that did not exist in the USSR and most Russian immigrants were not familiar with it before immigration. This lack of basic knowledge underscores the importance of reliable representation of this major public service in the immigrant media. Nevertheless, the findings show that by taking the immigrants’ side under any circumstances, while distorting the function of the social work services, the immigrant press fails to fulfill its socialization role and does not facilitate its readers’ integration in their new society.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children younger than 18 months of age should have no access to screen media, while children aged 18 to 24 months may be allowed occasional viewing of high-quality children’s programs together with their parents. Despite these stringent recommendations, however, television and digital devices manifest significant presence in the everyday lives of very young children, even during infancy. Therefore, major empirical efforts were exerted to reveal various predictors of young children’s screen time and suggest effective means for its reduction. Along these lines, the present study examined parental media practices applied during infancy and early toddlerhood and how these practices contribute to children’s excessive media exposure during the first two years of their life. It was based on a longitudinal study which followed ten families with children from the age of three months until they reached two years, and included a series of observations at the families’ homes and in-depth interviews with parents. The findings reveal that parents extensively exposed their children to screen devices, which played a significant role in the daily parenting routines. All parents used screens as a “background,” a “babysitter”, a “pacifier” and a “childcare toolkit”, regardless of their own attitudes towards media effects on their young children. Consequently, it is suggested to increase parental awareness towards their instrumental use of media as part of their parenting routine, which may impart unhealthy media habits and affect their children’s long-term development.

Recent studies show that television is no longer the primary choice for screen viewing among very young children, having been surpassed by online viewing platforms, among which YouTube is dominant. YouTube’s simple user interface, that allows even toddlers to proceed to the next item on the playlist and affords them easy access to their favorite videos, has been suggested as the key to its popularity with very young audiences. On the other hand, young children’s lack of technical, critical and social skills renders them particularly vulnerable to commercial and age-inappropriate content that they might encounter online. In this rapidly changing media environment, in which more and more children begin online activity at a much younger age, it is crucial to evaluate the amount of young children’s online viewing and the factors that determine their viewing habits. Consequently, the present study aimed at identifying the profile of toddler online viewers based on child, parent and family-related characteristics and revealing predictors that might explain higher online exposure. The study, based on a face-to-face survey conducted in Israel among 289 parents of toddlers aged 18-36 months, reveals that online viewing has become normative behavior among toddlers and emphasizes how deeply online viewing is integrated into the basic daily routine of parents with very young children who use online viewing platforms to fulfill a wide range of their childrearing needs.

Students of Ethiopian origin belong to one of the weakest sectors in the Jewish population of Israel. During their studies they have to deal with social alienation, cultural gaps, economic hardships, and racial stereotypes which reduce their chances to successfully complete their academic degree. In this respect, the present research asks whether online social media could provide those youngsters with tools and resources for their better social integration and adaptation to the academic life. For this purpose, the study was conducted in one of Israel’s largest academic colleges while adopting a design-based research approach, which advanced gradually on a continuum between ‘ambient’ and ‘designed’ technology-enhanced learning communities. The interventions applied for this study aimed at examining how they may encourage students of Ethiopian origin to expand their activities in the online social learning groups. The findings indicate that the main pattern of students of Ethiopian origin online participation was peripheral and limited to viewing only. Nevertheless, the level of their online activity has been improved after a series of two interventions, which also led to a slight improvement in indicators of their social integration and in a change in their usage of online learning groups from social to academic uses.

This article aims to explore how using the internet may facilitate coping with the challenges of immigration in later life, based on the case of older Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel. For that purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 32 immigrants living in southern Israel. Results indicated that internet usages by the study participants were: (1) Managing health; (2) Nurturing professional interests; (3) Maintaining and extending social networks; (4) Appreciating the past; and (5) Enjoying leisure. Each usage seemed to preserve and even strengthen the participants’ self-worth and improve their quality of life. These findings suggest that older immigrants who use the internet practice, in fact, strategies of successful ageing, which help them to cope not only with the challenges associated with ageing, but also with the tremendous difficulties and losses posed by immigration.

This study investigated various roles played by host, homeland, and global media in the lives of immigrant families from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS, former USSR) to Israel and Germany, as well as the place of different media in family conflicts, consolidation, and parenting strategies. The study was based on focus group interviews with 60 families of Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel and Germany and 73 semistructured, in-depth interviews with immigrant youngsters. The findings of this study demonstrate that the mass media fulfill diverse roles for immigrant families, assisting them face two main relocation challenges: integration “inward” (i.e., cultural transmission and family consolidation) and “outward” integration into their new surroundings.

The recent wave of immigration from the Former Soviet Union has created the largest ethno-linguistic community of over 1 million people in Israel. Rising communication needs of the newcomers led to the rapid development of Russian-language media that fulfil a dual function: preserving the immigrants' original identity and ties to the former homeland while also addressing new challenges of social and cultural integration. This article explores the main trends in Russian-language media consumption in Israel and illuminates their social and cultural roles in the immigrants' adaptation, with a special emphasis on youth and more recent arrivals.

This study examined the roles of popular music in the lives of immigrant adolescents from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS—former Soviet Union) in Israel. Based on 70 in-depth interviews with newly arrived adolescents aged 12–18, our research revealed that these adolescents' musical preferences matched different stages of adaptation to their new country, with different music styles fulfilling different integration needs. During their first two years in Israel, interviewees enthusiastically explored local musical fare. This stage was also characterised by positive attitudes towards their new home and their anticipated integration. In dramatic contrast, the next three to five years were characterised by disappointment with the local culture, accompanied by growing social alienation. Many adolescents found consolation in late-1980s Russian rock music, as texts critical of the Soviet regime helped them express anger and frustration felt as they came of age in new, difficult and often hostile surrou...

This article sheds light on the “forgotten” medium in the lives of immigrant adolescents, books, by focusing on the youth from the Former Soviet Union, who have immigrated to Israel since 2000. Book reading patterns found in the study reflect the immigrant adolescents’ need to express, comprehend, and legitimize their feelings of sadness, loneliness, and helplessness caused by immigration. The research points, therefore, to the therapeutic function of books, one that enables immigrant youngsters to gain insight into the inner-world of books’ characters, to identify with them, and to learn from their life experiences. Furthermore, books also serve as an accessible cultural resource, as they raise immigrant teens’ self-esteem and confidence, as well as help them to resist the negative stereotypes ascribed to them by local peers.

The present study aims to examine the pluralistic potential of reality shows, which might allow minorities to shape the program's script and to gain recognition for their particularistic identities. For this purpose, two prime-time reality shows were chosen— The Ambassador and Seeking a Leader—broadcast in Israel in 2005. The analysis of the programs included identification and deconstruction of their metanarratives and exposure of several mechanisms of stigmatization and othering used against minorities. In addition, the authors analyzed the tactics utilized by minorities to maneuver the script and steps taken by the majority to maintain its cultural dominance. The research reveals that the ostensibly pluralistic nature of reality shows is limited a priori by the hegemonic forces. Although the hegemonic discourse in reality shows is highly sophisticated and disguised, the sense of equality and pluralism that these programs inspire constitutes an even more powerful mechanism of exclusion and cultural domination.

This study examines the roles of the different media — those in the host language, those in the mother tongue and those of the global media — in the lives of immigrant children and adolescents from the former Soviet Union in Israel, at a time when they are coping with complex and unique personal and social challenges as a result of the immigration process and the need to solidify a new identity. In addition, the study looks at the parents' role in their children's media choices and the roles fulfilled by the media in immigrant family conflicts and in bridging intergenerational gaps.

The major theoretical purpose of the paper is to investigate the implications of globalising and restructuring urban economies on gender-related differences in occupational distribution and earnings within the urban context. The study uses data from national censuses (1983 and 1995) and a labour force survey of 2001, in Israel, to investigate the evolution of gender gaps in Tel-Aviv. The findings that point to the erosion of advantages in the globalising and restructuring urban economy, compared with the nation as a whole, may indicate new potential sources of gender inequality. The theoretical implications, for both the restructuring and globalisation theses and the study of sources of inequality among men and women, are discussed.

Despite the growing economic significance of immigrant consumers in most Western societies, there is no known study that has empirically investigated the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, which purposely addresses the immigrants9 special needs, values, and cultural characteristics. Hence, the present study aims to fill this gap through examination of the effectiveness of different advertising and marketing campaigns specifically designed to attract immigrant consumers, in the case of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel. In this way, the research contributes to a better understanding of targeted advertising specifically designed to meet immigrants9 cultural needs and assists marketers and advertisers who aim to target immigrant communities in other national contexts.

When I entered for the first time through the doors of the city synagogue, where the Russian cultural club Nash Dom was located, I saw a group of five people, all of them immigrants from the former...

The two waves of immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union, in the 1970s and the 1990s, have created the largest (over one million people) and most distinct cultural and linguistic ethnic community. Russian-speaking immigrants soon developed their own cultural institutions and attained significant political power. Rising communication needs led to the swift development of Russian media, including radio, television and over one hundred newspapers and periodicals, which fulfill a dual function: preserving one's former identity and ties to the old country while addressing newly created problems of acculturation, thereby reflecting contradictory trends of segregation and integration typical of migrant communities. This article explores the characteristics of the Russian broadcast and print media in Israel during their golden age and analyzes their social and cultural context by relating to two factors: the structural position of the Russian cultural minority as a voluntary `returning Diaspora', and the type of cultural field developed by this type of minority.

This chapter analyzes how the need to preserve ethnic identity and affiliation with one’s homeland is expressed and fulfilled through Internet use by two distinctive groups of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel: Immigrant youngsters aged 12-18, and immigrant senior citizens aged 65 and above. The aim of such simultaneous examination is not to identify the obvious intergenerational differences in Internet use but rather to increase our understanding of the Internet roles for different groups of immigrant users, irrespective of age. The findings are based on two recent studies: A study conducted in 2006 with 70 immigrant adolescents and a study conducted in 2009 with 32 seniors. Both studies reveal important similarities that shed light on the Internet’s role in maintaining connection with one’s country and culture of origin and preserving homeland identity among different generations of immigrants.

The study described in this chapter examines the role of fashion in the lives of immigrant children and adolescents from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel. It is part of a more extensive, ongoing research project concerned with the role of media in the lives of immigrant children and youth, as they explore their new environment and also look back at the life they have left behind (Elias and Lemish, 2008a; 2008b, 2008c). While fashion was not an original focus of this study, it emerged in the interviews as a site where immigrants are constructing hybrid identities, as well as re-affirming old ones, in the realms of gender, adolescence, Russianness and Israeliness. Accordingly, the aim of this chapter is to present a grounded analysis of these aspects of the interviews and to highlight the unique roles that fashion preferences serve as a facilitator of young immigrants’ search for collective and individual identities, as well as for communicative means of expressing them.

This article offers an overview of the empirical research on the new second generations in the Israeli setting, while highlighting the sociological problematique emerging from the data. It summarizes key empirical findings on the second generation of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and children of migrant workers, and it introduces new variables and theoretical angles that have recently emerged within the Israeli context of immigration, such as transnationalism and inequalities based on race, nationality, religion, and citizenship. We argue that by introducing these analytic parameters, the Israeli research agenda on immigrants' second generation should expand beyond replication of the questions applied toward the massive immigration waves of the 1950s.