The literacy practices of many communities today show new ways of meaning making in the contemporary, technological and digital culture. A number of Malaysian adolescents belong to this culture. This pilot study reports the preliminary findings of a larger study aimed at describing the online activities of Malaysian adolescents. Fifty-four…

Facebook and other social media have been hailed as delivering the promise of new, socially engaged educational experiences for students in undergraduate, self-directed, and other educational sectors. A theoretical and historical analysis of these media in the light of earlier media transformations, however, helps to situate and qualify this…

In 2007, Hamilton College, Colgate University, and St. Lawrence University received a grant from the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) Instructional Innovation Fund to take stock of the ways in which multimodal assignments were being used on campuses and to look in particular at the ways in which such assignments…

A frame analysis was conducted to explore themes in recent coverage by print journalists of the college application process, with special attention paid to the use by reporters of "keywords, stock phrases, stereotyped images, sources of information, and sentences that provide reinforcing clusters of facts or judgments" (Entman, p. 52) about this…

The recent proliferation of reality-based television programs highlighting cosmetic surgery has raised concerns that such programming promotes unrealistic expectations of plastic surgery and increases the desire of viewers to undergo such procedures. In Study 1, a survey of 170 young adults indicated little relationship between cosmetic surgery…

This ethnographic study explored the ways in which media, particularly television, connected with English language and literacy practices among Sudanese refugees in Michigan. Three families with young children participated in this study. Data collection included participant observation, interviews, and collection of artifacts over 18 months, with…

A lack of good information about what youth are doing with new media stimulates fears and hopes about the relationship between young people and digital technologies. This article focuses on new modes of inquiry into youth new media use, highlighting the challenges, complexities, and opportunities inherent in studying young people's digital…

In "Star Trek," Scotty suggests that Transwarp beaming is "like trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet, whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse." The study of social media faces similar challenges because new tools are developed at a rapid pace and existing tools are constantly being updated with new features, policies, and applications.…

We present a program of research investigating the effects of lad magazines on male body self-consciousness and appearance anxiety. Study 1, based on panel data from undergraduate men, showed that lad magazine exposure in Year 1 predicted body self-consciousness in Year 2. Study 2 was an experiment that showed that men assigned to view objectified…

Whether one works for Nike or in a library, it is tough to attract an audience. That is where smart marketing can make all the difference. Even though libraries do not have millions of dollars to spend on slick Madison Avenue ad campaigns to entice today's teens, librarians do have access to the media that kids love, and that is a great place to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Opencast Community, a global community of individuals, institutions, and commercial stakeholders exchanging knowledge about all matters relevant in the context of academic video and promoting projects in this context. It also gives an overview of the most prominent of these projects, Opencast…

Young children ages 3 to 6 play a wide range of digital games, which are now available on large screens, handheld screens, electronic learning systems, and electronic toys, and their time spent with games is growing. This article examines effects of digital games and how they could be designed to best serve children's needs. A small body of…

Even a quick review of U.S. households, daycare centers, and preschools reveals widespread use of digital programs and products with young children. Research indicates that regardless of the hard technology that delivers these digital applications, their content most significantly affects the experience and outcomes. A primary question thus…

This paper argues for a clearer conceptualization of media stimuli in experimental research and identifies 3 issues impeding our understanding of message processing: (a) assumptions bolstered by manipulation checks about homogeneity of response to media stimuli, (b) conflation of 2 different classes of variables--media attributes and psychological…

This article discusses digital media and its potential effects on emergent literacy skills development for young children. While the impact of digital media exposure on children's emergent literacy development is largely unknown, it is becoming a significant issue, as more and more young children throughout the world observe and use various forms…