How Media Impacts Children and Families
School of Communication and Information professor's scholarship focuses on consequences of health communications on society
"It is important to know what children and adolescents are doing with their time and why, developmentally, they are drawn to certain types of media as well as the effects of media, positive or negative."– Amy Jordan
Amy Jordan decided on a career during her sophomore year of college. She was taking a course on the effect of media on children and one of the assignments was to study cartoons.
“I was watching the Smurfs on a Saturday morning and noticed that all the characters were male – except for one Smurfette. And I thought, ‘That’s a strong message to send about gender socialization,’’ Jordan says. “I knew early on in my academic journey that the role of media in the lives of children and adolescents would become the focus of my work.“
Today Jordan, who joined Rutgers as a professor in the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) in January, is considered a leading scholar in the study of children and media, a field that brings together developmental psychology, cultural studies, sociology of childhood and health studies, among other topics.
“It is important to know what children and adolescents are doing with their time and why, developmentally, they are drawn to certain types of media as well as the effects of media, positive or negative,” Jordan says. “It’s always been my belief that media –television, films, the internet, video games – as much as they can potentially have harmful effects, have the potential to enhance learning and do wonderful things for families and children.”
Jordan – who serves on the board of trustees of Sesame Workshop, creators of Sesame Street and a nonprofit organization focused on early childhood development – earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where she taught for 21 years, serving as an adjunct full professor and associate dean for undergraduate studies.
She is the author or editor of six books, including Children, Adolescents, and the Media: The Future of Research and Action (Routledge 2017), and her work has appeared in Pediatrics, Journal of Family Communications and Media Psychology, among other publications.
In addition, she is the co-editor of the Journal of Children and Media with Dafna Lemish, associate dean for programs and professor of journalism and media studies at SC&I, who is known for her research on gender representations and identity construction in children’s media.
Jordan’s research focus is on health communications. Her studies have examined the impact of public policy mandates on the landscape of children’s television, the effect of exposure to sexual media content on adolescent sexual risk taking and how media campaigns influence sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.
Jordan says she was drawn to Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information because of the school’s research focus and faculty expertise.
“Rutgers is building strength and visibility in the area of children and media,” Jordan says. “I know it is a priority for the school and I want to be part of that mission.”
Jordan is planning to teach an undergraduate course in the spring, “Topics in Media and Society: Children and Media,” in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies. The course will examine the impact of media on physical, cognitive, social and emotional development; public policies designed to limit children’s exposure to problematic media content; and the economic forces that shape what children see and buy, among other topics.
The course also will include a trip to New York City to visit children’s media companies, such as Sesame Workshop and Nickelodeon.
“These sorts of field trips give Rutgers students an opportunity to see how children’s media works. They are given a chance to meet and network with professionals in careers they may want to consider,” Jordan says.
“Also, they get a photo op with Elmo.”