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New Research Presented at the 2009 ICA Annual Conference

05/24/2009

Researchers from Georgetown University, in collaboration with researchers from the Children's Media Lab, presented new research at the 2009 International Communication Association Conference on the content of infant-directed marketing.  Specifically, the presentation reported results from an analysis of the number and quality of social interactions depicted in a representative sample of 55 infant programs.  The researchers found that, despite the references made to social and emotional development found in many of the educational claims for these products, few onscreen interactions were found overall - with caregiver-child and peer-to-peer interactions representing only 10% and 25% of total characater appearances, respectively.  Further, only a small portion of the interactions were high quality (active interactiosn with caregivers, cooperative or parallel play with peers).   Implications for these findings were discussed.

The full citation for this presentation appears below:

Fenstermacher, S., Barr, R., Linebarger, D.L., Pempek, T., Moses, A., Vaala, S.E., Ryan, M., Garcia, A., Brey, E. (2009). Interactional Modeling in Infant-Directed Media.  Paper presented at the meeting of the International Communication Association, Chicago, IL.