Project Page: Markle Foundation/The University of Texas at Austin

Markle Foundation/The University of Texas at Austin
Date Initiated: July 1999

The Markle Foundation supported the creation of a research agenda addressing the potential for interactive technology to meet children's cognitive, social, emotional and physical needs. Dr. Wartella, Dean of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, oversaw a core team of researchers to conduct an academic literature review, and the Foundation and Dr. Wartella then held an experts' conference to help outline the key issues for future research. From this, Dr. Wartella developed a broad research agenda to help academics, producers, parents, and the press to address crucial issues in children's use of interactive technologies, including social development, learning, safety, and consumer awareness. Ultimately, this forward-looking agenda layed out the main questions and areas of inquiry deserving of further study and funding.

May, 2000
Children and Interactive Media - A compendium of current research and directions for the future
Dr. Ellen Wartella, University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Barbara O'Keefe, Northwestern University and Dr. Ronda Scantlin, University of Dayton
Information and communications technologies are assumed to have extraordinary potential to not only help young people learn, but also engender a true love of learning. But are our assumptions borne out by the facts? What kind of evidence do we already have about the power of digital media to influence children's health and well-being? What sort of new research do we need to better understand the role of these media in children's lives? Arguing that very little is currently known about the role of interactive media in children's lives, this report gathers and reviews existing research in an effort to further such knowledge.

Download Executive Summary (425K)
Download Compendium (740K)

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November, 2002
Children and Interactive Media - Research Compendium Update
Ellen A. Wartella, June H. Lee, and Allison G. Caplovitz of University of Texas at Austin
This report is an update of the Children and Interactive Media: A Compendium of Current Research and Directions for the Future report to the Markle Foundation from October 2000. This update examines the literature published on the topic between June 2000 and May 2002, focusing on children's in-home use of interactive technologies. (In addition, this report is organized according to the categories of the original research compendium, including children's use and access to interactive media; cognitive and social outcomes of such interactive media use, health and safety issues, and policy

The public's trust in a governmental network that makes use of information about its own people can be achieved only if government-wide guidelines for information sharing and privacy protection are established after open public debates on the issue. The Task Force therefore proposed that the President set the goal of creating such a network, and issue clear government-wide policy guidelines for the collection and use of information about people in the U.S., including private sector information.

Download Report (292K)
Download Annotated Bibliography (264K)

Click here to download Adobe Acrobat.


	Dr. Ellen Wartella Dean of the College of Communication & Walter Cronkite Regents Chair in Communication The University of Texas at Austin


	Children and Interactive Media - A compendium of current research and directions for the future


	Children and Interactive Media - Research Compendium Update


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