Kids and Media at the New Millennium

Book excerpt: The new communication technologies play a major role in the lives of children & adolescents, who have available an almost continual diet of highly vivid, on demand, audiovisual images. In order to paint a comprehensive picture of children's media environment & media use patterns, a national study of the media environment & media habits of U.S. children ages 2 through 18 years was undertaken. This report includes results for two nationally representative samples totaling 3,155 children ages 2-18 years, including over-samples of both Black & Hispanic children. In addition, week-long media use diaries were collected from 621 of these children.