<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> In this article, I examine change and continuity in conceptions of parental agency in public debates about children’s media consumption in Scandinavia, 1945-1975. During this period, public debates about the various kinds of media products children consumed were dominated by different groups of professionals: first, by teachers and librarians in the mid-fifties and, then, by intellectuals and performing artists in the late sixties. With a radically changed professional hegemony and a shifting media landscape, the role of media in children’s lives was described very differently during the period. However, a strong continuity in the debates was the negative influence parents were seen as having on children’s media consumption due to their lack of insight and interest in the topic. Drawing upon recent works on children’s media, consumption and enculturation, I analyse why the negative description of parents as co-consumers prevailed despite radical changes in views on children’s media consumption. In particular, I examine the shared inter-Scandinavian socio-cultural contexts that structured the changing professional and political groups’ pressure on parents to perform according to their norms and values.</p></abstract>

In this article, I examine change and continuity in conceptions of parental agency in public debates about children’s media consumption in Scandinavia, 1945-1975. During this period, public debates about the various kinds of media products children consumed were dominated by different groups of professionals: first, by teachers and librarians in the mid-fifties and, then, by intellectuals and performing artists in the late sixties. With a radically changed professional hegemony and a shifting media landscape, the role of media in children’s lives was described very differently during the period. However, a strong continuity in the debates was the negative influence parents were seen as having on children’s media consumption due to their lack of insight and interest in the topic. Drawing upon recent works on children’s media, consumption and enculturation, I analyse why the negative description of parents as co-consumers prevailed despite radical changes in views on children’s media consumption. In particular, I examine the shared inter-Scandinavian socio-cultural contexts that structured the changing professional and political groups’ pressure on parents to perform according to their norms and values.

Parent-Pressure

Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

A History of Parents as Co-consumers of Children’s Media

In this article, I examine change and continuity in conceptions of parental agency in public debates about children’s media consumption in Scandinavia,...

Parent-Pressure

Publicado en línea: 15 jun 2016

Páginas: 29 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2016-0001

Palabras clave
children’s media, enculturation, parenthood, Scandinavia, media history, public debates

© by Helle Strandgaard Jensen

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Parent-Pressure

Publicado en línea: 15 jun 2016

Páginas: 29 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2016-0001

Palabras clavechildren’s media, enculturation, parenthood, Scandinavia, media history, public debates

© by Helle Strandgaard Jensen

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Palabras clave
children’s media, enculturation, parenthood, Scandinavia, media history, public debates