After the Death of Childhood (ePub)

What will be the fate of childhood in the twenty-first century?
Will children increasingly be living 'media childhoods', dominated
by the electronic screen? Will their growing access to adult media
help to abolish the distinctions between childhood and adulthood?
Or will the advent of new media technologies widen the gaps between
the generations still further?

In this book, David Buckingham provides a lucid and accessible
overview of recent changes both in childhood and in the media
environment. He refutes simplistic moral panics about the negative
influence of the media, and the exaggerated optimism about the
'electronic generation'. In the process, he points to the
challenges that are posed by the proliferation of new technologies,
the privatization of the media and of public space, and the
polarization between media-rich and media-poor. He argues that
children can no longer be excluded or protected from the adult
world of violence, commercialism and politics; and that new
strategies and policies are needed in order to protect their rights
as citizens and as consumers.

Based on extensive research, After the Death of Childhood
takes a fresh look at well-established concerns about the effects
of the media on children. It offers a challenging and refreshing
approach to the perennial concerns of researchers, parents,
educators, media producers and policy-makers.