Emory H. Woodard, IV is a Research Fellow for the Annenberg Public Policy
Center. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Natalia Gridina is a Research Specialist with the Annenberg Public Policy
Center, Washington. She holds a masters degree from the University of
Pennsylvania.
___________________________
Kathleen Hall Jamieson directed this research. Jamieson is Professor of
Communication and Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, and
Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Amy Jordan and Kelly Schmitt, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, contributed to survey conceptualization.
Jo Holz, Annie Weber, and Jennifer Mazurick, Roper Starch Worldwide, directed data collection and preparation.
Lorie Slass, Annenberg Public Policy Center, Washington, commented on early drafts of this report.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of
Pennsylvania, edited this report.
ABOUT THE ANNENBERG PUBLIC POLICY CENTER
The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels. Consistent with the mission of the Annenberg
School for Communication, the Center has four ongoing foci: Information and
Society, Media and the Developing Mind, Media and the Dialogue of Democracy, and Health Communication. The Center supports research and sponsors lectures and conferences in these areas. This series of publications disseminates the work of the Center.
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The Annenberg Public Policy Center
Woodard, 2000
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Media in the Home 2000 provides a profile of media ownership, use, and attitudes for parents and children in America. In addition, it tracks parental awareness, knowledge, and use of various public policies designed to regulate those media. This year’ survey augments earlier APPC surveys by examining s the ways in which parents supervise their children’ use of the proliferating media s that are increasingly a part of the American home, including a central media environment of the child: the bedroom. Conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide on behalf of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, this national survey of 1,235 parents of children between the ages of two and seventeen (margin of error ± 2.9 percent) and 416 children between the ages of eight and sixteen (margin of error
± 5 percent) reveals:
§ Almost half (48%) of all families with children between the ages of 2 and
17 have all four of the new media staples among families with children: a television, a VCR, video game equipment, and a computer. (See page
7 for details)
§ These media have not only penetrated the homes of American families generally, but are also prevalent in the bedrooms of American children.
We surveyed children between the ages 8-16 and found: 57 percent of the sample has a television set in the bedroom; 39 percent has video game equipment; 36 percent has basic cable service; 32 percent has a telephone;
30 percent has a VCR; 20 percent has a computer; and 11 percent has access to the
