Shewmaker offers blueprint for families to navigate media messages in newly released book for parents and families

Shewmaker offers blueprint for families to navigate media messages in newly released book for parents and families

Guide is designed for families with children in late elementary school grades through early high school years.

Kim Chaudoin | 07/02/2024

In today's digital age, media messages bombard us from every direction. These messages can be powerful in shaping perspectives of ourselves and the world around us. And they can have an even more profound impact on children.

Imagine a world where families gather not just to watch TV or scroll through social media, but to dissect, understand and even create the content they consume. This vision is at the heart of Lipscomb University ProvostJennifer Shewmaker's latest book, Creating and Consuming Media Messages with Purpose: A Guide for Parents and Families, co-authored by Amy Boone of Abilene Christian University and will be released July 15. It serves as an essential guide for families with children in late elementary school grades through early high school years to help navigate the complexities of modern media.

"Media messages are prevalent and powerful, and increased media exposure means children must learn to be purposeful, healthy consumers and creators of media," explains Shewmaker. "It is important that parents and people who work with children understand the effect of media as they develop their identities. So this is a practical guide for families designed to develop and support lifelong skills around active media consumption and creation."

Creating and Consuming Media Messages with Purpose includes an introduction to child and adolescent identity development and media's effects on it and includes lessons on a variety of topics from social media, smartphone use, generating online content, data literacy, celebrity culture and much more.

A professor of psychology and a nationally certified school psychologist, Shewmaker's interest in this field is rooted in her personal experiences as a mother. She began her research when her oldest daughter encountered troubling media messages at a young age.

"When my daughter turned seven, she became what media and marketing creators call a tween-ager, which means she was no longer considered a child. Suddenly there was a flood of images, a flood of stories, a flood of narratives coming straight at her," she said. "These messages struck at the core of what my husband and I had been trying to teach our daughter about who she was and who she could become. As a parent, as a mother, as a woman and as a psychology professional this disturbed me greatly. So like all good professors do, I decided to research it."

She shared findings in her first book published in 2015, Sexualized Media Messages and Our Children: Teaching Kids to Be Smart Critics and Consumers, which takes a look at children's consumption of sexualized media messages while providing readers with strategies for abating their influence. That scholarly work laid the foundation for her current focus: equipping parents and educators with practical tools to help young people become critical and purposeful media consumers and creators.

"After that book came out, I started being asked to do a lot of workshops for parents and teachers," says Shewmaker. "Not only were scholars interested in this research, but it became something that people who work with children and people who live with children really wanted to know more about. I was doing workshops at churches and schools, and I started thinking that I wanted to provide a guide for educators."

She released Creating and Consuming Media Messages with Purpose: A Guide for Educators in 2021 as a resource for educators. "Then I thought about how important it is for parents to understand how this affects our kids," she adds. "If you don't understand child development, it's hard to understand how it influences them. So the idea for a parents and families guide emerged."

The core of Shewmaker's research

Central to Shewmaker's research is the application of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model, which highlights the various systems influencing a child's development. This model underscores the importance of close relationships within the family and the broader impacts of community, media and culture. It is based on the idea that the relationships children have with parents and caregivers impacts their development - and that these relationships are affected by their work, school and community settings, which are in turn affected by broader social, cultural and policy conditions. Shewmaker uses this framework to explain how media messages affect children and how these influences can be countered.

"In Bronfenbrenner's model there are circles that move outward that impact a child's development. It starts with who they are, then you have this inner circle. That's the family, the close relationships, and that has a really strong impact on who they are and how they make sense of the world around them," she explains. "When you move outward, you start seeing that things like your school, your neighborhood, are going to have an impact. As you start thinking about how children interact you can start seeing why it matters. That's where mass media comes into play when you get to the macro system … the larger culture."

One of the key insights from her work is the interactive nature of media consumption and creation. Shewmaker emphasizes that children are not just passive recipients of media messages but can actively engage and even influence the media landscape. This concept is crucial for parents and educators who wish to empower children to navigate media critically and creatively.

Shewmaker's work has reached beyond academia, influencing media creators and companies to consider the messages they send. Her advocacy and research have contributed to shifts in how toys and media are designed, promoting more positive and realistic representations.

Practical tools for families

Creating and Consuming Media Messages with Purpose is designed as a hands-on resource, says Shewmaker. It includes sections for parents and families, providing background on media effects and developmentally appropriate activities to foster critical thinking. The book features exercises that help families analyze media content, discuss its messages and create their own media. This practical approach is aimed at making media literacy a shared family activity, fostering deeper understanding and resilience against negative influences.

In her book, Shewmaker also explores the psychological impacts of social media, highlighting how features such as likes and shares can trigger reward systems in the brain, similar to real-life affirmations. By understanding these mechanisms, families can better manage their media consumption and maintain a healthy balance.

Shewmaker encourages consumers to be proactive and urges families to engage with media critically, to voice their concerns, and to demand better from media creators. By doing so, Shewmaker believes that communities can influence positive change in the media landscape moving toward a healthier, more intentional media consumption and creation.

Pre-order Creating and Consuming Media Messages with Purpose: A Guide for Parents and Families on Amazon.com or at Gifted Unlimited.

- Photo by Kristi Jones