Children and media in China: an urban‐rural comparison study

Abstract

Purpose – The current study aims to examine how media ownership, media usage and attention to advertising vary among urban and rural children in Mainland China and also to collect information about the contexts of media usage and time spent on various activities including media usage.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 1,977 urban and rural children ages six to 13 in the four Chinese cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai, and in the rural areas of the four provinces of Heilongjian, Hubei, Hunan, and Yunnan, was conducted in March 2003 to May 2004. Questionnaires were distributed through 16 elementary schools and local researchers were selected and trained to administer the data collection.Findings – Media ownership and media exposure were high for television, children's books, cassette players, VCD players and radios among both urban and rural samples. In general, media ownership, exposure and usage were higher among urban children than among rural children. However, television ownershi...