Seductive Screens: Children's Media-Past, Present, and Future MichaelBrody, M.D. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.

Abstract

Seductive Screens: Children's Media-Past, Present, and Future Michael Brody, M.D. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.In the crusading tradition of Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent (1954), Brody provides an insightful history, analysis, and critique of the psychological impact that media has had and has on children and adolescents. By no means a definitive or comprehensive history of children's media, Seductive Screens seeks to fill the gap in media studies literature with a decisively psychological and often deeply personal reading of various aspects of the child media phenomenon that centers primarily on Disney, Batman, Star Wars, Barbie, and Sesame Street, with some attention given to other influential children's media constructions.In his introduction, Brody defines the issues and delineates his boundaries. In ominous and apocalyptic terms, he writes concerning the rise of texting and the age of the smartphone: Direct interaction is gone; meaningful conversations have been abandoned and [KJids have become overattached to their screens (xiixiii). He further laments and asks, Is children's media entertaining and educational, or a Trojan horse bearing hyper-consumerism, violence, and poor health? (xv). Each subsequent chapter unpacks his answer.Chapter 1 lays the groundwork and didactic tone for the rest of the book. In it, Brody discusses the difficulty of even defining the term thus hinting at a psychological reading of children's media rather than a merely sociological or economic one. After examining eight criteria of what qualifies someone as a child, he wryly notes: It is clear that defining a child is an easy task, because children are small adults and their development is variable and complex (2). With this connotation of child, not a small adult, and brace against the tide of reductionism, so variable and complex, Brody sets an authoritative and textbooklike tone which runs the course of the book; the Gordian knot of children and media need an Alexander. Further, the large print, occasional bold-lettering of key terms, and end of chapter questions further reinforce this textbook-like tone and format. For example: Most importantly, kids use media for psychological reasons (3). These psychological reasons, of course, need a theoretical bases and an interpreter. Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, Arnold Gesell, John Bowlby, and Donald Winnicot provide these theoretical bases. …