Media Parenting: Theory and Research on Parent, Child, and Media Interactions

Media psychologist Eric Rasmussen explores the vital role of parents in empowering children to make media choices that promote their well-being.

Rasmussen challenges prevailing assumptions about human nature in a way that pushes the broader field of human communication and its disciplinary offspring, children, and media beyond the bounds of current dominant paradigms. Media Parenting reviews past empirical findings, advocates for media parenting’s reconceptualization, and proposes a research roadmap leading to a more enriching, theoretical understanding of the dynamic interactions between parents, children, and media.

Eric E. Rasmussen is Professor of Public Relations and Strategic Communication Management at Texas Tech University, USA. He has authored and co-authored articles that have appeared in some of the top academic journals in the fields of communication and child development, such as Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Journal of Children and Media, Media Psychology, Child Development, and Developmental Psychology, among others. His research has also been presented at conferences for the Society for Research in Child Development, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, International Communication Association, and International Public Relations Research Conference.