Media Journals

Much of the research on children, adolescents, and the media is published in academic journals. Indeed, some have argued that research is not really knowledge until it has been published so that it can be shared with other scientists and practitioners.

Several distinctions are important for understanding journals. First, some journals are refereed, and other journals are not (the latter are often called vanity journals). When someone submits a potential article to a refereed journal, the editor asks a set of scholars (usually three or four) who are experts on the topic to review the manuscript. These experts critique the manuscript and make recommendations to the editor: to accept the manuscript for publication, to ask the author(s) to revise the manuscript (and make suggestions on how to improve the manuscript), or not to publish the manuscript. Ultimately, the editor makes the decision on whether to [Page 523]publish a manuscript or not, but the reviewers greatly aid in this process. For vanity or nonrefereed journals, either the editor asks authors to submit a manuscript, or the authors submit the manuscript and pay the journal to publish it. In either case, manuscripts are not sent to experts to review in nonrefereed journals. Refereed journals are generally considered better because having experts review the manuscript before publication generally improves the quality of the published manuscript.

A second distinction among journals is whether they are associated with some organization, such as the International Communication Association (ICA) or they are independent. Whether the journal is associated with a professional organization or not generally does not influence the quality of what is published in the journal, but generally, independent journals have more freedom because the organization that controls a journal may place limits on the types of articles the editor can accept for publication. Of course, independent journals also have limitations placed on them because the publisher wants to make a profit. There are three major academic organizations in the United States that study children, adolescents, and the media: the ICA, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and the National Communication Association (NCA).

The ICA publishes several journals, two of which include some research on children, adolescents, and the media. Human Communication Research tends to publish empirical research, some of which deals with children and the media. The Journal of Communication publishes a wider variety of articles, including a range of topics and research methodologies.

AEJMC also publishes a variety of journals, two of which include research on children, adolescents, and the media: The Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media and Mass Communication and Society. The Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media tends to publish empirical research (like HCR). Mass Communication and Society publishes articles from a number of different perspectives that deal with the media and larger social issues, many of which deal with children and adolescents.

The NCA also publishes a number of journals, including Communication Monographs and Critical Studies in Mass Communication. However, despite a large membership in the NCA's Mass Communication Division, the NCA journals do not publish a lot of research dealing with children, adolescents, and the media.

...