Resumen de Constructing digital childhoods in Taiwanese children’s newspapers
Proliferating in mass media, the image of “child computer user” has been exemplified in ongoing debates concerning the increasing impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on children. With a content analysis of news reports (n = 797) in the most popular children’s newspaper (Mandarin Daily News) in Taiwan between 2000 and 2011, this study examined the frequencies of five themes of “child computer user” identified by Selwyn and six dimensions of children’s needs and the argumentation patterns of media framing of ICT effect (affective valence, framing perspective, causal and treatment attribution) used by Rossler. This examination has revealed how the cultural assumptions of contemporary Taiwanese toward children and childhood, viewed in terms of children’s nature, agency, and needs, have influenced media representations of child computer users, and how these representations are moderated by children’s ages and living domains (home versus school)
