Cantor’s work on how media frightens children to be featured in ‘Scholarship of Translation’ program

Joanne Cantor has a nine year old son, and she knows what it’s like to have a "suddenly crowded queen-size bed." For nearly 20 years, Cantor, a professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been doing research on the effects of television on children, and in particular on how media content frightens children. She’s summarized her work in a new book, Mommy, I’m Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do To Protect Them (Harvest Books, 1998), and she’ll be presenting a summary of her work at the NCA annual meeting this month. The Research Board will sponsor a single-scholar panel titled, "The Scholarship of Translation: Joanne Cantor," on Saturday, November 21, 12:30-1:40 p.m. in the Murray Hill Suite A, on the second floor of the New York Hilton.

Cantor’s work has focused on how children are frightened by the media, and she’s approached that work by doing laboratory research involving children, as well as doing research that asks adults to remember being frightened by media as a child. Sensitive to criticism that her work may actually be harming children, Cantor is quick to point out that she uses stimuli that are on a par with material already readily available to children on television. She also insures that children who are involved in her studies are talked to about their reactions after the study concludes. She has written, "To my knowledge, no child has suffered ill effects as a result of participation in this research. Certainly, no child or parent has reported any problems." Yet, media exposure is powerful; college students have no difficulty remembering substantial detail about being frightened by media content.

Cantor has been able to isolate what frightens a child at different age levels, although she confesses to being surprised at times about frightening content. Children between the ages of two and seven are more likely to be frightened by visual images of monsters or animals that might attack them, and these children have difficulty distinguishing between fantasy characters and reality. Older children, ages seven to twelve, are frightened by realistic threats, particularly threats to children their own age. Adolescents are most frightened by threats of sexual assault and threats from what Cantor calls, "alien or occult forces."

In a recent study, presented to the 1998 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Cantor reported on how television news frightens children. Children consider news to be truthful, and local news, which has been found to portray violent content an average of 44% of the time, can be particularly scary. More than half of the people surveyed by Cantor and by Barbara Wilson, a communication professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, could describe in detail a news story that frightened them, and children who were the heaviest consumers of television news ventured the highest estimates of the local crime rate.

Cantor’s work has also offered some means for comforting frightened children. In general, words will have little effect with younger children, Cantor found. Rather, she says, "a hug, a glass of water or a distracting activity might help." Talking to older children and helping them to reason through their fears and how they can prevent their fears from actually happening is effective. As Cantor asserts, "For all ages, the sympathetic attention of a concerned adult is probably the best medicine."

Cantor has been a strong advocate for a clear, content-based, television rating system. In fact, her advocacy has bothered the networks, and NBC cancelled an appearance she was going to make to present her point of view on The Leeza Show last spring.

Joanne Cantor’s work fits well with the tradition developed in "The Scholarship of Translation" series. She works on an important topic, and she manages to build theory and to provide practical problem-solving advice through systematic scholarship. Her presentation should be one of interest to a great number of NCA members.