Stance-Taking in Talking to Children About Media: A Language Socialization Perspective

• In Event: Parents and Media as Agents of Socialization

Abstract

This paper concerns the process through which the cultural ideas and media ideologies framing children’s experiences in the media are (re)constructed in and through naturally occurring conversations. In particular, the paper focuses on children’s media socialization through everyday talk and the role of parents’ stance-taking in the making of children’s media culture. Two examples of parent-children interactions collected during extended fieldwork in a family are discussed adopting a culturally contextualized conversation-analytic approach. The case study is intended to illustrate a) how family’s media ideologies are reified and maintained on the micro order of everyday life and b) how children are socialized into these ideologies in and through their participation in naturally occurring, unplanned talking activities. In the discussion we contend that talk occasioned by media use is organized by the worldviews of a given community. Yet, at one and the same time, it (re)produces the value system, moral order and the canonical versions of the world for those who engage in these talking activities.

Author

• Letizia Caronia, Department of Education U of Bologna