About

A collaboration between scholars from media studies and book publishing studies to address key challenges faced by children and their families in today’s rapidly changing media context. Our vision is to help create a safe and socially responsive mediascape for children and their families in post-COVID Australia.

The Child and Family Mediascape Research group brings together scholars from media studies and book publishing studies to address key challenges faced by children and their families in today’s rapidly changing media context. Our vision is to help create a safe and socially responsive mediascape for children and their families in post-COVID Australia.

Since we began in 2021, the CFMRG has adopted a holistic approach to investigating child and family media use, and the social and cultural factors that influence and interact with it. Based in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, we study both younger and older children, including adult children, and our focus on families is multi-generational. Our researchers have interdisciplinary expertise in both digital and traditional media – from books and ebooks to cinema, television and personal screens – and some of us are former media professionals. We actively engage with industry networks and community organisations to understand and enrich children’s and family media culture in Australia and the world.