JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH 2000;27S:8–14

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Media and Youth: Access, Exposure, and
Privatization
DONALD F. ROBERTS, Ph.D.

Purpose: To describe U.S. youth’s access and exposure to the full array of media, as well as the social contexts in which media exposure occurs.
Methods: A cross-sectional national random sample of
2065 adolescents aged 8 through 18 years, including oversamples of African-American and Hispanic youth, completed questionnaires about use of television, videotapes, movies, computers, video games, radio, compact discs, tape players, books, newspapers, and magazines.
Results: U.S. youngsters are immersed in media. Most households contain most media (computers and video game systems are the exception); the majority of youth have their own personal media. The average youth de3 votes 64 h to media; simultaneous use of multiple media increases exposure to 8 h of media messages daily.
Overall, media exposure and exposure to individual media vary as a function of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and family socioeconomic level. Television remains the dominant medium. About one-half of the youth sampled uses a computer daily. A substantial proportion of children’s and adolescents’ media use occurs in the absence of parents.
Conclusions: American youth devote more time to media than to any other waking activity, as much as one-third of each day. This demands increased parental attention and research into the effects of such extensive exposure. © Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2000
KEY WORDS:
Audio media
Computers
Media diet
Media use
Television

From the Department of Communication, Stanford University,
Stanford, California
Address correspondence to: Donald F. Roberts, Ph.D., Department of
Communication, Stanford University, McClatchy Hall, Building 120,
Stanford, CA 94305. E-mail: droberts@leland.stanford.edu.
Manuscript accepted April 24, 2000.
1054-139X/00/$–see front matter
PII S1054-139X(00)00128-2

Media and Youth: Access, Exposure, and
Privatization
One of the more frequently encountered statistics about youth and media is that by the time American youngsters finish high school, they have spent more time in front of a television screen (from 16,000 to
20,000 h) than in the classroom (14,000 h) (1). And that’s only television! If we assume that additional time is devoted to other media besides television,
e.g., to listening to radio, tapes and compact discs
(CDs), watching movies, leisure reading (books, magazines, and newspapers), and to such new media as computers and video games, it seems possible that youth spend more time-consuming mass media than they give to any other waking activity. But do they?
And if so, how much time to which media? And which youngsters?
Although literally dozens of published research reports provide bits of information about one or another aspect of children’s mass media behavior, most of the focus has been on television, which leaves surprising gaps in our knowledge. Most academic studies of children’s media use have asked nonrepresentative samples of youngsters about relatively few media (2– 4). A few studies have surveyed representative national samples, but typically they have focused on a limited array of media (usually television) and/or have measured access rather than use (5,6). One national survey gathered data on all media currently available to children, but that work was conducted in 1979, before the widespread public adoption of video cassette recorders (VCRs), video games, highly portable tape/CD players, computers, and the Internet (7). Moreover, that study focused primarily on daily newspaper use. No study in the public domain has gathered information about the full array of media behaviors from a nationally

© Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2000
Published by Elsevier Science Inc., 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010

August 2000

representative sample of youth. Thus, we know almost nothing about youngsters’ media mix (e.g., what proportion of total media time is devoted to each of the different media), little about how much time today’s youth devote to the new media, and very little about the social and physical contexts in which children and adolescents use different media.
This gap in our knowledge, in conjunction with the recent emergence of new communication media that have captured the attention of American youth, led the Kaiser Family Foundation to interview a large, representative sample of U.S. youngsters about their media habits (8). This report briefly summarizes a few of the major findings focusing on 8- through
18-year-olds and raises questions for future research.

Method
A representative sample of 2065 U.S. 3rd through
12th graders (aged 8 through 18 years) completed media behavior questionnaires in school; 487 of those same respondents also completed weeklong media diaries at home. Questions about access, amount of exposure, type of content consumed, and the physical and social context of media use were asked for each of the following: print (books, magazines, and newspapers), television, videos, motion pictures, audio media (radio, CD, and tape players), computers, and video games. Additional items obtained background and demographic information and self-reports of social/psychological well-being. [For a complete description of the sample, question wording, and marginals, see Roberts et al. (8)].

Results
Access
Even for those who have studied youth and media for more than 3 decades, current levels of U.S. youngsters’ access and exposure to contemporary mass media seem extraordinary. Today’s children inhabit a world where media have reached saturation levels.
Consider first household media availability: More than 97% of the homes represented in this sample have televisions, VCRs, and audio systems; 70% have video game players; and more than two-thirds have personal computers. These data indicate that the typical U.S. youngster’s household has three television sets, three tape players, three radios, two VCRs, two CD players, one video game player, and one computer. MEDIA AND YOUTH

9

Variables such as race/ethnicity, income, and level of parents’ education locate few differences in household media availability for the simple reason that most youngsters’ homes contain most media.
The major exception is computer access, which is related to both race/ethnicity and measures of socioeconomic status. A significantly higher proportion of white youngsters (78%) than either African-American (55%) or Hispanic (48%) youngsters live in computer-equipped households. Eighty-one percent of respondents who attend schools located in communities with median incomes of more than $40,000 report computer ownership, compared with 66% who go to schools in communities in the $25,000 –
40,000 range, and 49% of those in communities where the median income is under $25,000. Computer ownership also increases significantly with level of parent education: in households where parents completed high school or less (55%), some college (73%), or college (84%).
Another interesting demographic difference in household media availability is that boys’ homes
(59%) are significantly more likely than girls’ homes
(32%) to contain a video game system.
Given multiple media in so many homes, it is unsurprising that many youth report having their own media. What is surprising, however, is the degree to which the bedrooms of today’s youth have been turned into mini–media centers. As Table 1 shows, two-thirds of the youngsters in this sample report having a television in their bedroom, more than one-third have their own VCR, and 15% receive premium cable channels in their bedrooms. Almost all (96%) 8- through 18-year-olds’ bedrooms contain some kind of audio system, and many have several.
Forty-five percent of the bedrooms have a video game system and 21% have a computer. Moreover, substantial proportions of youth report having most of those media by the time they are 13 years old.
Clearly, only the most atypical U.S. youngsters lack relatively easy and constant access to a wide variety of media.
Table 1 also illustrates that media availability in children’s bedrooms is related to several background variables. Although there is no meaningful difference in the proportions of white, African-American, and Hispanic youth reporting a computer in their bedroom, there are significant differences for most other media. Both African-American and Hispanic youngsters are substantially more likely than white youngsters to inhabit bedrooms with a television set.
African-American youth also are more likely than
Whites to have a VCR or a video game system in

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JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH Vol. 27S, No. 2

Table 1. Media Availability in 8- Through 18-Year-Olds’ Bedrooms
Age (y)
Medium

Total Sample
(N ϭ 2065)

Television (%)
VCR (%)
Radio (%)
Tape player (%)
CD player (%)
Video game player (%)
Computer (%)
Cable/satellite (%)
Premium cable (%)
Internet access (%)

65
36
86
81
75
45
21
30
15
10

Gender

Race/Ethnicity

8 –13 14 –18

Boys Girls

White Black Hispanic

65
34
81a
74a
64a
47
23
28
15
9

65
38
94b
89b
88b
42
19
32
15
12

69
39
85
78
71
59a
22
32
16
13

62
34
88
84
78
32b
21
27
14
17

61a
34a
89
84a
81a
42a
20
29
14
10

81b
45b
82
78a,b
66b
59b
25
38
22
10

77b
37a,b
85
74b
65b
51a,b
22
31
17
12

Community Income
Ͻ$25,000
73a
44a
84
79
72
50a
18
33
20
8

$25,000 –
40,000 Ͼ$40,000
70a
37a,b
87
81
74
47a,b
22
30
15
10

56b
31b
87
82
78
40b
23
28
13
12

For each demographic classification, the proportions of youngsters in each subgroup using each medium are compared; within each row, only those proportions with no letter in their superscripts in common differ significantly (p Ͻ .05, t-test for difference between independent proportions).

their bedroom. White youth, on the other hand, are more likely to own various audio systems than are their African-American and Hispanic counterparts.
The likelihood of finding televisions, VCRs, and video game systems in youngsters’ bedrooms is inversely related to household income. Youth who attend schools in low-income communities are substantially more likely than those who attend in high-income communities to report having their own television (73% vs. 56%), their own VCR (44% vs.
31%), and their own video game system (50% vs.
40%). Personal ownership of any kind of audio system is not related to the income measures, nor is having a computer in the bedroom.
Again, only one gender difference emerges: 23% of girls and 43% of boys report a video game system in their bedroom.
Exposure
In keeping with procedures used in earlier research, this study calculated media exposure simply as the total amount of time youngsters indicate they spend with each individual medium. Thus, no adjustment is made for times when two or more media are used simultaneously (e.g., listening to the radio while reading). Exposure, then, is an index of messagehours and typically exceeds the amount of real time
(i.e., person-hours) an individual devotes to media.
Fortunately, the subsample of youngsters who kept weeklong media diaries were asked to indicate whenever they used multiple media simultaneously, providing a way to estimate media use—that is, person-hours devoted to media. This was accomplished by calculating the proportion of all media

time during which the subsample used two or more media simultaneously, and then reducing media exposure estimates for the entire sample by that amount. Such reductions typically ranged from 14% to 22% depending on the particular subgroup examined; the full subsample of 8- through 18-year-olds
(N ϭ 487) who kept media diaries reported using two or more media 15% of their total media time.
Regardless of whether media exposure or media use is considered and regardless of such factors as age, gender, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic indicators, there is no question that U.S. youth are exposed to substantial amounts of media content on a daily basis. As the first row in Table 2 shows, the full sample reports almost 8 h of media exposure daily
(which, adjusted for simultaneous exposure, translates to 6:43 person-hours of media use). Although age, race/ethnicity, and community income level all locate statistically significant differences in amount of overall exposure, there is no subgroup for which average media exposure drops below 7 h/day. Regardless of ethnic/racial and economic background,
70% or more of all but two of the subgroups spend more than 7 h/day exposed to media.
Several background variables further predict significant difference in youngsters’ media exposure.
Younger children (8- to 13-year-olds) report more than 0.5 h more daily exposure than 14- to 18-yearolds. Race/ethnicity shows even larger subgroup differences. African-American youth report an average of almost 10 h of daily media exposure, and
Hispanic youth more than 9 h, whereas Whites report about 7 h of exposure. Family socioeconomic level is negatively related to media exposure, with youth attending schools in communities where the

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MEDIA AND YOUTH

11

Table 2. Average Daily Time 8- to 18-Year-Olds Are Exposed to Each Medium, by Age, Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and
Income
Age (y)
Medium

Total Sample
(N ϭ 2065)

Total media exposure
Television
Taped TV shows
Videotapes
Movies
Video games
Print media
Radio
CDs and tapes
Computer

7:57
3:16
0:16
0:29
0:20
0:27
0:44
0:48
1:05
0:31

Gender

Race/Ethnicity

8 –13 14 –18

Boys Girls

White Black Hispanic

8:08a
3:37a
0:20a
0:29
0:26a
0:32a
0:50a
0:35a
0:47a
0:32

8:10
3:37a
0:17
0:30
0:22
0:41a
0:41a
0:43a
0:55a
0:35a

7:16a
2:47a
0:12a
0:28
0:13a
0:23a
0:43a
0:49
1:09
0:31

7:35b
2:43b
0:10b
0:29
0:11b
0:20b
0:37b
1:05b
1:29b
0:30

7:41
2:43b
0:14
0:28
0:19
0:12b
0:48b
0:54b
1:16b
0:26b

9:52b
4:41b
0:27b
0:32
0:29b
0:35b
0:47a
0:45
1:03
0:31

9:02b
3:50a
0:18c
0:34
0:35b
0:35b
0:35b
0:56
1:08
0:29

Community Income
Ͻ$25,000
8:29a
3:29a
0:22a
0:34a
0:25a
0:29a
0:44
0:53a
1:07
0:25a

$25,000 –
40,000 Ͼ$40,000
8:08a
3:21a
0:17b
0:28b
0:22a
0:30a
0:43
0:50a,b
1:07
0:31a,b

7:22b
3:01b
0:11c
0:28a,b
0:15b
0:22b
0:47
0:42b
1:02
0:34b

For each demographic classification, the mean amounts of time youngsters in each subgroup are exposed to each medium are compared; within each row, only those means with no letter in their superscripts in common differ significantly (p Ͻ .05, t-test for difference between independent means).

median annual income exceeds $40,000 reporting almost 1 h less exposure than youth attending schools in districts where the median annual income is below $25,000. Boys report about 0.5 h more daily media exposure than girls, but the difference is not statistically significant.
Table 2 also summarizes average daily time youngsters spend with each of the different media.
Perhaps the first thing to note about these averages is that despite the recent proliferation of new media and despite popular press reports that the computer and the World Wide Web may be drawing youngsters away from television, there is no question that television still dominates youth’s media diet. Between the ages of 8 and 18, youngsters devote more
1
than 34 h/day to television. Regardless of which subgroup is examined, no other single medium claims even half the exposure time of television. For the overall sample, television accounts for 41% of the total media diet, the three audio media (radio, CDs, and tapes) combined for 24%, other screen media combined (videotapes and movies) for 14%, print for
9%, and video games and computers for 6% each.
Many earlier studies reported an age-related increase in television time until about 12 or 13 years, after which viewing drops off. These data replicate that pattern not only for television, but for several other media. That is, 14- through 18-year-olds claim significantly less exposure than their younger counterparts to television, taped television shows, movies, video games, and print. The only exception emerges when music media (radio, CDs, and tape recordings) are combined. Amount of exposure to music doubles from early to late adolescence, when

music media exposure equals television exposure.
Computer use remains level across age categories.
Although there is no statistically significant gender difference in overall media exposure, boys watch significantly more television, spend more time playing video games, and use the computer more than girls; conversely, girls read more and listen to music more than boys. Race/ethnicity differences in time exposed to different media are also striking. AfricanAmerican youngsters watch almost 1 h more television per day than Hispanic youngsters, who in turn watch almost 1 h more than Whites; a similar pattern, albeit in much lower amounts, holds for taped television shows. African-Americans and Hispanics also report more exposure than white youngsters to movies and to video games. White and black youth read more than Hispanic youth. No racial/ethnic differences emerge in use of either the computer or audio media. Finally, time exposed to television, videotapes, movies, video games, and radio is inversely related to the income level of the communities in which respondents attend school, whereas exposure to the computer is positively related to income level. Overall media exposure and exposure to most of the screen media decrease as parental education increases; print and computer use increases (not shown in Table 2).
Of course, subgroup differences in amount of exposure to different media may or may not reflect differences in how the total media diet is apportioned. For example, even though African-American youth spend almost 2 h/day more with television than do their white counterparts, at least some of the

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ROBERTS

difference could be a result of their spending almost
23 h/day more with media overall.
4
Variations in the proportion of media time given to viewing television and listening to music account for most subgroup differences in media diets.
Younger children (aged 8 through 13 years) devote a higher proportion of their media time to television viewing than do 14- through 18-year-olds (44% vs.
36%, respectively) and substantially less of their media time to radio, CDs, and tapes (17% vs. 34%).
Similarly, African-American youth devote a higher proportion of their overall media budget to television than do white youth (48% vs. 38%), and a lower proportion to music listening (18% vs. 27%). Girls devote more of their total media time to listening to music than do boys (28% vs. 20%), and less to playing video games (3% vs. 8%). Socioeconomic status is not related to media apportionment.
Given recent comments and speculation about how computers (and the Internet and World Wide
Web) are affecting young people’s media behavior, computer use warrants closer scrutiny. In this study total computer use combined youngsters’ separate estimates of time spent the previous day using a computer to play games, visit chat rooms, visit Web sites, and send E-mail, as well as for school, jobrelated, and other nonleisure tasks. The total sample spent slightly more than 0.5 h/day with the computer (21 min out of school and 13 min for school- or job-related work). That is less time than they give to the leisure use of print, radio, and CDs and tapes, and about 5.5 times less than they spend with television. Overall, computer exposure accounts for just 7% of U.S. youngsters’ total media time. Contrary to many claims, then, it appears that computers still fall well short of becoming the dominant medium among American youth.
Unlike television and audio media, however, computers fall well short of saturation. Although schools and libraries make computers available to many youngsters who do not have one at home, differences in access may still make a substantial difference in average computer time. For example, on any given day, 88% of 8- through 13-year-olds and 76% of 14through 18-year-olds watch television, whereas 48% of the younger group and 55% of the older group use a computer (either at home or in school). When just those who used computers the previous day are included in calculation of amount of computer exposure, average daily computer time rises to 1:45 h/min among the younger kids and 1:37 h/min among the older group. In other words, a substantial number of youngsters do not use computers, but

JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH Vol. 27S, No. 2

those who do spend a good deal of time with them: over three times more than the average for the total sample. Among those computer users, a few subgroup differences in total time spent with a computer emerge. Older boys devote slightly more than 20 min more daily to a computer than do older girls, and
Hispanic youngsters report more daily computer use
(2:12) than either African-American (1:46) or white
(1:35) youth, but there are no significant differences in computer time as a function of age or measure of socioeconomic status.
When the different types of computer activity are considered, it is clear that games claim the lion’s share of leisure computer time. Among computer users as well as for the entire sample, playing games consumes more time than any other leisure computer activity in almost every subgroup examined. The single exception is 14- through 18-year-old girls, who spend slightly more time in chat rooms, visiting Web sites, and sending E-mail than playing computer games. When nonrecreational computer time is added to the mix, time spent using the computer for school work exceeds that given to computer games, but only among 14- through 18-year-olds, and primarily because of older girls’ relatively low use of computer games.
To summarize highlights of the findings on exposure, U.S. 8- through 18-year-olds spend almost a third of every day exposed to media messages.
Television remains by far the dominant medium, although music media become equally important by the later adolescent years. In terms of both access and exposure, television is the medium of choice among
African-American youngsters and among youngsters from families lower in socioeconomic status. A substantial proportion of youngsters do not use a computer on any given day. However, those who do use them devote a good deal of time to them; computer users average more than 1.5 h daily on the computer. Privatization
The social context within which media exposure occurs may affect how children respond to the media they are using; e.g., comments from others may facilitate, inhibit, or otherwise guide understanding and/or acceptance of a given message. Thus, it is important to consider whether youngsters consume media alone, with other children, or with parents (or other adults). There is growing concern that many children are exposed to media largely absent any

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MEDIA AND YOUTH

Table 3. Proportion of Youngsters Who View Television
Mainly Alone, With Parents, or With Siblings or Peers
Age (y)
% Viewing Television
Mornings
Alone
With parents
With siblings/peers
Afternoons
Alone
With parents
With siblings/peers
Evenings
Alone
With parents
With siblings/peers

8 –13 a Table 4. Proportion of 7th Through 12th Graders Who
Report Using Various Screen Media Mainly Alone, With
Parents, and With Siblings or Friends
Percent Viewing or Using

14 –18 b 13

Medium

Mainly
Alone

Mainly
With Parents

Mainly With
Siblings or Friends

27
15
55
64
61
61

25
11
2
3
10
6

56
60
36
13
16
21

33%
20%
49%a

52%
16%
32%b

24%a
23%
47%a

51%b
19%
36%b

Videos
Movies
Video games
Computer games
Chat rooms
Web sites

32%
31%
46%

38%
25%
43%

Rows do not sum to 100% because questions about parents, siblings, and peers are not independent, and proportions do not include other adults with whom youngsters may have viewed media. For each part of the day within each column, proportions do not sum to 100% because youngsters may view simultaneously with parents and siblings or friends, and because this summary does not include other adults. The proportion of younger and older youngsters viewing in each social context is compared within each row; those proportions with no common superscripts differ significantly (p Ͻ .05, test for difference between independent proportions).

adult. The proliferation of personal media located in children’s bedrooms noted earlier speaks to this trend toward privatization.
The social context of youngsters’ media exposure in this study was examined in several ways. First, youngsters were asked whether they viewed television “mainly alone” or “mainly with someone else” for the entire day, and for each part of the day; those who responded “with someone else” were further asked to indicate whom (e.g., parent, sibling, peer, other relative). About one-fifth (22%) of 8- through
13-year-olds and one-third of 14- through 18-yearolds claimed that their overall daily television viewing occurred while they were “mainly alone.” Table
3 reveals that for both age groups and for each part of the day the proportion of children who view with parents is consistently the smallest. Among 8through 13-year-olds, “alone” is the second most likely social context for viewing; most of their television viewing occurs in the presence of siblings and/or peers. For 14- through 18-year-olds, however, viewing with siblings and/or peers is the second most likely social context because most adolescents view television while alone.
This pattern of relatively high solitary viewing and little co-viewing with parents receives further support from the 487 media diaries, in which youngsters recorded with whom they watched television for every half hour of viewing. These diaries indicate that 8- through 13-year-olds spend 30% and 14-

through 18-year-olds spend 41% of their total television viewing time alone. Even more striking, only 6% of the younger group’s and 2% of the older group’s television viewing occurs in the presence of a parent.
Table 4 summarizes the social context of media use for the remaining screen media (i.e., videotapes, movies, computers). Clearly, most of today’s children and adolescents experience most screen media without parental presence [other research indicates the same is true for audio media (9)].

Conclusion and Implications
Not only have we immersed today’s children in media, we appear to have created a social context for the consumption of media that leaves most children to function most of the time outside the purview of adult comment. In light of recent public concern about youth and media voiced everywhere from local parent–teacher association meetings to the halls of Congress, such privatization of children’s media exposure raises obvious and important questions concerning what underlies this trend. Perhaps it is because the media have become such a ubiquitous part of the environment. Perhaps it is because many parents do not really believe that media messages make all that much difference in their children’s lives. Perhaps it is because the multitude of demands placed on today’s parents make monitoring children’s media behavior an extremely difficult task.
Whatever the reason, it is a trend that warrants further examination. The average youth in the
United States currently spends one-third of each day exposed to media, and the majority of that exposure occurs outside of parental oversight. Anything play-

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ROBERTS

ing that much of a role in youngsters’ lives deserves close attention.

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5. Stanger JD. Television in the Home—1998: Third Annual
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