Executive Summary

The purpose of this media content analysis is to analyze the coverage Canadian newspapers assign to issues concerning the Internet and its effects on children and families. The content analysis also seeks to provide data in comparison to a recent study by The Annenberg Public Policy Center on press coverage of the Internet and families in the U.S.. Canadian Children In A Wired World: The Parents' View, is a project of the Media Awareness Network. Data collection was done by Environics Research Group. One of the findings was that of all the parents surveyed, only 15 per cent felt that their views regarding Internet issues are influenced by the media. This tendency increases among less affluent parents and those parents who consider themselves to be Internet beginners.

The content analysis focused on articles found in eight major daily Canadian newspapers, chosen for their geographic representation. General content issues were examined, with emphasis on identifying the possible benefits and problems associated with the Internet. Possible benefits included educational value, social value, electronic democracy, e-commerce uses and recreation/entertainment value. Identified problems were classified as pornography, child pornography, hate literature, other Internet crimes, privacy violations, marketing aimed at children, health issues, gambling, auctioning and a lack of francophone content. Articles that questioned the value of technology, provided guides and tip sheets, or discussed Internet uses and participation were coded as well.

Generally speaking, messages about the Internet presented to parents by the Canadian press are mixed, although more articles focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects of the Internet.

• Overall, the press presented the Internet as a place where more problems (almost 60 per cent) than benefits (almost 40 per cent) existed.
  
  
• Specific problem topics included child pornography (31 per cent), crime (13 per cent), and pornography in general (13 per cent).
  
  
• The benefits of the Internet described in the articles included educational value (43 per cent), social uses (29 per cent), and e-commerce benefits (17 per cent). Only eight per cent of articles talked about the Internet in terms of recreation or entertainment.
  
  
• Problems associated with privacy (11 per cent), marketing to children (nine per cent) and hate sites (eight per cent) received little coverage.
  
  
• Only six per cent of the articles questioned the value of the Internet, examining its use by children and within schools in a critical light.
  
  
• Only ten per cent of the articles provided Internet resource guides or tip sheets for families.
  
  
• Only five per cent of the articles critically examined Internet use in terms of online participation by children and young people, and access gap ("digital divide") issues.
  
  
• Only two per cent of articles mentioned the lack of francophone content on the Internet as a problem. However, it should be noted that only one francophone newspaper was coded in the study.
  
  
• The articles were most likely to quote industry sources (24 per cent). Educators (15 per cent), youth (13 per cent) and parents (12 per cent) were the most cited non-industry groups. Government, law enforcement, and public interest groups/media educators were cited with equal frequency (about nine per cent).
  
  
• Articles were found most often in the news section of the newspaper (43 per cent), while the business section ranked second (16 per cent). Technology supplements (13 per cent) were also home to Internet-related articles, and often these were attached to the business sections of newspapers.

Suggestions for reorienting newspaper coverage of the Internet as it relates to children and families include:

• Although the majority of articles urged parents to become more Internet-literate, greater coverage could be devoted to informational articles that pragmatically educate parents on safe Internet use.
  
  
• More coverage could be allocated to critical analysis of the role that Internet technology plays in the everyday lives of children and young people. Articles could address issues such as the commercialization of Web content directed towards children. In addition, more youth, educators, and public interest groups/media educators could be consulted.
  
  
• Privacy issues could be examined more critically - especially online marketing practices that involve collecting personal information from children.
  
  
• Access issues, such as the Canadian "digital divide", are scarcely mentioned in the media. More nuanced debates on the realities of the "digital divide" in Canada, and various government and community efforts to bridge this access gap could be explored.
  
  
• Rather than focusing solely on the controversies surrounding the decision to install filtering software on public computers, the media could contribute more thoughtful coverage on the complexities of filtering software, and the role that public libraries and librarians play in our knowledge-based economy.

The overall media culture of children is not adequately explored. The media largely tends to present unsavory Internet content as something divorced from the overall media culture when in fact, the sexualization and tabloidization of popular culture has become commenplace.