Public media has the potential to play a powerful role in the media landscape for tweens and teens. With the By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences project, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted focus group interviews with tweens and teens across the country in order to better understand how young people are engaging with…

Public media has the potential to play a powerful role in the media landscape for tweens and teens. With the By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences project, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted focus group interviews with tweens and teens across the country in order to better understand how young people are engaging with…

This brief is the first of a series of applied research briefs that focus on specific challenges and opportunities public media faces in its approaches to youth content and engagement. Drawing from priorities surfaced through focus group interviews with youth across the country, these briefs highlight recent research and public discussions about…

In July 2020, Dr. Brigid Barron and her team at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center convened a virtual workshop to mobilize a community of investigators to explore innovative methods for studying family and community learning during the pandemic. Participants included research teams from Stanford…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have partnered to better understand how young people are engaging with media today in order to help public media better serve Gen Z. As part of our By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences, we spoke with tweens and teens across the U.S. about how they spend…

When "Sesame Street" launched in 1969, it was the first show to attempt to teach young children school-readiness skills with catchy songs and playful Muppets. Not only did it revolutionize the children's media landscape, the program sparked a love of learning among generations of children all over the world. For "Revisiting the…

The aim of the Families Learning Across Boundaries Project (FamLAB) is to create an ecosystem that can enable and encourage young children's interest-driven learning across settings. With this in mind, the authors surveyed 407 professionals working in libraries--including librarians, media specialists, circulation managers, directors, and outreach…

The tween and teen years are critical as youth explore and begin to form their identities. With "By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences," the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame workshop and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting seek to more deeply understand the current media habits of tweens and teens in order to…

Parents and caregivers are a child's first teachers. The Families Learning Across Boundaries (FamLAB) Project surveyed 407 library professionals, 1,550 parents, and 600 pre-K through grade 8 teachers in the United States about how they support 3-12-year-old children's learning in their communities. This two-page tipsheet provides some…

Libraries are learning hubs that connect families to free resources, activities, and services to cultivate children's learning about topics that excite them. Despite recent technological developments which have revolutionized how we read and access information, libraries continue to evolve in order to serve their communities, especially families…

Public media stations play a powerful part in connecting families with broadcast and digital resources, local activities, and events that inspire children to learn about the topics that excite them most. The Families Learning Across Boundaries (FamLAB) Project surveyed more than 400 library professionals, 1,550 parents, and 600 pre-K through grade…

Teachers do much more than instruct children in the classroom. They also play an important role in supporting learning across settings: at school, home, and throughout the community. The Families Learning Across Boundaries (FamLAB) Project surveyed 407 library professionals, 1,550 parents, and 600 pre-K through grade 8 teachers in the United…

In 1966, Joan Ganz Cooney was a documentary producer at Channel 13 when Lloyd Morrisett, then Vice President at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, offered her an opportunity that would change the landscape of children's media forever. The Carnegie Corporation provided funding for a three-month study during which Joan traveled the country to…

What do we know about immersive media--virtual, augmented, mixed, and cross realities (VR, AR, MR, and XR)--and young children? So far, designers, developers, and media producers have been focusing on creating hardware, software, and content for and conducting studies with adolescents and adults--but children find these technologies incredibly…

This report presents findings from separate surveys of 1,550 U.S. parents and 600 pre-K-8 teachers on whether, to what extent, and how U.S. children ages 3-12 are linking their learning experiences across home, school, and community settings. The inquiry paid particular attention to the ways in which caregivers and teachers support and, in some…