The invisible children of media research

The Journal of Children and Media (JOCAM) provides an important home for scholars who focus on children and adolescents. It is committed to publishing research from underrepresented countries. Despite this commitment, however, much of what is published in JOCAM, as well as in other youth-focused journals, draws its samples from so-called WEIRD settings (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). Moreover, research on children, adolescents and media (CAM) often fails to recognize children who are at the margins of society because they are poor, housing insecure, or living with disability. In this commentary we examine the invisible children of CAM research and explore why their experiences remain largely unexamined. We highlight the barriers to conducting research with these particularly vulnerable populations, and we suggest opportunities for reducing such barriers. We conclude by arguing that it is our moral and ethical duty to do our best to represent the role of media within the diverse experiences of childhood.