The Pathological Representation of New Media in Family Studies (a Meta-Analysis of Articles Regarding the Effect of New Media on Family)

Abstract

The increasing in the use of new media has attracted scholars’ attention to the relationship between those technologies and variant aspects of everyday life and a great number of contradictory perspectives have been postulated regarding implications of new media technologies in relation to families. In our society, the growing use of modern media has also led to significant studies of the impact of these media on families. In this study, we formulate diverse views on the effects of new media on families grounded in three approaches, namely pathological, positive effects and the complexity of effects approach, and consequently, published articles during last decade (2006-2016) were investigated. By utilizing meta-analysis as research method, the articles were scrutinized from various aspects such as theoretical approaches, methodology, research variables and findings. The findings indicated that those articles were mostly focused on pathological approach, and new media was represented as a harmful media. What is more, the complexity of new media effects, the role of variables and mediator factors as well as the role of families in acceptance or rejection of media, and controlling their effects have been overlooked. In this way, a passive image of family’s exposure to such media has been revealed. Ultimately, some suggestions on how to apply substantive theories, specifically in the field of family, mixed methods and longitudinal studies were offered. Moreover, paying serious attention to the influence mechanisms and mediator variables was accentuated in order to grasp the mutual relationship between new media and divergent facets of family.

Keywords

• "new media"
• "family"
• "meta-analysis"
• " complexity of effects"