David Buckingham

David Buckingham is an academic who specialises in examing the relationship between media and children.

Buckingham is Director of the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, which is based at the London Knowledge Lab, part of the Institute of Education, University of London.

He is an advisor to two food/advertising/toy industry front groups.

Biographical Information

History

Buckingham pioneered the development of research in media education in the UK, and has played a major role in the application of cultural studies approaches to analysing children's and young people's interactions with television and electronic media. He has directed more than 20 externally-funded research projects on these issues, funded by bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Arts Council of England, the European Commission and the Gulbenkian, Spencer and Nuffield Foundations. He has been a consultant for UNESCO, the United Nations, Ofcom and the Institute for Public Policy Research. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School for Communications, University of Pennsylvania, a Visiting Professor at New York University, and a Visiting Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research.

Current activities

Buckingham is Chair of the panel assessing the impact of the commercial world on children as part of The Children's Plan (DCSF), report due in March 2009. Also on the panel are Sonia Livingstone and Brian Young.

In January 2009 the Advertising Association's report entitled "Children's wellbeing in a commercial world" was published. This report was produced for the panel of academics appointed by the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCFS) to examine the impacts of the commercial world on children's wellbeing. The report concluded that, " there was no evidence of a decline on children's overall wellbeing, nor that the net impact of the commercial world has been negative over the past fifteen years. Indeed it finds plenty of evidence that aspects of the commercial world enhance the wellbeing of children.".

Affiliations

• Member of Mediasmart expert group

• Member of the Advertising Education Forum, Academic Network

In reply to a FOI inquiry in January 2009 regarding his membership of the AEF, the University of London replied,

"Is David Buckingham a member of the AEF academic network as is claimed on the AEF site? - Yes

What are the dates of his membership? Approximately 5 years

Is he paid in cash or kind? -Neither

He did a presentation)in an expert debate organised by the AEF in 2004."

Publications, Contact, Resources and Notes

Publications

• 2004 - Young People, Sex and the Media; The Facts of Life?,D. Buckingham and Sara Bragg, Palgrave Macmillan
• 2003 - Media Education: Literacy, Learning and Contemporary Culture,D. Buckingham 2003, Polity
• 2002 - Education, Entertainment and Learning in the Home,D. Buckingham and Margaret Scanlon 2002, Open University
• 2002 - Small Screens: Television for Children, D. Buckingham 2002, (editor)Leicester University
• 2000 After the Death of Childhood; Growing Up in the Age of Electronic Media, D. Buckingham 2000, Polity
• 2000 - The Making of Citizens: Young People, News and Politics, D. Buckingham, Routledge

Contact

Address:

London Knowledge Lab,Institute of Education, University of London, 23-29 Emerald Street, London, WC1N 3QS

Phone:+44 (0)20 7763 2180

Email: d.buckingham@ioe.ac.uk

Website: