Profile

Kathryn Montgomery

Professor
Communication, School of

  • Kathryn Montgomery teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Public Communication Division and in AU’s Undergraduate Honors Program. Her classes have included: Principles of Strategic Communication, Entertainment Communication, Communication Research, Media Criticism and Media Culture in the Digital Age. From 1991-2003, she was President of the nonprofit Center for Media Education. Her leadership as a policy advocate during the 1990s led to passage of the first federal legislation to protect children's privacy on the Internet—the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Montgomery is a contributing scholar to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation initiative on Digital Media and Learning and author of Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (MIT Press, 2007).

  • OFFICE

  • SOC - School of Communication
  • Mary Graydon - 330L

  • CONTACT INFO

  • (202) 885-2680
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  • MEDIA RELATIONS

  • To request an interview
    please call AU Media Relations
    at 202-885-5950 or
    submit an interview request form.

Teaching

  • Fall 2009

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Research Interests

  • How children are using new digital media
  • Current policy debates over issues such as privacy, intellectual property, network neutrality, and marketing
  • Ways in which youth are using the Internet to engage in the political process
  • Recent trends in interactive marketing
  • Entertainment media and media criticism

Grants and Sponsored Research

  • “Policy and Practice in Digital Marketing of Food and Beverages to Children.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research initiative. 2008-2010.
  • “Digital Marketing of Alcohol and Tobacco.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Substance Abuse Policy Research Program. 2008-2009.
  • “E-Citizens: Youth and the Future of Democratic Media in the Digital Age.” Ford Foundation.  2003-2005.
  • “Youth as Online Actors for Digital Media Policy and Civic Engagement.” Surdna Foundation.  2003-2004.
  • “Youth as E-Citizens: the Internet and Youth Civic Engagement.” Center for Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).  2002-2003. 

 

Media Appearances

Selected Publications

  • Books:
  • Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007).
  • Target: Prime Time.  Advocacy Groups and the Struggle Over Entertainment Television.  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
  • Articles, Reports, and Chapters:
  • “Creating a Media Policy Agenda for the Digital Generation,” Amit M. Schejter, Ed., …And Communications for All: A Policy Agenda for the New Administration. (Lexington Books: Lanham, MD, 2008).
  • “Youth and Digital Democracy: Intersections of Practice, Policy, and the Marketplace,” W. Lance Bennett, Ed., Civic Life Online. (MIT Press, 2007).
  • Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age. (Berkeley Media Studies Group, May 2007).
  • “Food Marketing to Children in the New Digital Marketing Ecosystem,” Karin M. Ekstrom and Brigitte Tufte, Eds., Children, Media and Consumption. On the Front Edge.  (Nordicom, 2007). 
  • “Media Education in the United States: Stakeholder Groups, Issues, and Trends,” (UNESCO, 2007).
  • “Youth as E-Citizens: The Internet’s Contribution to Civic Engagement,” David Buckingham and Rebekah Willett, Eds., Digital Generations: Children, Young People, and New Media. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006).
  • “Advocating Children’s Television,” J. Alison Bryant and Jennings Bryant, Eds., The Children’s Television Community: Institutional, Critical, Social Systems, and Network Analyses. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006).
  • “Censorship Regimes and Content Parameters in the U.S.,” Douglas Gomery and Luke Hockley, Eds., Television Industries. (British Film Institute, 2006).

Professional Presentations

  • Keynote Speaker: “The Brave New World of Interactive Marketing.” Healthy Eating Research 3rd Annual Grantee Meeting, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. St. Paul Minnesota, October 15-17, 2008.
  • Paper: “Media Policies for Children and Youth in the Next Presidential Administration,” Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association. San Diego, California, November 22, 2008.
  • Paper: “Creating a Media Policy Agenda for the Digital Generation,” Telecommunications Policy Research Annual Conference. George Mason University Law School, September 26, 2008.
  • Keynote Speaker: NPLAN/BMSG Meeting on Digital Media and Marketing to Children, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Berkeley, California, July 21-22, 2008.
  • Paper: “Trends and Issues in Digital Marketing,” Invitational Scholarly Panel on “The Impact of the Commercial World on Children’s Well-Being,” sponsored by the UK Government’s Department of Children, Schools and Families. London, England, July 8, 2008.
  • Panel Moderator: “Communications Scholars as Public Intellectuals: Challenges and Responsibilities,” International Communication Association Annual Conference. Montreal, Canada, May 24, 2008.
  • Keynote Speaker: “Promoting the Interests of Young People in the Global Media and Marketing Ecosystem,” Child as a Consumer Seminar, Ombudsman for Children in Finland. Helsinki, Finland, May 13, 2008.
  • Presenter: “Meeting in MySpace: Promise and Peril in the New Online Social Networks.” Students and Electronic Media: Teaching in the Technological Age.  Future of Children.  Princeton University. Princeton, New Jersey, May 2, 2008.
  • Paper: “Digital Communications at a Crossroads: Promoting Social Justice, Democratic Participation and Youth Civic Engagement in the Broadband Era,” Media Democracy Fund, Open Society Institute. New York, New York, December 3, 2007.
  • Invited Participant: “Youth Civic Engagement Scholars Project,” John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Initiative on Digital Media and Learning, University of Washington. Seattle, Washington, May 30-31, 2006.

Executive Experience

  • President and Co-Founder, Center for Media Education. Washington, D.C. 1991-2003.

AU Expert

Area of Expertise: Children and media, media policy, media criticism, Internet and youth, entertainment media, media and politics, online marketing

Additional Information: Kathryn C. Montgomeryis a well-known media scholar and leading public policy advocate. Her recent book,Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (MIT Press, 2007), explores the myriad ways that young people are engaged with digital media—from instant messaging, to cell phones, to MySpace and YouTube—and the profound influence these technologies have in their daily lives. The book also addresses a range of key public policy debates about children and media, documenting several major disputes during the 1990s and offering analysis of critical issues such as Internet pornography, television violence and commercialization. Before her move to Washington, D.C., Montgomery was a professor of film and television at UCLA. Her book Target: Prime Time: Advocacy Groups and the Struggle Over Entertainment Television(Oxford University Press, 1989) was a groundbreaking history of the relationship between interest groups and network television. In 1991, she cofounded the Center for Media Education (CME). As president of CME, a role she held until 2003, Montgomery played a lead role in promoting media policies to benefit children and youth. Montgomery's research and policy efforts in e-commerce and electronic privacy led Congress to pass the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 1998. At AU, Montgomery directs the Youth, Media, and Democracy project through the School of Communication's Center for Social Media. The project's 2004 report, "Youth as E-Citizens," was the first major study to examine the ways in which young people use the Internet for civic and political engagement. Montgomery was also coauthor of a recent report on interactive food and beverage marketing (available at http://digitalads.org) that documents the variety of new techniques advertisers use to reach children and adolescents.

Media Relations
To request an interview please call AU Media Relations at 202-885-5950 or submit an interview request form.

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