Research Brief - Content and Platform Innovation with Youth - Mary Madden & Elizabeth Rood & Josanne Buchanan

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Damian

Research Brief focusing on content and platform innovation with youth from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. It summarizes existing project research on youth perspectives and argues that young people can be invaluable partners in digital production, distribution, and experimentation. The brief highlights key takeaways from conversations with 50 middle and high school youth, including how stereotypes arise when adults design without youth input and why representation, authenticity, and diverse cultural and LGBTQ perspectives matter for lasting programming decisions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

About the Authors

Suggested Citation

Youth Perspectives on Content Gaps

Stereotypes Signal a Disconnect

Representation Really Matters

ReseaRch BRief Content and Platform Innovation with Youth Mary Madden Summer 2022 Elizabeth Rood Josanne Buchanan The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop This research was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of the By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences project. aBout the authoRs Mary Madden Mary Madden is a veteran researcher, writer, and nationally recognized expert on privacy and technology, trends in social media use, and the impact of digital media on teens and parents. She is an affiliate at the Data & Society Research Institute in New York City, where she recently directed an initiative to explore the effects of data-centric systems on Americans’ health and well-being and led several studies examining the intersection of privacy and digital inequality. Mary has been a senior researcher for the Pew Research Center’s Internet, Science & Technology team in Washington, DC and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Elizabeth Rood, EdD Elizabeth Rood is an education adviser, researcher, and writer with expertise in youth development, learning, and participatory program design. She is the founder and principal of Learning Designs Consulting, which provides advisory services in educational media and experiential learning. She has served as vice president of education at the Bay Area Discovery Museum and director of the Center for Childhood Creativity, the research arm of the museum. Elizabeth has a background in formal urban education, as a teacher, principal, and leadership coach in San Francisco public schools. She currently serves asthe national vice president of the Children’s Media Association, a professional organization connecting people in a wide range of kids’ media and technology industries. Josanne Buchanan Josanne Buchanan is a children’s media and psychology researcher who leverages high-quality arts and science research to support content creators in developing excellent children’s media. Josanne has several years of experience developing educational digital media, consulting with media industry leaders, conducting user research, and working directly with children in the nonprofit sector. Situated at the nexus between psychology and the screen, Josanne’s research and consulting roles provide industry leaders with insights that help them develop content that promotes diversity, inclusion, and prosocial learning. Her commitment to ensuring that all children see themselves fully represented on screen fuels her work supporting producers, game-developers, curriculum specialists, and more. suggested citation Madden, M., Rood, E., & Buchanan, J. (2022) . Content and platform innovation with youth. Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. This report is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. A full-text PDF of this publication is available as a free [download from www.joanganzcooneycenter.org](download from www.joanganzcooneycenter.org). The first two briefs in this series addressed the benefits and challenges of various youth-adult collaboration models and the need to understand youth, including their media behaviors and preferences, as public media organizations design approaches to working by/with/for youth. This brief provides an overview of existing project research about youth perspectives on content and platform innovation. When it comes to digital content production, distribution, and experimentation, youth can be invaluable partners in this process. As creatorsand consumers of digital culture, they are often at the leading edges of technological trends. Even as they may still be developing the skills needed to navigate these complex media ecosystems, they have valuable content and platform-specific expertise to share. Within the commercial entertainment industry, youth have long been positioned as bellwethers of emerging audience

FAQs

What is the focus of this research brief?

The brief provides an overview of existing project research on youth perspectives regarding content and platform innovation, emphasizing how public media can respond to content gaps.

How do youth describe the problem when adults create content without youth input?

Youth report that such content can feel disconnected and may perpetuate stereotypes or seem out of touch, because youth are used to having control over how and when they express themselves online.

Why does representation matter for youth audiences?

Youth want stories that include kids like them and reflect the diversity they see in their generation; authenticity depends on integrating perspectives from tweens and teens with different backgrounds.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Damian