The Missing Middle - Reimagining a Future for Tweens, Teens, and Public Media

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Damian

The Missing Middle examines how young people ages 10–17, especially Gen Z youth, navigate an oversaturated media environment while seeking high-quality content they can trust. Drawing on interviews, the report builds a knowledge base for By/With/For Youth, a partnership between the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It analyzes pandemic influences, diversity and stereotype concerns, and how young people interpret a complex media ecosystem, including limitations in public media resonance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages52

Reading Time2 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Foreword

Who is the missing middle?

Executive Summary

Introduction

How the pandemic informed this research

Youth notice when they see a lack of diversity

Staying away from stereotypes

Creating media content can help address gaps

Commenting culture

Making sense of a messy media ecosystem

Public media generally doesn’t play a role

Why public media might not resonate for some

References

Appendix: Study Design & Methods

The Missing Middle Reimagining a Future for Tweens, Teens, and Public Media Monica Bulger Spring 2021 Mary Madden Kiley Sobel Patrick Davison The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop The Corporation for Public Broadcasting About the AuthorS Monica Bulger is a Senior Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. She studies youth and family media literacy practices and advises policy globally. She has consulted on child online protection for UNICEF since 2012, and her research encompasses 16 countries in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, South America, North America, and Europe. Bulger is an Affiliate of the Data & Society Research Institute in New York City, where she led the Connected Learning initiative. Monica holds a PhD in education and was a Research Fellow atthe Oxford Internet Institute and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Mary Madden is a Senior Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and an Affiliate of the Data & Society Research Institute in New York City. She is a veteran researcher, writer, and expert on digital privacy and trends in youth media use. Prior to joining the Cooney Center, she directed an initiative at Data & Society to explore the effects of data-centric systemson Americans’ health and well-being and led studies of youth media practices and digital inequality. Madden holds an M.A. in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University and was previously a Senior Researcher for the Pew Research Center and an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. KileySobel is a Research Scientist at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, where she uses her background in human-computer interaction, human-centered design, child development, disability studies, and the learning sciences to focus on the responsible, inclusive, and equitable design of emerging technologies and new media for children. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles at top conferences, namely the ACM CHI Conference, and authored Cooney Center reports, such as Immersive Media and Child Development and Learning Across Boundaries: How Libraries Are Bridging Children’s Interests. Sobel also holds an Affiliate Assistant Professor position at the University of Washington’s Information School. Patrick Davison is the Program Manager for Research Production and Editorial at Data & Society Research Institute. He holds a PhD from New York University’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, and his research is on the relationship between networked media and culture. SuggeSted citAtion Bulger, M., Madden, M., Sobel, K., & Davison, P. (2021) . The missing middle: Reimagining a future for tweens, teens, and public media. Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. The missing middle: Reimagining a future for tweens, teens, and public media 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](from www.joanganzcooneycenter.org). AcknowledgmentS We would like to thank the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for its generous support of this work. We are grateful to all our youth participants from across the country who shared their time and thoughts with us—often after long days of online learning. We also thank our generous colleagues who helped with the recruitment of youth participants: Mary Lyons, Amy Ramos, Anna Faulkner, Beth Rosenburg, Colleen Hale, Cris Mercado, Emily Gage, Ethan Gray Jason Yip, Jerelyn Rodriguez, Jessye Herrell, Kim Fairchild, Kim Nesmith, Kung Jin Lee, and Robert Gallant. In addition, the authors are deeply grateful for the collaboration and invaluable input from our Research Advisory Board as well as our thought partners atthe Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Michael Preston

FAQs

What does the report mean by the “missing middle” demographic?

It refers to young people ages 10 to 17 who are part of Gen Z—living in an oversaturated media environment while still looking for high-quality content they can trust.

How does the report connect to the By/With/For Youth partnership?

It uses interviews to establish a knowledge base for By/With/For Youth, an ongoing partnership between the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Which major topics does the introduction address?

The introduction covers how the pandemic informed the research, youth noticing diversity gaps and stereotypes, and how young people make sense of a complex media ecosystem, including why public media may not resonate for some.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Damian