Abstract
Consensus about the influence and significance of the media in children's lives is precluded by the fact that research into children's relationships with the media is conducted within various models of childhood, paradigms and research approaches, each generating specific — sometimes mutually-exclusive — research questions and answers. This article assesses the potential for political action concerning children and the media that is offered by the paradigms (structural, humanist and interactionist) and research approaches (essentialist and non-essentialist) that dominate much contemporary research on children and media, illustrating each one's use in recently published research. The article poses a new ‘localised’ research perspective on the topic, in which researchers and research subjects co-author ‘little narratives' about media products. These ‘little narratives' embody different — often competing — local desires and understandings, generate new questions and create new rules for discussing children's relationships with the media.