2008

• June 19, 2008; Vancouver Sun (John Mackie)

Get Smart to Bullwinkle-Are you what you watched?...Stewart is a PhD student in education at Simon Fraser University. She has studied the effect of TV on children, but says she’s leery of attempting to draw any direct correlation between what you watch as a kid and how you behave as an adult.

“That’s one of those direct cause-and-effect type of questions that are always popular with people, and I’ve tried to steer away from that,” said Stewart, 35…

2007

• Feb. 28, 2007; Burnaby Now

‘Detectives’ explore modern media lessons... Kym Stewart wants children to look at the things they’ve seen hundreds – maybe thousands – of times before in a whole new light.Stewart is hoping her research in media education will help youngsters become “media detectives,” putting everything from the cheerful mascots of fast-food chains and the ubiquitous logo on a pair of sneakers, to the music in a cereal ad and the soda can inconspicuously placed in a movie, under a magnifying glass….

2005

• April 26, 2005, Press Release; SFU

Idea: Turning off the tube…April 25 to May 1 is TV Turnoff Week, when North Americans are challenged to give up their TV habit cold-turkey. SFU associate communication professor Richard Smith can comment on the event, including the recent introduction of the TV-B-GONE, a key-chain remote control capable of turning off virtually any television with the touch of a button. Education researcher Kym Stewart can talk about a six-week Tune Out campaign at a local school which aims to help students examine the impact of media on their lives.

2003

• Monday October 13, 2003; Vancouver Sun

Children’s Health at Risk… Four-year-old Tayme gives her mom Kym Stewart a hand preparing dinner for the family instead of watching television. Stewart and a team of researchers recently developed a media education curriculum and introduced it to four North Vancouver schools. After years of studying how television can negatively affect children, Simon Fraser University researcher Kym Stewart decided not to have a television in her own home once she had a child.

• Oct 14, 2003, Press Release; SFU News

Tuning out the screens project aims for safer, healthier kids

School bullying and childhood obesity are becoming epidemic. SFU communication professor Stephen Kline says children’s lives could be safer and healthier if the risks associated with TV watching, Internet use and video games were reduced.

• Nov 13, 2003, (Vol. 28, No.6); SFU News

Team aims to reduce risks of TV watching, video games

The final week’s challenge allowed students to choose from making no change to going, cold turkey, screen free. Students planned alternative events and kept diaries to chart their success. Graduate student Kym Stewart, who has conducted previous studies on the effects of video games on children, says students were encouraged to explore how they use media and consider alternatives.

2001

• June 14, 2001, (Vol . 21, No. 4); SFU News

Teens want entertainment from Internet

A recent survey of 728 B.C. teens found they spend more than one-third of their time using media, much of it with two or more media sources in their own bedrooms. Media includes everything from telephones and TV to the Internet.