Christine Bachen

Santa Clara University | SCU · Department of Communication

Digital simulations are increasingly used to educate about the causes and effects of poverty, and inspire action to alleviate it. Drawing on research about attributions of poverty, subjective well-being, and relative income, this experimental study assesses the effects of an online poverty simulation (entitled Spent) on participants’ beliefs, attit...

This study develops and tests an integrated model of how three psychological variables, presence, flow, and character identification contribute to interest in learning and empathy with people from other cultures through a simulation game. U.S. college students played one of two roles (an American journalist or Haitian survivor) in the game that dea...

Digital games and simulations (DG&S) could help mitigate inequities in civic education and participation, which are found in many contemporary democracies. Yet incorporating DG&S into the curriculum may reinforce or introduce inequities for students who are less engaged by game-based learning. A quasi-experimental study of 301 U.S. high school stud...

Flow theory offers an individualistic explanation of media enjoyment, while cooperative learning theory posits a social explanation for enhanced learning in groups. This classroom-based experimental study examines whether game players can experience both conditions and the influence of each on several types of civic knowledge, skills, and dispositi...

In response to an increasingly interdependent world, educators are demonstrating a growing interest in educating for global citizenship. Many definitions of the “good global citizen” value empathy as an especially important disposition for understanding others across national borders and cultural divides. Yet it may be difficult for people to a...

Flow theory has had a major influence on game scholars’ and designers’ understanding of the psychology of enjoyment of digital games and how that enjoyment might contribute to learning. However, a fuller understanding of how flow is experienced in social play is needed because digital games are increasingly played in groups, because theories of gam...

Scholars, educators, and media designers are increasingly interested in whether and how digital games might contribute to civic learning. However, there are three main barriers to advancing understanding of games’ potential for civic education: the current practices of formal schooling, a dearth of evidence about what kinds of games best inspire le...

Scholars of political socialization are paying increasing attention to how the Internet might help cure the civic disengagement of youth. This content analysis of a sample of 73 U.S.-based civic Web sites for youth introduces a framework for evaluating Web sites' strategies for fostering active communication for citizenship. We offer the first syst...

This study reports a content analysis of 35 World Wide Web sites that included in their mission the goal of engaging girls with information and communication technology (ICT). It finds that sites emphasize cultural and economic uses of ICT, doing little to foster civic applications that could empower girls as citizens of the information age. The st...

Although some observed differences in males' and females' attitudes toward and uses of computers appear to be narrowing, the gender gap remains widest in relation to programming and software design, which are still male preserves. In response, software and Web site designers have applied feminist theories to develop three distinct approaches to cre...

This article details an investigation of the relationship between the race or ethnicity of broadcast station license-holders and the contribution those stations make to diversity of news and public affairs programming. Several federal policies favoring minority ownership of broadcast licenses assumed such a relationship yet empirical evidence of th...

This study investigates whether students’ assessments of male and female professors are influenced by traditional gender schema. Nearly 500 university students were surveyed about their perceptions of male and female faculty. Analysis of five factors reflecting teaching characteristics consistent with both stereotypically masculine and feminine tra...

In 1990, Channel One, the 12-minute commercial news program for schoolchildren, was launched into middle and high schools across the United States. This article analyzes research investigating the alleged benefits of Channel One—the technology, student learning of current events, increased student interest in the news—and the major cost—the adverti...

-This article examines the underlying cognitive structures, specifically visual and event schemata, and the meanings associated with these structures that form children's cultural models, or what they think of as typical and ideal in romance. The study shows that long before it translates into actual behavior, children's romantic imagination shaped...

How does television affect children's reading skill development? The relationship between television behavior and reading achievement is examined within a conceptual framework of television and reading constructs such as media availability and parental media behavior, children's use of print and broadcast media, and measures of their attitudes and...

A study was undertaken to explore the processes underlying the relationship between television viewing and reading achievement. Subjects were 580 second, third, and sixth grade students from nine schools in four different geographical regions in order to provide a cross-section of students in terms of socioeconomic status (SES), urban/rural environ...