Donald F. Roberts (born March 30, 1939) is the Thomas More Storke Professor Emeritus in Communication at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Roberts studied at Columbia University, where he received his B.A. in 1961, at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned an M.A. in 1963, and at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1968 and joined the Stanford faculty at that time. At Stanford, he was Director of the Institute for Communication Research (1985–1990 and 1999–2001), and chair of the Department of Communication (1990–1996). He retired in 2006.Communication Faculty: Donald F. Roberts
. Much of Roberts' research concerns the effects of media on youth. A notable study coauthored by Roberts and Ulla Foehr for the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, at the turn of the millennium, U.S. children spent the equivalent amount of time to a full-time job watching television and other media, and a later follow-on study by Roberts and others coined the name " Generation M" for the youth of the day after discovering that they were packing even more media into their schedules by multitasking. Roberts also studied depictions of drug use and violence in media, and took part in 1997 U.S. Senate hearings on violent music lyrics. Roberts' research provided the foundation for the content rating systems of the

Recreational Software Advisory Council The Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) was an independent, non-profit organization founded in the U.S. in 1994 by the Software Publishers Association as well as six other industry leaders in response to video game controversy and threats ...

, of which he was a board member, and its successor organization the

Internet Content Rating Association Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) was an international non-profit organization with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. In October 2010, the ICRA rating system, and the organization, was discontinued. Its mission was to h ...

.Internet Content Rating Association Formed to Provide Global System for Protecting Children and Free Speech on the Internet: AOL, IBM, Microsoft and Recreational Software Advisory Council Join Forces with Other Global Organizations to Create and Manage International Online Rating System
. Microsoft, May 12, 1999. Roberts also served as the psychological and educational consultant for the television series

He-Man He-Man is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the sword and planet ''Masters of the Universe'' franchise, which includes a toy line, several animated television series, comic books and a feature film. He-Man is characterized by h ...

Books

* ''The Process and Effects of Mass Communication'' (with Wilbur Schramm). University of Illinois Press, 1971, . * ''It's Not Only Rock & Roll: Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents'' (with Peter G. Christenson). Hampton Press, 1998, . * ''Substance Use in Popular Music Videos'', Diane Publishing Co., 2001, . * ''Kids and Media in America: Patterns of Use at the Millennium'' (with Ulla G. Foehr). Cambridge University Press, 2003, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Donald F. 1939 births Living people Mass media theorists Columbia College (New York) alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Stanford University alumni Stanford University Department of Communication faculty