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Biographical Sketch
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Karen Sternheimer is the author of Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions About Today’s Youth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) and It’s Not the Media: The Truth About Pop Culture’s Influence on Children (Westview Press, 2003).
She currently teaches in the sociology department at the University of Southern California, where her research focuses on issues related to popular culture and youth. Specific topics of inquiry have included concerns about youth violence, kidnapping, substance use, child obesity, teen driving, and fears about the effects of media on children. Her current research projects involve a study of youth in urban Los Angeles, as well as a study of American celebrity culture.
Her commentary has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the San Jose Mercury News, and other newspapers around the country. Sternheimer is also a sought-out source for journalists around the world, and has been interviewed for scores of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Variety, Child, and Ladies’ Home Journal, as well as for publications in China, Japan, and South America.
In addition, she has provided commentary for CNN, The O’Reilly Factor, MSNBC, The History Channel and other televised programs, and has been a guest on numerous radio shows nationally and internationally, including NPR’s Marketplace, Bloomberg radio and Voice of America. She is also the editor and lead writer for everydaysociologyblog.com.
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Education
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 Ph.D. Sociology, University of Southern California, 8/1998
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Description of Research
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Summary Statement of Research Interests
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Karen Sternheimer is currently working on a study of American celebrity culture. In addition, she is working with Elaine Bell Kaplan on a study of urban teens'in Los Angeles.
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Research Keywords
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Youth, popular culture, media, celebrity, teens, social problems and childhood, consumption, video games, fears of youth and media.
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Publications
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Book
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Sternheimer, K. E.
(2006).
Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions about Today's Youth. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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Sternheimer, K. E.
(2003).
It's Not the Media: The Truth about Pop Culture's Influence on Children. Boulder, CO: It's Not the Media: The Truth about Pop Culture's Influence on Children/Westview Press.
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Journal Article
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Sternheimer, K. E.
(2007).
Do Video Games Kill?. Contexts: Understanding People in Their Social Worlds/American Sociological Association.
Vol. 6 (1), pp. 13-17.
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Service to the Profession
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Professional Memberships
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Pacific Sociological Association, 1995-
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American Sociological Association, 1993-
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