Television's Impact on Children and Adolescents: A Special Interest Resource Guide in Education

116 Pages·1981·8.227 MB·English

by  Sara Lake

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l^levision’s impact
on Children
and Adolescents

l^levision’s impact
on Children
and Adolescents
A Special
Interest Resource Guide
in Education
Compiled by Sara Lake,
San Mateo Educational Resources Center
ORYX PRESS
1981
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Copyright © 1981 by The Oryx Press
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Phoenix, AZ 85004
Published simultaneously in Canada
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The abstracts indicated throughout this Resource Guide by an asterisk after
the title are published with permission of University Microfilms International,
publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright © 1981 by
University Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their
prior permission.
The abstracts indicated throughout this Resource Guide by a dagger after the
title are reprinted from the database of the National Technical Information
Service.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lake, Sara.
Television’s impact on children and adolescents.
(A Special interest resource guide in education)
Includes index.
1. Television and children—Abstracts. 2. Television
and youth—Abstracts. 3. Television in education—
United States—Abstracts. 4. Television and children—
Bibliography. 5. Television and youth—Bibliography.
6. Television in education—United States—Bibliography.
1. Title. 11. Series; Special interest resource guide
in education.
HQ784.T4L34 016.79l45’0r3 81-1411
ISBN 0-912700-87-4 AACR2
Contents
Introduction vii
Television Viewing Habits of Children and Adolescents 1
How Children Perceive Television 11
The Impact of Television on Children and Adolescents 23
General Reports 25
Television as a Behavior Model: Sex and Violence or Prosocial Learning? 29
Stereotypes on Television; Social Role Learning 44
Television News and Political Socialization 51
Television Commercials: Consumer and Health Learning 52
Reading and School Achievement 61
Television as a Teaching Tool 69
Improving the Situation 85
Teaching Television Viewing Skills 87
The Parents’ Role: Monitoring Television Use in the Home 91
Changing Television: Regulation and Consumer Action 92
Index 99
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Introduction
Television has become a tremendous force in American political competencies. Television has also been assigned
life over the past 30 years, raising special concern about blame for the decline in school achievement and test
its effect on young people. Does viewing television scores. Both the amount of time spent viewing, which
provide them with new vistas which broaden their can curtail reading and other leisure activities, and the
experience or does it turn them into zombies incapable of impact of the medium itself on the thought processes,
reading and thinking, demanding only instant creativity, and attention span of its viewers are questioned
gratification? Both views are expressed in recent literature in the subsection on reading and school achievement.
on the topic. It is the purpose of this Resource Guide to “Television as a Teaching Tool,’’ the fourth chapter,
present a selection of current (1976 through September examines the potential of television as a positive force in
1980) research and opinion which may help you form teaching social and academic skills. Citations are
your own conclusions and, if desired, guidelines for presented both on the use of commercial TV in the
promoting change. classroom, such as television reading programs designed
The Guide is addressed to parents, educators, and all to motivate the reading of books and scripts related to
others concerned with the development of children and broadcast programs, and the educational effectiveness of
adolescents. It deals mainly with commercial television’s such public television shows as “Sesame Street’’ and
impact on American youth at the preschool, elementary, made-for-the-classroom instructional television programs.
and secondary levels but, when appropriate, also notes The three subsections of the final chapter, “Improving
foreign studies, analyses of public and instructional the Situation,’’ cite methods for controlling television
television programing, and discussions of television’s and/or mediating its negative effects. Teaching young
effects on society in general. To help you examine people to be more sophisticated viewers of TV programs
specific areas of interest, a subject index is provided. and commercials is an obvious first step, and learning
The first chapter, “Television Viewing Habits of strategies are presented to help teachers do that. Articles
Children and Adolescents’’ cites studies of viewing cited in the subsection concerning parental monitoring of
habits: how much TV young people watch; why they TV offer advice on home use of television and techniques
watch it; and the types of programs they prefer. “How for getting parents involved in their children’s viewing.
Children Perceive Television’’ presents research on how Finally, literature is provided on the television industry
children watch television: how well they are able to itself: how programing and advertising are being
comprehend what they see on the screen; how they regulated and what government, citizens’ groups, and
attend; how much reality they credit to television; and broadcasters themselves are doing to promote change.
how they are affected by the formal features of the Citations in this Resource Guide are selected from
medium, such as pacing, auditory cues, and program computer searches of eight databases: ERIC;
production techniques. Comprehensive Dissertation Index; National Technical
The third chapter, “The Impact of Television on Information Service (NTIS); Exceptional Child
Children and Adolescents,’’ along with its six Educational Resources; Psychological Abstracts;
subsections, deals with television as a force shaping Sociological Abstracts; Social SciSearch; and Magazine
children’s attitudes, behavior, and thought. While major Index; as well as from manual searches of Education
attention is directed toward televised violence and Index and the extensive library and information files of
advertising, other studies are cited which examine the the San Mateo Educational Resources Center (SMERC).
effect of television relative to other socializing agents Within each chapter or subsection, citations are
such as parents and peers on the learning of sex roles, arranged by document format: journal articles, microfiche
interpersonal skills, consumer behavior, and social and documents, and books. Citations known to be available
via Television s Impact on Children and Adolescents
for purchase from a standard source are noted. On EDRS ERIC Document Reproduction Service
selected journal articles, an order number prefaced with P.O. Box 190
the letters “EJ” plus the notation “Reprint: UMI” Arlington, Virginia 22210
indicates that a photocopy of the article may be purchased [phone]
from:
NTISt National Technical Information Service
Article Copy Service-CIJE
5285 Port Royal Road
University Microfilms International
Springfield, Virginia 22161
300 North Zeeb Road
[phone]
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[phone] * An asterisk after the title of an abstract indicates it is
All cited microfiche documents have order codes and published in this resource guide with permission of
source acronyms, indicating their availability from one of University Microfilms International, publishers of
three ordering sources, as listed below: Dissertation Abstracts International.
t A dagger after the title of an abstract indicates it is
DC* University Microfilms
reprinted in this resource guide from the database of the
Dissertation Copies
National Technical Information Service.
P.O. Box 1764
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
[phone]