Television And The Child

The book presents a well edited review and integration of current research findings from both communication and psychological literature to provide a comprehensive view of current media use by children and adolescents, and its impact on their developing

In 1969, Senator John Pastore requested that the Surgeon General appoint a committee to conduct an inquiry into television violence and its effect on children. When the Surgeon General's report was finally released in 1972—after a three-year inquiry and a cost of over $1.8 million—it angered and confused a number of critics, including politicians, the broadcast industry, many of the social scientists who had helped carry out the research, and the public. While the final consequences of the Report may not be played out for years to come, TV Violence and the Child presents a fascinating study of the Surgeon General's quest and, in effect, the process by which social science is recruited and its findings made relevant to public policy. In addition to dealing with television as an object of concern, the authors also consider the government's effectiveness when dealing with social objectives and the influence of citizen action on our communication systems. Their overwhelming conclusion is that the nation's institutions are ill-equipped for recruiting expert talent, providing clear findings, and carrying out objectives in this area of delicate human concern.

The material presented in this second edition provides a current and complete summary and synthesis of what is known about television's role in, and impact on, children's cognitive and social development. Unlike other books on television or child development, this text directly combines communication and psychological perspectives for a more comprehensive and accurate look at children's television experiences. The integration of information from these diverse sources addresses the complexity of the interactions among child, content, technological, and contextual variables, and provides a broader conceptualization of both theoretical and practical issues. In short, this volume carefully considers the complex and significant interplay between other forces in a child's life with the television viewing experience. Providing updated research findings in the major areas and including changing trends in television content and viewing patterns, this new edition offers new sections on technology and its influence and an entirely new chapter on television's impact on exceptional and high risk children. Also included are research findings on the many other media uses now available to children besides television, as well as those that affect children's use of television--VCRs, cable programs, computers, the Internet, video games, and virtual reality--in addition to a chapter on intervention and critical viewing strategies.

Comstock explores the effects of television viewing on children's daily experience, scholastic achievement, belief and perception formation, consumer behavior, and psychology. He draws on numerous studies to show how American society has changed and will change further as the result of television viewing.

Spinning the Child examines music for children on records, radio and television by assessing how ideals of entertainment, education, ‘the child’ and ‘the family’ have been communicated through folk music, the BBC’s children’s radio broadcasting, the children’s songs of Woody Guthrie, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and Bagpuss, the contemporary children’s music industry and other case studies. The book provides the first sustained critical overview of recorded music for children, its production and dissemination. The music, lyrics and sonics of hundreds of recorded songs are analysed with reference to their specific social, historical and technological contexts. The chapters expose the attitudes, morals and desires that adults have communicated both to and about the child through the music that has been created and compiled for children. The musical representations of age, race, class and gender reveal how recordings have both reflected and shaped transformations in discourses of childhood. This book is recommended for scholars in the sociology of childhood, the sociology of music, ethnomusicology, music education, popular musicology, children’s media and related fields. Spinning the Child’s emphasis on the analysis of musical, lyrical and sonic texts in specific contexts suggests its value as both a teaching and research resource.

This seminal volume is a comprehensive review of the literature on children's television, covering fifty years of academic research on children and television. The work includes studies of content, effects, and policy, and offers research conducted by social scientists and cultural studies scholars. The research questions represented here consider the content of programming, children's responses to television, regulation concerning children's television policies, issues of advertising, and concerns about sex and race stereotyping, often voicing concerns that children's entertainment be held to a higher standard. The volume also offers essays by scholars who have been seeking answers to some of the most critical questions addressed by this research. It represents the interdisciplinary nature of research on children and television, and draws on many academic traditions, including communication studies, psychology, sociology, education, economics, and medicine. The full bibliography is included on CD. Arguably the most comprehensive bibliography of research on children and television, this work illustrates the ongoing evolution of scholarship in this area, and establishes how it informs or changes public policy, as well as defining its role in shaping a future agenda. The volume will be a required resource for scholars, researchers, and policy makers concerned with issues of children and television, media policy, media literacy and education, and family studies.

The research presented in this book, originally published in 1986, looks to pinpoint the psychological processes involved in the media violence-aggression relation. Expanding on earlier studies, the compilation of essays here delves deeply into aggression study and compares results about media influence across 5 countries. Cultural norms and programming differences are investigated as well as age and gender and other factors. What is offered overall is a psychological model in which TV violence is both a precursor and a consequence of aggression.

A whimsical and wise parenting memoir describes how one television-addicted mother, vowing to become a better parent than her own, launched a campaign to kick the TV habit and remove the "boob tube" from her son's everyday life.