The mass media appear to have an influential role in the socialization of children by exposing them to a world far beyond the limits of their immediate experience. Because children must depend on mass media models for learning about adult sexual intimacy, a content analysis of daytime soap operas, to which many children are exposed daily without…

Discusses the conceptualization of television viewing as a learned activity by highlighting the interrelatedness of children's linguistic, cognitive, and perceptual skills for accurate comprehension of temporal sequencing based on a study of five-year-old gifted, learning disabled (LD), and gifted/LD students. (references) (LRW)

Descriptions of television's typical good and bad guys as seen by first, third, and fifth graders demonstrate that television offers a limited repertoire of good guy characteristics, and indicate important age related differences in judgments on television characters. Emphasizing relationships could provide more multidimensional information on…

Examines children's understanding of temporal order as depicted on television through three techniques: canonical sequencing, reversed sequencing, and time leaps. A study of four-, six-, and eight-year olds is described, and findings suggest that cognitive skills associated with the ability to comprehend liquid conservation contribute to…

Examines patterns of television viewing and viewing motivations for the "PTL Club" in light of the recent PTL scandal. Extracts the ritualized user and a modified version (curious consumer) of the instrumental user only. Discusses implications for the future of religious television. (SR)

Describes television production techniques used to convey nonverbal messages to viewers (laugh tracks, flashbacks, zooms to close-ups, voice-overs, time continuity) and presents selections from interviews with five- to nine-year-old children to demonstrate that the understanding of these telegenic nonverbals is a learned phenomenon. Implications…

Investigated intellectual giftedness in relation to parents' mediation of child's television-watching in a sample of 364 children and their parents. Findings suggest that intellectual giftedness and, to a lesser degree, quantity of television-watching influence parents' perceptions of possible effects of television on their children and the type…

Identifies the cognitive skills necessary for children to accurately comprehend projective size on television. Traces the acquisition of these skills and identifies the role of media experience in facilitating comprehension by assessing the extent to which different types of television fare require the use of different cognitive skills. (MS)

Examines the parental disciplinary practices under which children's modeling of prosocial television portrayals are likely to be maximized and minimized. Two types of enduring parental styles of discipline--induction and sensitization--were used in gathering data from a field survey which employed mother-child pairs. (Author/DST)

The first of a two-part review of the National Council for Families and Television's (NCFT) journal publications from 1978-1983 discusses articles examining both television and children, and discovers a multi-phase evolution in NCFT's perception of children's associations with television. Periodical articles by television and academic/research…