When children watch television, they can assess the reality of what they are seeing. Content judged unreal may have less influence on viewers than does content judged real. This study examines children's reality judgments about television series featuring families with children. Participants included twenty-seven 7-year-olds, nineteen…

This review of the research on the role of television in family life considers television both as a medium for which the specific content matters little, and as a source of content, i.e., a purveyor of messages about physical and social life. Television viewing is discussed as an activity in which family members participate and about which they…

Ninety-four children, aged 5 to 12 years, were subjects of a study of recall of television literacy messages (drop-ins). The 30-second "How To Watch TV" (HTWTV) segments were designed for broadcast on Saturday mornings by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to convey to children some information and values about television (e.g., animals do…

Most educators argue that the time children spend watching television detracts from their homework time and leisure time reading, that television watching cultivates skills different from those needed for print literacy and encourages preference for its easier means of acquiring information, and that television content is often nonintellectual and…

Discusses the development of curricula to make children more critical evaluators of television content. Evaluates the extent to which children learned the content of the curricula, applied it to their reasoning about television programs, and used it to mediate between exposure to selected content and the effects of that content. (JMF)

Describes a study of 460 second, sixth, and tenth graders that was conducted to explore the effects of content and development on children's perceptions of the social reality of television series featuring families with children and teenagers. Hypotheses tested are explained, measures used are described, and future research is suggested. (42…

A previous study of the perceived social realism of television series featuring families was both replicated and extended with a sample of 1692 second, sixth, and tenth graders in 42 schools in southern California. The "Viewing Frequency" instrument and the "Realism" instrument took children 10-15 minutes to complete. Content…

Reported in this document are findings from an evaluation of three kinds of prosocial children's programming broadcasted by the NBC network during the 1980-81 season. The prosocial programmings evaluated were "Drawing Power,""Play Alongs," and "How to Watch TV". The primary goals of the study, as stated by NBC, were…

Discusses parent-child television coviewing and describes the results of a study that examined coviewing of television series featuring families via questionnaire responses from second, sixth, and tenth graders and their parents. The paper and pencil instruments that were administered are described, and dependent and independent variables are…