To understand how children respond to and make use of portrayals of the sexes on television, 192 third and eighth grade students participated in a study to determine what they notice and how important these distinctions are to them. The study obtained children's same/different paired comparisons of eight concepts--me, my mother, an average woman,…

Based on a review of television's influence on social reality beliefs, a model is proposed to examine how individuals use television to construct such beliefs. Evidence suggests that television has some influence on attitudes related to violence, sex, old age, and family values and structure. Twenty-two references are cited. (Author/MER)

Two underlying assumptions of the Cultural Indicators approach to television research were examined, using data on the television viewing habits of 76 second grade, 150 fifth grade, 509 eighth grade, and 350 eleventh grade students in Perth, Australia. The assumptions were that commercial television presented an organically composed total world of…