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,…

Indicates that (1) both younger (four-five years) and older (seven-eight years) children were significantly less likely to discriminate commercial from program content when the host-selling format was viewed, and (2) older children are more favorably influenced by the same commercial content when it is seen in a host-selling presentation than in a…

Investigates the short-term consequences of discrepant information between the commercial message and the parent's evaluation of the product advertised and concludes that all forms of counter-influence fail when a product is made to appear highly attractive. (MH)

Reports studies concerning: (a) the characteristics of television program content; (b) the characteristics of the audience--Who watches what? For how long? and, (c) the potential impact of televised violence on the attitudes, values, and behavior of the viewer. (Author/JM)

This study provides evidence of the basic parameters of elementary school students' viewing of national, local, and children's news programing. About half of the children studied regularly watched the special Saturday morning newscasts, while almost half watched adult news programing at least occasionally. News viewing increased steadily from…

Outlines a study designed to determine if adult interpretive comments significantly influence children's attitudes towards television entertainment programs and the amount of information learned. (MH)

The major question of this study is: Does the time context of a TV program affect children's conclusions about the action? If violent or aggressive behavior is viewed on television by children, how will they respond to the action when they know the action takes place in either the past, the present, or the future? Fifth and sixth grade boys viewed…

The author advocates the outright ban of commercials from Saturday and Sunday morning television and makes several other recommendations that he believes would improve programing and reduce the hard sell of child targeted advertising. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could form a Children's Television Broadcast Center and establish a…

This pamphlet presents the results of a series of focus groups comprised of Native American children and adolescents regarding their perceptions of race and class in the media. The results indicated that although some youth were concerned most about the absence of their group in the media, others were primarily concerned about stereotyped…

In an appeal before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the author pleaded for governmental action to restrain national advertisers from "unscrupulous and erroneous advertising pitches aimed at children." Citing the principal media for child-targeted advertising, (comic books, youth magazines, school displays and radio and television), the speaker…

Although America is engaged in a national dialogue about race, children's voices have yet to be heard on the matter. This study used a series of focus groups and a national poll of 10- to 17-year-olds to examine their views about race and the role of the media in shaping understanding. Participating in the polls were 1,200 children, 300 in each…