The U.S. Surgeon General's report on the effects of televised violence on children is discussed--how the report began, how it was compiled, and the results. The book concludes that broadcast media influence kept the most respected social scientist investigators of the subject off the Committee, and that the final results were distorted in the…

Are children going to continue to serve television by providing a trusting audience for its commercial message, or is television going to begin to serve children? Current children's programs are designed for the sole purpose of holding the attention of the broadest age span possible. Today's television fails to enhance the small child's…

Over a two month period, the Committee on Children's Television evaluated the response of commercial broadcasters to the Federal Communications Commission guidelines that were established in 1974. Volunteers in 12 cities monitored children's programs on network affiliated and independent television stations. Managers of local television stations…

In a report issued in September 2000, the Federal Trade Commission reported that the motion picture, music recording, and electronic game segments of the entertainment industry intentionally promoted products to children that warranted parent cautions. This report responds to the request of the Senate Commerce Committee by focusing on advertising…

In a report issued in September 2000, the Federal Trade Commission contended that the motion picture, music recording, and electronic game industries had engaged in widespread marketing of violent movies, music, and games to children inconsistent with their own parental advisories and undermining parents attempts to make informed decisions about…

This paper argues that the United States Supreme Court's 1978 "FCC v. Pacifica Foundation" decision, in which the Court held that broadcasters must refrain from transmitting unseemly language at a time of day when children are most likely to be in the audience, has created a perilous dilemma for broadcasters: how to accommodate a child's…

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 selective report on the celebration across the country of the Year of the Young Reader (YYR) by the Library of Congress and its partners has a two-fold purpose: to provide a chronological review of the events, projects, and activities that made the campaign effective; and to stimulate thinking on how to give the next campaign, "1991--the…

An analysis of the present system of American television broadcasting reveals that social and behavioral science has had very limited influence on its regulatory policymaking. The television advertisement and its potential adverse effect on children have come to the attention of federal regulatory bodies, as well as consumer and children advocacy…

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…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 47 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effect of source variation upon children's reactions to television commercials; (2) covert observation as a means of measuring the affective states of…