Compares American middle-class children, as representatives of heavy television viewers, and Israeli middle-class children, as representatives of lighter television viewers, to determine the extent to which accumulated television viewing enhances the development of particular mental skills. (PD)

Organized in nine sections, this paper traces the development of Israeli television since 1968, the year when television was first presented to a night-time viewing public, and examines the programs preferred by the Israeli public. The paper focuses on the growth of interest in TV; television viewing and the ongoing surveys; an internal analysis…

This study investigated Israeli adolescents' differential perceptions of social conflicts in the "real" world and in television news. Overall results suggest that, when asked to do so, adolescents are able to differentiate between the social conflicts and their symbolic representations in television news. (PD)

States that television has been a "single-station medium" in Israel since 1968, and that cable television is a recent innovation for that country. Describes an experiment that compared houses with cable to ones without, and found that houses with cable had markedly different viewing habits. Concludes that these findings suggest a…

The results of a field study, a controlled experiment, and clinical observations on the educational effects of "Sesame Street" on Israeli children are summarized in this report. An overview section presents the general format and major findings, the next section describes the background setting of the studies, a method section covers the…

Compares identical studies of the uses of leisure, culture, and communication in Israel in 1970 and 1990, to infer possible long-run effects of the introduction of television broadcasting. Finds a drop in attendance at "spectacles" of all kinds (whether theater or sports) and a rise in activities that are interactive, time flexible, and…

Children's social and cultural environments may affect their perceptions of the reality of television violence. One of the problems in measuring the importance of societal variables is the difficulty in finding children whose social environments have differed for most of their lives in well prescribed ways. An exception to this are kibbutz- and…

This study analyzes Israeli students' memories of television in the context of family life, and considers culture and systems as well. The study was geared toward broadening the understanding of individuals' perceptions of the role of television in the family, as well as gaining insight into the collective story or stories of life with television…

Discusses methodology, results, and implications of a study testing three hypotheses and investigating perceptions of social, political, and economic conflicts (organized according to complexity, intensity, and solvability) as they occur in society and as portrayed by television news. Findings indicate viewers are able to differentiate between…

This paper reports the results of a comparative study carried out with populations from two distinct cultural environments: kibbutz and city raised children in Israel. The study examined how perceptions and responses to television differ across social environments and how children's perceptions of, and reactions to, television may affect…

The airing of "Sesame Street" on Israeli television in 1971 provided an opportunity to study the effects of a sophisticated media format on a media naive audience. Samples of 93 kindergarteners and 224 second and third graders of mixed socioeconomic background were pre- and posttested for cognitive skills and media literacy. After…

Discusses the role of television in constructing social reality and teaching children to participate in society, examining Israeli research on the role of television fiction and news in parent-child interactions. The article notes how family cultures affect the way television is incorporated into the socialization process in all households. (SM)