Children and the Media
Control the Effects of Television Watching with Literacy Programs
Oct 3, 2008
Since the invention of television, critics have asserted that TV has had a debilitating effect on its younger viewers. Although pundits have levied similar charges against other forms of media such as radio, movies, and comic books, there are reasons why the criticisms against television deserve special consideration.
Effects of TV on Kids
Unlike earlier forms of mass media, TV has captured the attention of children like no other pastime and accounts for more of a child’s waking time than any other leisure activity. Also, unlike adults, who discount the reality of the programs they view, kids readily identify with the characters and situations they see.
A quick literature review reveals that research has focused mostly on the negative effects of television. Moral panics about the effects of TV are motivated in part by a sense of social crisis; TV is the scapegoat for a range of society’s problems. In this light, TV watching is an illness that must be treated: it’s addictive, harmful to one’s health, and a cause of social disintegration.
The aim of many television literacy programs has been how to reduce the amount of TV watched, or at least minimize its influence. This stance discounts the child as an active viewer, and negates the premise that a child’s use of TV can be an integral part of his daily life, and of his relationships with family and friends.
What is Television Literacy?
Parents can’t act as omnipresent figures to help kids interpret the reality of programs they watch, nor can they get inside a child’s mind to observe the effects TV watching has on him. One answer to this conundrum is a media literacy program. The term literacy when applied to print is unambiguous: reading and writing are skills that are formally taught and for which we can measure outcomes.
Literacy, in the sense in which it’s applied to TV viewing, is about enabling children to understand and use many of the abstract notions behind the representations of the real world, including the realistic narratives of TV and film. Television literacy doesn’t involve introducing unfamiliar subject matter. When most children start school, they’ve already heard hundreds of jingles, watched hours of cartoons, and absorbed stories on TV relating familiar and unfamiliar subject matter.
Television Literacy Approaches
Educators commonly choose from three approaches to teaching television literacy to children. Inoculation programs adopt a moralistic stance, teaching children about the media so they can mount a defense against its harmful effects. Critical viewing teaches children how to recognize the formal features of a program, such as its genres. Community media approaches direct strong value judgments against the mass media.
An important part of the equation missing here is the children themselves. Whether a child’s view of TV reality is reflective, conflicting, discerning, or incomplete, the child owns these views. Research studies testing children’s interpretations of TV reality should treat their subjects as partners in discovery, using the opportunity to reflect, theorize, and debate. Parents may adopt a similar approach when discussing TV with their children. A dialogue is desirable, and adults should be ready to listen as well as teach.
Sources:
Buckingham, D. (1993). Children Talking Television: The Making of Television Literacy. Bristol, PA: The Falmer Press.
Davies, M.M. (1997). Fake, Fact, and Fantasy: Children’s Interpretations of Television Reality. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Rosenkoetter, L.I., Huston, A.C., & Wright, J.C. (1990). Television and the Moral Judgment of the Young Child. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 11, 123-137.
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