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The purpose of this study was to investigate various textual characteristics of popular children television shows. More specifically, researchers examined both the quantity and quality of question asked (i.e., question training). Furthermore, several readability components among the different shows (e.g., narrativity, syntactic simplicity, referential cohesion, deep cohesion and word concreteness) were explored. Results revealed that not all shows are equal when it comes to the amount of question training that is available during an episode. It was also discovered that most of the shows do share similar, although counterintuitive, patterns regarding the different readability components.

This article focuses on aspects of children's rights as portrayed in television. The results of a six-month research study show analyses of television content of Channel 5, which is the only free-to-air, 24-hour, English-language entertainment channel in Singapore. The results identify the role of television in assisting Singapore to meet its obligations in regard to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. News and advertisements aired on Channel 5 during primetime (between 7 pm and 10 pm) were recorded over a six-month period, and those featuring or related to children were analysed for the study. The samples were categorised and subcategorised based on the principles of the Convention (UNICEF, (2011a, June 2). Convention on the rights of the child. "Rights Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child"): Participation, Protection, Development, and Survival. A fifth category, not under United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child-Object, was devised by the researchers. The results of this study have shown that the representation of children on television in Singapore is, in part, a reflection of how Singaporean society views children. Analyses of the media content indicated that protection and development of children was Singapore's top priority. Despite the fact that children were considered to need adult protection there was no reference to the Convention.

Generally, the speaking aspect is not properly debated when discussing the positive and negative effects of television (TV), especially on children. So, to highlight this point, this study was first initialized by asking the question: "What are the effects of TV on speech?" and secondly, to transform the effects that TV has on speech in a utilizable manner, "How can we utilize TV in speech education?". The required data were collected through a survey with the middle school students involved in the sample. Students who argued that TV "does not" corrupt their speech are in the opinion that they imitate how people speak on TV and think that figures they see on TV actually speak well, teaching them how to speak well also, and that TV expands their vocabulary, helping them to express themselves more easily. According to this result, "TV language" should set an example for that matter. (Contains 7 tables.)

Research on intercultural couplehood often relies on cultures and "solid identities" to explain the couples' experiences. By looking at the media construction of an intercultural couple on Chinese television, we are interested in how they are presented and co-constructed through different perspectives, especially if and how (cultural) differences are used by the participants to enact the couple's identification. We take a dynamic "liquid" approach to linguistic discourse analysis, through dialogism and utterance theory, to identify the voices and the related discursive strategies that contribute to create and "imagine" the couple. (Contains 2 tables and 4 notes.)

With television having matured as a creative medium in the past few decades, it has taken its rightful place among the subjects scholars study seriously. Professors are now analyzing the meaning and significance of classic shows with the care and intellectual respect traditionally accorded to literary masterpieces. But some academics still resist the idea that anything of genuine and lasting artistic value can be found on television. This resistance seldom results from empirical study, that is, from actually watching the TV programs other scholars are writing about. Rather, it usually takes the form of a blanket condemnation of television as a medium, a dismissal in principle that relieves the critic of any need to bother with studying individual programs. In this article, the author explains why it is time for academics to get with the program, or rather with all the artistically sophisticated programs television has to offer. (Contains 9 footnotes.)

Infants learn less from a televised demonstration than from a live demonstration, the "video deficit effect." The present study employs a novel approach, using touch screen technology to examine 15-month olds' transfer of learning. Infants were randomly assigned either to within-dimension (2D/2D or 3D/3D) or cross-dimension (3D/2D or 2D/3D) conditions. For the within-dimension conditions, an experimenter demonstrated an action by pushing a virtual button on a 2D screen or a real button on a 3D object. Infants were then given the opportunity to imitate using the same screen or object. For the 3D/2D condition, an experimenter demonstrated the action on the 3D object, and infants were given the opportunity to reproduce the action on a 2D touch screen (and vice versa for the 2D/3D condition). Infants produced significantly fewer target actions in the cross-dimension conditions than in the within-dimension conditions. These findings have important implications for infants' understanding and learning from 2D images and for their using 2D media as the basis of actions in the real world.

This study examined children's media use (i.e., amount of television and Internet usage) and relationships to children's perceptions of societal threat and personal vulnerability. The sample consisted of 90 community youth aged 7 to 13 years (M = 10.8; 52.2% male) from diverse economic backgrounds. Analyses found children's television use to be associated with elevated perceptions of personal vulnerability to world threats (i.e., crime, terrorism, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods). An interactive model of television use and child anxiety in accounting for children's personal threat perceptions was supported, in which the strength of television consumption in predicting children's personal threat perceptions was greater for children with greater anxiety. Relationships were found neither between children's Internet use and threat perceptions nor between media use and perceptions of societal threat. (Contains 4 tables.)

For nearly four decades, Sesame Workshop has brought the joy of learning to the world's youngest citizens through the introduction of locally-produced coproductions of the preschool television series, "Sesame Street". Many of these television shows have been specifically designed to forward important prosocial messages directly linked to the complex socio-political backdrop in which they are created. Focusing on recent projects in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Kosovo, this article reviews research on the educational effectiveness of these initiatives and highlights the ways in which study results provide information on best practices for media projects designed for children living in regions of conflict. The paper also reviews the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches and provides practical information on how difficult issues have been presented in an age-appropriate and culturally-relevant manner. By acknowledging the challenges inherent to producing media designed to effect attitudinal and behavior changes in places mired in ongoing conflict, these studies, when examined as a group, provide emerging evidence of the need for increasingly direct and specific media intervention efforts. Presenting these studies in light of the projects that they evaluate and the related socio-political circumstances offers a body of evidence suggesting the educational value of these media efforts and indicating a need for further study in this field. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

This experiment tests the hypothesis that background, adult television is a disruptive influence on very young children's behavior. Fifty 12-, 24-, and 36-month-olds played with a variety of toys for 1 hr. For half of the hour, a game show played in the background on a monaural TV set. During the other half hour, the TV was off. The children looked at the TV for only a few seconds at a time and less than once per minute. Nevertheless, background TV significantly reduced toy play episode length as well as focused attention during play. Thus, background television disrupts very young children's play behavior even when they pay little overt attention to it. These findings have implications for subsequent cognitive development.

The article uses an episode from the television series "The Sopranos" to illustrate how embodied experiences of sporting practices such as high-school football involve both conscious and unconscious dynamics. It outlines how cultural practices such as masculinist sport are psychically incorporated into the body through the process of identification. The article uses Freud's concept of identification to explain how fantasy and representation are involved in the formation of embodied subjectivity. Contemporary queer theories about identification provide insights into how psychic dynamics both reinforce and undermine the illusory cultural promise of heteronormative whiteness offered by high-school sport and physical education. (Contains 3 notes.)

This chapter explains how the show "The Avengers," a popular British television program with an unusual female lead role, captured the imagination of women viewers in England from 1962 to 1964. After describing the show and then the research project investigating viewers' responses to it, this chapter explores the experience of watching television as a space of public/popular pedagogy. It concludes by offering some suggestions for classroom practice.

The mass media contribution to education politics is explored through the application of a pluralistic theoretical framework to evidence connected with the making of an episode of a U.K. current affairs television program. The episode addressed a politically contentious educational issue but proved controversial in itself. Several sources complained that the program team had failed to operate with "due accuracy and impartiality" required in law and subsequently confronted them in a televised audience feedback program. The pluralistic theoretical framework is used to highlight contrasting interactions between the television program team and different sources in creating the episode that was transmitted. Frequent sources tended to be "media-wise" and so better able to realize their interest in positive portrayal than those occasional sources who were more "media-naive." It is suggested that this case has wider implications for understanding the superficiality of much media output dealing with the politics of education.

The purposes of this study were to examine group differences in sexual media consumption and to explore how well adolescents' sexual attitudes and behavior can be explained by viewing of sexually suggestive dialogue (SD) and explicit sexual content (SC) in television media. Participants were 473 male and female high school adolescents who were racially, economically, and age diverse. Television viewing was coded for SD and SC. Both length of time spent watching SD and SC and explicitness of the SD and SC to which adolescents were exposed were factored into the coding scheme. In this sample, SD and SC consumption varied by subgroup and explained variance in some sexual attitudes and behavior variables but not others, and in some demographic subgroups but not others. (Contains 6 tables.)

The data discussed in this paper are from the television game show "Friend or Foe", and can be used to examine whether age, gender, race, and the amount of prize money affect contestants' strategies. The data are suitable for a variety of statistical analyses, such as descriptive statistics, testing for differences in means or proportions, and estimating discrete choice models. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

The aim of this study is to show the media, particularly television, as a device belonging to the modern governmental societies' pedagogical apparatus that teaches, among other things, a set of truths forming a cultural curriculum in which one learns to divide the world. The author argues that much of the identity modeling undertaken by neoliberal societies is brought about by media and other cultural industry artefacts. Stepping away from Frankfurtian postulations that demonise television, she discusses this object through theoretical lenses that allow her to think of it as one of the ways of cultural expression in this time, as a set of works that need to be examined and discussed in relation to what they produce in societies and their participation in the very contemporary subject constitution. Her work, as both a researcher and a teacher, is not to denounce but to highlight the teachings of this device, referring not only to "what" it teaches but to "how" it does as well, to the way its pedagogy operates. (Contains 6 notes.)

Reveals that 46% of the time with television was spent in some activity instead of or in addition to looking at the TV. Notes that social interaction was the most common nonviewing activity for all viewers, followed by playing and eating for children and reading for adults. Considers how nonviewing behaviors occurred most often during programming that attracted less visual attention, particularly advertisements. (SG)

Examines the relationship between exposure to stereotypical media messages regarding race/ethnicity and subsequent social judgments among undergraduate students. Investigates the association between Whites' evaluations of self and other (Latino) as a result of varying media content pertaining to criminality stereotypes. Notes that the findings were partially consistent with the posited relationships. (SG)

Examines the perpetrators of violence on American television in terms of their chronological age. Compares the amount and nature of violence committed by child and teen characters to that committed by adult characters. Suggests that younger perpetrators are depicted in several ways that pose risks for the child viewer. (SG)

Examines violence in music video programming. Reveals that 15% of music videos feature violence, and most of that aggression is sanitized, not chastised, and presented in realistic contexts. Discusses the findings in terms of the risk that exposure to violence in each channel and genre may be posing to viewers' learning of aggression, fear, and emotional desensitization. (SG)

Investigates the nature and extent of violence contained in television programming that targets children aged 12 and younger. Notes that the violence itself is just as likely to be glamorized in children's as in nonchildren's shows, but it is even more sanitized and more likely to be trivialized. Documents five subgenres of children's programming that differ dramatically in violent content. (SG)

Investigates the validity of the television industry's labeling of sensitive program content following the advent of the V-chip television ratings system. Examines programs for the nature and extent of portrayals of violence, sexual behavior and dialogue, and adult language. Suggests there are substantial limitations in the ability of the V-chip technology to effectively limit children's exposure to sensitive content. (SG)

Assesses the prevalence and context of violence in prime-time television programming using a random, representative sample. Shows that, regardless of the time of day, viewers are likely to encounter violence in roughly 2 out of 3 programs. Identifies specific channel types and genres that feature potentially harmful depictions of violence during prime time. (SG)

Argues that the influence of televised, general election, presidential debates on prospective voters' perceptions of participating candidates may be larger than previous research suggests. Finds that two sources of debate effects have gone largely undetected to date: those based on candidates' relational communication, and those which are commingled with the influence of other communication forms. (SG)

Explores the differences in techniques, strategies, narratives, and symbols used in 1,213 television issue ads and image ads from 13 U.S. presidential campaigns. Concludes that although the majority of both types of ads were positive, negative appeals dominated a higher percentage of issue ads as compared with image ads. (SG)

Examines relationship between television viewing, holding idealistic expectations about marriage, and intentions to marry among undergraduate students. Finds overall television viewing has a negative association with idealistic marriage expectations; romantic genre programming was positively associated with high expectations; and expectations were positively associated with marital intentions. (SG)

Presents the first investigation of the effects of experience with a particular program series on children's subsequent television viewing behavior and comprehension. Notes three- to five-year-old regular, experienced viewers of "Blue's Clues" were compared to new, inexperienced viewers. Suggests that a television series can teach children a style of television viewing transferable to new episodes and to new series. (SG)

Examines the differences in how Black and White viewers process messages based on the race of television characters representing five occupations. Notes that findings from male college students suggest that Black viewers have better recall of Black occupational characters than White characters on television. Reveals evidence that both Black and White viewers' perceptions of occupational characters were positively affected by the race of the Black character. (PM)

Notes that in 1997, a system of television ratings was instituted to label objectionable television content for parents. Explains that this study gathered ratings use data from parents of preschool and school-age children. Concludes that parents most likely to use the ratings are those who already mediate television viewing. (PM)

Investigates the amount of science portrayed by terrestrial television in the United Kingdom and the public comprehension of that science as shown on television. Concludes that the lack of comprehension of the scientific basis of many advertisements is indicative of the lack of relevance of science education to people in modern society. (Author/LM)

Compares the use of enhanced television features and television commerce features on the Web sites of cable and broadcast television networks. Shows differences in strategies and site usability; proposes three enhanced television strategy models; and discusses implications on television revenue and viewership. (Author/LRW)

Provides examples from six studies to illustrate how the formative research element of the Sesame Workshop production model has been used to create effective educational media in the United States, South Africa, Egypt, and China. Shows how lessons learned from formative studies provide insights into the development of new research methodologies and, when examined in a global context, offer perspective on the knowledge and learning of children of different cultures. (Author/KB)

Presented videotaped "Sesame Street" segments to explore preschoolers' ideas about disabilities. Found that most were aware that the videotaped children had difficulty performing age-appropriate tasks, but had fewer ideas about why the child with Down syndrome had difficulty than about the child using a wheelchair. Significantly more thought the child with Down syndrome could do more "if he tried really hard" than thought so for the child with physical disability. (Author/KB)

Examined the cultural basis and relevance of "Zhima Jie," a Chinese adaptation of "Sesame Street." Found that most of 3- to 6-year-olds in the sample desired books and learning materials, with disadvantaged children more likely than more advantaged children to desire books and learning materials. Older children showed a greater tendency for such desires and expressions than did younger. Findings reflected support for the cultural relevance of "Zhima Jie." (Author/KB)

Describes the process of developing an HIV/AIDS education curriculum for "Takalani Sesame," an educational media project for young South African children. Illustrates the formative research conducted with adults and children, and recounts discussions with HIV/AIDS health specialists. Describes the knowledge, attitude, and skill components of the curriculum to be used to create HIV/AIDS education messages for television, radio, and outreach materials for children ages 3-7 and their caregivers. (Author/KB)

Provides examples from a study of six test segments of the television series "Alam Simsim," the Egyptian "Sesame Street," to illustrate how a systematic analysis of children's artwork can be used with other research tools to gain feedback from children. Shows how formative research is used to bring children into the production process and gives producers insights into what children like and learn from materials during production. (Author/KB)

Meta-analyzed data from six national studies of elementary through high school students to determine the relationship between amount of television viewing and educational achievement. According to a complex viewing-achievement model, for small amounts of viewing, achievement increased with viewing, but as viewing increased beyond a certain point, achievement decreased. Optimal viewing time differed and decreased by age. (SM)

Shows that the biologically rooted individual difference behavior variable of temperament was consistent and moderately strong causal factor in forming television use motivations among undergraduate students. Finds distinct patterns of relationships between temperament and all television use gratifications supporting the uses and gratifications paradigm. Notes the importance of future bio-behavioral etiological media uses and effects research. (SG)

Uses the violence of "The Road Runner" cartoon series as a starting point for a mythico-rhetorical analysis of the message system contained in the cartoon. Explores how the cartoon re-enacts the myth of Sisyphus in the context of the post-World War II technological boom. Discusses insights into the meanings of cartoon violence, and into how media reproduce mythic structures. (RS)

Examines actual use in television news broadcasts of video news releases (VNRs). Finds that all sizes of markets were likely to use VNRs. Finds that the most common use was as a voice-over story in an early evening newscast, and that VNRs associated with children and their safety or health got the greatest number of uses. (SR)

Followed up on 570 adolescents studied as preschoolers. Found that preschoolers' viewing of educational television programs was associated with achieving higher grades, reading more books, placing more value on achievement, exhibiting greater creativity, and behaving less aggressively as adolescents more consistently for boys than girls. Found program content to be more important than the medium. (DLH)

Tests the hypothesis that processing strategy moderates the effect of television viewing on social perceptions of undergraduate students (cultivation effect). Examines views on prevalence of crime, occupations, affluence, and marital discord. Indicates that processing strategy moderated the cultivation effect such that cultivation effects were noted in the heuristic and control groups but not in the systematic group. (SC)