Following a content analysis, 85 children's programs were assigned a pacing index derived from the following criteria: (1) frequency of camera cuts; (2) frequency of related scene changes; (3) frequency of unrelated scene changes; (4) frequency of auditory changes; (5) percentage of active motion; (6) percentage of active talking; and (7)…

Six boys and six girls aged 4-6 years viewed one of three videotapes in which puppets (two Muppets: one male and one female) used culturally stereotyped arguments to assign masculinity, feminity or sex-role neutrality to a standard set of sex-neutral toys. After viewing a film, the children were observed for 10 minutes in free play with toys shown…

An example of the influence of television on the reading interests of teenagers may be seen in the popularity of the book "Eric," the true story of a boy's four-and-a-half-year battle with leukemia, which began just two days before he entered college. Although the television adaptation was inaccurate in many details concerning Eric's…

Three studies were conducted to replicate and extend research on advertisements for children on Saturday morning television, and during children's programs at other times. Resarch focused on amount and frequency of advertisements, as well as the types of products advertised. Study 1 concerned the Saturday morning time period, when children…

Differences in formal aspects of television commercials aimed at boys and those aimed at girls were investigated. Formal attributes were defined as production techniques such as action, pace, visual effects, dialogue and narration, background music and sound effects. Two aspects of content were also examined: aggressive behavior and the gender of…

Research studies on the influence of the viewing environment on children's attention to television and the amount of television viewed are reviewed, as well as control of television viewing through environmental design and what is known about the kinds of environments depicted on television. How television can influence the development of our…

From 1969 to 1993 the definition of program length commercials has not been consistent. The FCC's first involvement with program length commercials was in 1969 when "Hot Wheels," a cartoon based on Mattel Corporation's Hot Wheels cars, was alleged to be nothing more than a 30 minute commercial. The FCC made no formal ruling but did…

Children from 3 to 14 years of age were asked questions pertaining to their understanding of such television-related characteristics as technique (zooms and edits), fantasy and reality, production source, and acting. Using semi-clinical interviews, the study assessed the kinds of thought processes characteristic of children at varying age levels…

This paper argues that the Children's Television Act of 1990 (CTA) required television broadcasters to air educational and informational children's programming, but Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy did little to clarify the definition of "educational and informational." The paper first examines the historical…

Children's television programs broadcast on Saturday mornings (7:00am-12:00pm) on CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox networks were examined for gender and ethnic representation. For a sample of programs during the 1995/96 television season, raters counted the number of males and females, and the number of Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans,…

War play is play with a toy that initiates violence or play that involves the imitation of war. War play can involve: (1) the use of toys based on television cartoon shows to imitate the action in the cartoons; (2) play with replicas of war paraphernalia or manipulatives shaped into guns; and (3) dramatic play. The negative effects on children…

This paper addresses the role of quality age-appropriate television programming in preschoolers' lives. The paper describes a developmental investigation of preschoolers' knowledge of polite behavior routines and their modeling of host-quest behaviors from a special episode to the television program "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." The…

Results of a small-scale study involving 20 third-grade students indicated that children who watch considerably less television than their peers nevertheless were effectively persuaded by virtue of what and when they watched. Additionally, while these children seemed to understand the functions of advertisments and had experienced prior…

A new methodology for testing preschool children's comprehension of television is described and the results of the first experiment with this method are presented. Original program material was created by filming 30 second animated stories in color and transferring them to videotape for subsequent editing and addition of sound. Thirty-five…

The problem of sex-role stereotyping on television has been studied by trying to develop television materials that are explicitly counter-stereotypic in terms of sex-roles. The development of a new television series "Freestyle," aimed at 9-12 year old children and their families, has led to some important observations about children's perceptions…