Ninety-one children participated in a study which evaluated a critical television-viewing skills curriculum. Students were given a comprehensive test of reality versus fantasy portrayals, special effects, and commercials. Methodology and results are presented and analyzed. (JL)

This study examines children's interpretations of a visual convention used in television interviews and incorporates as a framework Flavell's theory of the development sequence of understanding television (1990). Thirty-four children were individually shown a videotape of two people talking in an interview on a television news program. Children…

Explores the social correlates of the interpretive abilities of young children to assess televised narratives. Demonstrates negative correlations between amount of television viewed by parents and children's television comprehension, indicating that the more parents viewed television, the worse their children performed on comprehension tests.…

A study of the cognitive aspects of children's television watching addressed the following questions: To what degree is processing capability mediated by one's attentional set, as opposed to skills that one brings to the viewing situation? If attention is a significant mediating factor, is this true across various kinds of information one can…

This study of 26 children (ages 8-12) with hearing impairment found that the degree of hearing loss and spoken language competence independently affected the ability to understand the information presented on commercial and educational television programs. Language skills were a stronger predictor of comprehension than the degree of hearing loss.…

Part of a series of investigations undertaken at the University of Leiden by Dr. G. A. Kohnstamm to investigate how children process information from audiovisual media, particularly television, this literature review maps out the educational possibilities of television for children up to the age of 12. Research findings reviewed are concerned…

The possibility of enhancing the comprehension of television news reporting through a school program of literacy education was studied in Italy with 60 7th graders and 50 11th graders. Results demonstrate that even brief critical viewing instruction can have an impact on student comprehension and attitudes. (SLD)

One hundred seventy-one middle school students participated in a study to assess cognitive activity during television viewing. Students completed a questionnaire about their favorite programs, viewing habits, and social reality beliefs, then viewed a 17-minute professionally edited episode of a family drama and answered a multiple choice…

Describes a media literacy project that provided fifth graders with a hands-on approach to study of television form and nature of message transmission to improve their understanding of media-related concepts. Results of a media literacy test reveal course participants performed significantly better than the control group. (MBR)