The picture has not changed considerably over the years. In the 1980s, several researchers reported average viewing time to be between 11 and 28 hours per week; although the exact figure varied across studies, all of the studies found that American children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleeping (Anderson, Field, Collins, Lorch, & Nathan, 1985; Huston, Watkins, & Kunkel, 1989; Huston,Wright, Rice, Kerkman, & St. Peters, 1987). In fact, despite the recent growth of new media such as computers, video games, and the Internet, television continues to be children’s medium of choice. A 1999 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that American children spent nearly 20 hours per week watching television, far more time than they spent with any other medium (Roberts, Foehr, Rideout, & Brodie, 1999). According to parent reports, even children as young as 2 to 3 years old spend more than 18 hours per week watching television (Jordan & Woodard, 2001).
Nor is this phenomenon unique to the United States. Children in Japan spend more than 17 hours per week watching television (primarily commercial television), an average that has remained stable over a period of 10 years (Kodaira, 2001). A multinational comparison of data from 23 countries found that children spent an average of 18 hours per week watching television. Although individual children varied greatly in their viewing, the mean of 18 hours was 50% higher than the time spent in any other activity (Groebel, 1999). Similarly, a second multinational study revealed that the amount of time children spent with television varied across countries (e.g., a mean of slightly over 10 hours per week in France, Switzerland, and Germany, versus more than 17 in Denmark and the U.K.), but the overall range was consistent with viewing in the United States (Livingstone, Holden, & Bovill, 1999). Indeed, after reviewing 45 studies, Larson (2001) concluded that the time spent by adolescents in the United States, Europe, and Asia was essentially identical.
Given the ubiquity of television in children’s lives, it is not surprising that researchers and laypeople alike have devoted a significant amount of attention to the effects of television on young viewers. Often, these discussions
of the effects of television on children focus solely on the negative. Some critics have argued that exposure to television—even educational television—can lead to outcomes such as reduced attention spans, lack of interest in school (because teachers do not sing and dance like characters on television), or children’s becoming passive “zombie viewers” (e.g., Healy, 1990; Mander, 1978; Medved & Medved, 1998; Postman, 1985; Winn, 1977). Concerns over television’s potential contribution to a broad range of problem behaviors (e.g., aggressive behavior, substance abuse, obesity, sexual activity, decreased school performance) led the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend that children’s total time with television and other media should be limited to no more than 1 to 2 hours per day (i.e., 7 to 14 hours per week), and that television should be eliminated entirely for children under the age of 2 (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1997, 2001).
Yet, asWartella (1995) has observed, many of these claims have been put forth with little, if any, basis in empirical data. Instead of growing out of experiments with children, some claims have been based entirely on
content analyses of material shown in television programs or correlational research that cannot establish causal relationships. Other claims have been based on not much more than personal opinion, and have been directly
refuted by research with children. For example, observational studies of children’s viewing of television have shown that children watch television actively, not passively (e.g., Anderson, Lorch, Field,&Sanders, 1981; Lorch, Anderson, & Levin, 1979). Moreover, numerous studies have found that educational series such as Sesame Street produce long-term benefits in school rather than boredom and reduced attention spans.
This is not to say that television is completely without negative effects. Hundreds of studies have confirmed the finding that violent television programs contribute to aggressive behavior among viewers (see Wilson et al., 1997 for a review). The persuasive effects of advertising on children have also been documented (Kunkel, 2001), as has the influence of stereotyped portrayals on television in shaping children’s attitudes (Graves, 1993; Signorelli, 1993).
Nevertheless, even those negative effects that are supported by data do not present the entire picture. Often, far less attention has been devoted to the positive effects that carefully crafted, developmentally appropriate
television programs can hold. If we believe that children can learn negative lessons from television, then it stands to reason that they can learn positive lessons, too. The same medium that leads children to learn product information from a commercial should also be able to help them learn science concepts from an educational program. And the same medium that influences children to act aggressively after exposure to violent programming should also be able to influence them toward cooperative behavior after watching prosocial programming. Research indicates that all of these propositions are true.
Why, then, has the literature on educational effects received so little attention? Part of the reason lies in the fact that a great deal of the research is not easily accessible. Because the literature covers such a wide variety of issues and academic subjects, published research in this area has been scattered across numerous disparate sources, ranging from the Journal of Educational Psychology to Educational Technology Research and Development to the Journal of Mathematical Behavior. Moreover, a significant percentage of the literature has never been published in scholarly circles, appearing only in conference papers, technical reports, or research reports to producers and funders.
It is intended to serve two main purposes. The first is to make the disparate literature on the impact of educational television more accessible by gathering it into a centralized resource. To that end, the volume draws together empirical data on the impact of educational television programs (both academic and prosocial) on children’s knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavior.
The second is to address an equally important gap in the existing research literature. Although, as we will see, numerous studies have shown that children learn from exposure to educational television, there has been very little theoretical work to explain why or how these effects occur.
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