Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
43 The effects
of television
on children
and adolescents
U
c
m
Unesco
This series of Reporls and Papers on Mass Communication is issued by the Mass Communication
Terhniques Division of Unesco. Unless otherwise stated, the reports m a y be reproduced in full
or in part, provided credit is given to Unesco. T h e following reports and papers have so far been
issued and ate obtainable from National Distributors of Unesco Publications or from the M a s s
Communication Techniques Division, Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7e.
- -
1 1 Paper /or Printing (other than Newsprint) and Writing 1929-1951 Trends. March 1954 (out of print).
12 Paper /or Printing and Writing Tentative Forecasts of D e m a n d in 1955. 1960 and 1965. April 1954 (out of print).
13 Tentative International Bibliography o/ Works Dealing with Press Problems (1 900-1952). September 1954 (out
of print).
-
14 Catalogues o/ Short Films and Filmstrips Selected List. February 1955 ($0.40; 2/- (Stg.) ; 1 F).
15 Catalogue o/ French Ethnographical Films. May 1955 ($0.40 ; 2/- (Stg.); 1 F).
16 Television and Tele-Clubs in Rural Communities .July 1955 ($0.40; 2/- (Stg.); 0,50F).
17 International Rules /or the Cataloguing o/ Educational. Scientilic and Cultural Films and Filmstrips. Preliminary
edition, May 1956 (out of print).
18 A Manual for Evaluators o/ Films and Filmstrips. May 1956 ($0.40;2/- (Stg.) i 1 F).
19 List of Films R e c o m m e n d e d for Children and Adolescents up to I6 Years Followzng Selection made in 22 Countries.
J u n e 1956 (out of print).
20 Catalogue o/ 50 Popular Scienra L-' '-.it of print).
United Er wion
The effects
of television
on children
and adolescents
A n annotated bibliography
with an introductory overview
of research results
Prepared by
The International Association for
MaskI Communication Research'-:
Amsterdam J
Editor,
Wilbur Schramm , Director, Institute
for Communication Research,
Stanford University, U .S .A.
Unesco
PREFACE
Foreword ................................... 5
The Bibliography
A . Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
B . Related Studies of Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A . Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
B . Related Studies of Other Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
A . Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
B . Related Studies of Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
A . Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
B . Related Studies of Other Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
A . Psychological Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
B . Relationship to Delinquency and Crime . . . . . . . . . 45
C . Studies of Violent Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
A . Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
B . Related Studies of Film ................. 48
The bibliographywhich followsis intendedto repre- between us and the scholar who did read it. There
sent allthe significantbehavioural research dealing m a y even have been some misunderstanding as to
with the effect of television on children. the kind of material to be included. It is a difficult
W e have defined behavioural research as experi- undertaking, of course, to make an international
ment, survey,or clinical study dealing with human bibliography, and a much more difficult one to make
behaviour. Therefore,we have not included articles an international annotated bibliography which will
ofcriticism and commentarynot based on research. be complete and accurate. W e therefore solicit
Many of the critical articles, of course, are rich corrections and additions from scholars in all
in wisdom and insight. But in the last decade a countries who feel that such should be made.
phenomenal number of persons have set down on The reader m a y wonder why we have included a
paper their thoughts on television; and to separate number of film studiesin this televisionbibliography
out the wise and insightful statements from the W e have done so because we considered them per-
others would require a set of personal judgements tinent. The experience of viewing television, of
that would inevitably be questioned and could not course, differs from that of viewing films in the
easily be defended. O n the other hand, there is immediacy and timeliness of the experience, and
little difference of opinion about the standards of in the fact that it usually takes place in the home
scientific investigation. By requiringthatan article rather than the theatre, and alone or in a small
or a book reflect at least elementary standards of group rather than in a large audience. But on the
scientific research we have been able to separate other hand there are more likenesses than differ-
out the kind of knowledge about television's effect ences between the two experiences. They both
on children which has been gathered and analysed appeal to the visual and auditory senses; they both
systematically, which should be verifiable by display movement; much of the content of enter-
replication,and which has been described so fully tainmentfilms is like that of entertainment televi-
and accurately that we can judge whether it is sion,and educationalfilms cover the same ground
possible to generalize and where. as educational television; and in fact the experi-
Even in making a selection ofthe research,how- -
ences tendto merge as,for example,when movies
ever,it was necessary to make at least one personal or filmed programmes are seen on television, and
judgement; whether the article was significant or when films are used, as they very often are, for
trivial. Some of the work which was, by our defi- "television'' research. It seems to us, therefore,
nition, research,was hardly worth presenting in a that any summary of present knowledge of the
bibliographyof this kind. For example, a student's effect of television must take account of what has
survey of the attitudes toward television of one been learned, in the last several decades, about
fourth-grade class in a school in the American the effect of films. Accordingly,we have included
Middle West m a y be a useful exercise for the some ofthe chieffilm studies and also afew studies
student but is of little interest or importance else- of other media for comparison with television.
where in the United States, and still less in other Finally, w e have tried to represent research
countries of the world. Fortunately, there have series by the last or summary publications, rather
been relatively few such articles in print, and in than by listing every separate publication. Thus,
deciding what is trivial,what is significant,we have for example, rather than listing each of the annual
tried to err rather on the side of includingtoo much reports of Professor Paul Witty on his television
than of excluding too much. panel,we have listed the most recent report which
W e have tried to find and represent the signi- summarized the earlier ones.
ficant research on the topic, but undoubtedly we It is not feasibleto try to name all the individuals
have missed some. If so,this is a matter of great who have been helpful in gathering these titles,but
regretto us,and a deficiency which we hope will be we should like to name a few: Professor Fernand
taken care of in later printings. W e have done as Terrou of the University of Paris, under whose
much as possible within time and budgetary limi- care, as Secretary-General of the International
tations to have competent scholars search the Association for Mass Communication Research,the
scholarly literature of every nation which has had project began, and Professor Maarten Rooy, of the
experience with television. In the case of some Universityof Amsterdam,under w h o m , as present
languages, however, it has not been possible for Secretary-General of the IAMCR the project was
us to read the original publications ourselves, and completed; the Centre Audio-Visuel of the Ecole
there m a y have been incomplete understanding Normale SupCrieure, at St. Cloud, and especially
5
M r . Tardy, who made the annotations of French Dr. G. Lanius , of the Institut fur Film und Bild
scholarship in television; Professor M.Kafel, of at Munich; Dr. Gerhardt Maletzke, of the Hans
the University of Warsaw, who was responsible for Bredow Institut, University of Hamburg; the authors
listing research in Poland, the Soviet Union, the of the Unesco bibliography on the effect of films
German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia; on children,who saved us muchtime in seeking out
M r . Takeo Furu, of the Radio and Television Cul- the relevant film studies; and, most of all, m y
ture Research Institute of the Japan Broadcasting colleaguesinthe writing of Television in the Lives
Company, and M r . Takeaki Naito,a graduate stu- of Our Children. Professor Jack Lyle of the
dent at Stanford University,who directed us to the University of California, and Professor Edwin
Japanese publications; Dr. Hilde Himmelweit, of Parker, of Stanford, who collaborated with m e in
the London School of Economics, whose volume the preparation of the earlier bibliography which
Television and the Child, and the included biblio- was of great assistance in preparing the present
graphy,has put all television scholars in her debt; work.
6
WHAT THE R E S E A R C H SAYS -A BRIEF OVERVIEW
7
acid, or a 3,000kilocycle radio wave, is not re- differences, with some confidence, to the unique
strained by any worry that we might cause it pain, experience. But in the laboratory he can control
damage its personality, teach it a bad habit, or only a fragment of life. He can do very little with
shame it before its peer group. Yet these consi- cumulative effects. H e must be very cautious and
derations are constantly before us when we experi- conservative in specifyingthe conditions under which
ment with children. For example, our ethics forbid the effects he has seen in the laboratory will be
US to find out whether television produces delin- seen in life outside the laboratory. O n the other
quency by the obvious experimentalmethod oftrying hand, if he experiments in a life situation,then he
to produce delinquency by means of television. has less control over his experiment. H e m a y be
Thus many illuminatingbut severe experiments are working, as it were, with a contaminated test tube,
ethically out of bounds when w e deal with humans, or with hidden conditions.
and particularly with young humans for whose wel- None of these problems is unique to television;
fare w e feel a special responsibility. the situation is c o m m o n to studies of many kinds of
Furthermore, these effects which w e are so human behaviour. Yet the difficulties are suffi-
greatly restricted in studying are extremely com- cient to warn us not to expect too much, too soon,
plex ones. A child responds to a television pro- and too specifically,from research on the effects
g r a m m e with his whole life. The television stimulus of television.
enters into a nervous system where many years of
learned responses determine how the new stimulus
will be perceived and what shall be done about it. WHY CHILDREN WATCH TELEVISION
In turn the new stimulus, if accepted, m a y contri-
bute to that storehouse and have something to do What is the appeal of television to children? For
with a later response to an entirely different one thing, of course, it is popular because it is
stimulus. The response to any television will be near at hand and easy to use. When the researcher
influenced to some extent by the group relationships digs into the psychological reasons beyond easy
ofthe respondent. In other words, any ofthe child's availability,he generally comes to about the same
complex behaviour is likely to have a complex conclusion as Keilhacker on film (45),that the chief
cause, and it is extremely hard to decide what part reasons for going to the cinema are, first, the
any single television programme played in causing desire to escape from everyday life, and second,
it. This is particularly important because the the desire to get to know real life better. In similar
effects of a continuing stimulus like television m a y vein, Himmelweit e (10) conclude that televi-
be cumulative. What seems to have no effect today sion's appeal for children consists of giving them
m a y contribute to an effect many days from now, a chance to be "in the know.. . going behind the
just as countless drops of calcareous water falling, scenes ... learning about the world and about
during many years, from the roof of a cave build a people. O n the emotional side,television ... offers
huge stalagmite. Because the causes are complex, security and reassurance through the familiar
w e are likely to overestimate the effect of the format and themes of many of its programmes,
television programme that seems related to them; notably the family serials and the Westerns. It
because the effects are cumulative and often re- offers constant change, excitement, and suspense.
mote, w e mayunderestimatethe effect of atelevision It provides escape from everyday demands with
programme that seems harmless. lightheartedness, glamour, and romance, and
No parent,teacher,or communication researcher permits the child to identify himself with different
needs to be told that there are often great differ- romantic heroes". (p. 15)
ences between the responses of different children Schramm (12) likewise conclude that there
to the same programme. A child responds with all are two main classes of reason: "first, the obvious
its related experience andthe whole of its individual reason: the passive pleasure of being entertained,
personality. The chemical in the test tube waits pas- living a fantasy, taking part vicariously in thrill
sivelyforthe experimentalsubstanceto be added, play, identifying with exciting and attractive people,
but the child comes activelyto television, seeking, getting away from real-life problems, and escaping
selecting,disposing,reacting. What the child brings -
real-life boredom in other words, all the gratifi-
to televisionis therefore as important as what tele- cations that come from having a superlative means
vision brings to the child. It is a complex inter- of entertainment in one's living room, at one's
action, command ... But there is, nevertheless, a signi-
A researcher,in deciding how to study these ficant component of information which children also
complicated and obscure relationships between get, usually without seeking, from television ...
cause and effect, has to make a cruel choice. If The girls say they learn something about how to
he wants a controlled and "clean" experiment he wear their hair, how to walk and speak, how to
can set up a laboratory situation in which for a choose garments for a tall or a short or a plump
limited time he can control the experiences of two girl, by observing the well-groomed creatures on
groups of children. B y designing the experiment TV. They learn some details of manners and cus-
so that one group has all the experiences of the .
toms . . Some of the boys say they learn how young
other m, it is possible to observe the dif- m e n dress in California or New York. Some of
ferent behaviours of the two groups and ascribe the them say they learn a lot by watching the good
a
athletes ... Children will say of television: 'The those found in England or Japan. In England, the
news is more real when you see where it happens,'" Himmelweit , Oppenheim, Vince study (10)found
(p. 57-58). that children 10-11 and 13-14 years old averaged
These same authors (12) suggest a subsidiary about 1.9 hours a day, which is a little less than
appeal of television - its social utility. "For the American average for those ages. This m a y be
example, teenagers find that television is a useful because less television and fewer station choices
tool in providing an excuse for boys and girls to en- are available in England. Maletzke (1 1) found that
joy each other's company, or furnishing something German youth, 15 to 20 years old, averaged only
to do on dates ... The previous evening's television 7 to 8 hours a week, or barely over an hour a day.
programmes provide an excellent c o m m o n ground It is not known whether this is a result of less tele-
of shared experiences for conversations ... This vision being available in Germany, of the age-group
social use of television is not essentially different selected, or of a real difference in television's at-
from social use of an automobile or any other in- tractiveness to young people of different countries.
strument that bulks large in a child's world."(p. 59) Wherever television becomes available for a
Writing on "Why D o Children Watch Television?" number of hours a day, it dominates the leisure
(91), Maccoby points out that when we say televi- time of children. Himmelweit , Oppenheim, and
sion is interesting to a child, we make a statement Vince have suggested several principles that help
not only about the programme but also about the to explain the changes television brings about in
viewer: "If it is interesting,it strikes a responsive leisure patterns. The activities most readily
chord in him - satisfies a particular need, supplies sacrificed are those which satisfy the same needs
wanted information, or perhaps offers release from as television, but less effectively. For example,
general tension." (p. 240) She then turns to describ- younger children will go less often to the cinema
ing the different functions of fantasy for different when they have television in their homes; they will
individuals. This has been the trend of many psy- read fewer comic books, and read less magazine
chological approaches to children's viewing -trying fiction; they will spend less time on radio. These
to puzzle out the interaction between different kinds activities meet about the same needs as television.
of television and different kinds of children, trying But on the other hand, the reading of newspapers
to understand what it is in the personality, group and non-fiction books will hardly be affected by
relations, and stored experiences of the child that television,because these activities answer different
makes him seek one kind of experience rather than needs than does television. Similarly, the adoles-
another, from television. There is no opportunity cent's movie-going will be less affected than will
in this brief introduction to go into these analyses, the younger child's, because for the adolescent the
but references to them will be found in the biblio- movies represent a valued social experience,
graphy itself. whereas for the younger child they represent tele-
vision in a theatre. For children, especially
adolescents, radio comes to have a different func-
TELEVISION'S EFFECT ON A tion after television comes into use; instead of a
CHILD'S LEISURE TIME comedy, drama, variety source, it tends to become
a source of popular music. And, finally, the
About one thing the research leaves us in no doubt marginal and unorganized activities are more likely
whatsoever: when childrenhave television available, to be replaced by television than are the organized
they make a phenomenal amount of use of it. ones, until, as Dr. Himmelweit says, there is "a
Estimates from a number of countries cited in consequent reduction of leisure itself as children's
the following bibliography indicate that the average lives inevitably become more crowded''. These
child of elementary school and high school age are the three principles - that when television
(6 to 16)devotesto television from 12 to 24 hours a comes in, functionally similar activities will be
week. The studies also indicate that elementary replaced, whereas functionally different ones will
schoolchildren spend, on the average, a little more not; that certain activities (for example, radio
time viewing than do high school students. listening) will be transformed in function; and that
In the United States, where the most extensive marginal or unorganized activities will be replaced
measurements of viewing by children of different before purposive and organized ones.
ages have been made, (12) it is estimated that a Children's bedtime tends to be slightly later in
child of 3 is already averaging about 45 minutes a television homes (17 minutes in Japan, 11 in
day on television. By the time the child is in the Canada) (9, 12). In Japan, homework time was
first grade (age 5 or 6), he is spending about two found to be reduced about 14 minutes an evening
hours a day in front of the television set. The when television came in; Canada found a slight,
amount of time spent slowly increases with age and but not significant, difference in homework time.
withlater bedtimes,until apeak is reached at age 12 In Canada, the children in a television town spent
or 13 when the average child is viewing about three significantlyless time playing than did the children
hours a day. During the high school years(l3to 16), in a comparable town without television. In England
the viewing time again decreases to about 2 hours and Japan, however, no significant decrease was
a day. This curve is consistent with other evidence noted in time devoted to social activity (10,9).
on the subject, and the daily averages are not unlike But the impressive figure that emerges from the
9
A NORTH AMERICAN CHILD'S TELEVISION TIME
(Data from 12)
AGE 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
% of children 6th G R A D E
viewing
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1
A.M. P.M.
10 #.----- S U N D A Y VIEWING- W E E K D A Y VIEWING
11
Learning from Television : Some of the Findings
GREAT BRITAIN
Brighter students among viewers fell Gain only for younger,slower children (10)
behind non-viewers(10) Schoolboy viewers better than non-viewers
Viewers among schoolboys did less well in test of general knowledge (56)
than non-viewers (56)
CANADA
JAPAN
UNITED STATES
12
Most of the debate, however, has centred not on parts of" their favourite television heroes and
the effect of television on school grades, or on the heroines. Maccoby states (78). "There is reason
effectiveness of instructional television,but rather to believe that children'sattitudes and beliefs can
on the incidentallearningwhich children derive from be shaped by what they see on television, and that
the two hours or more a day they spend on enter- emotions and impulses are aroused in the child
tainment television. Does television broaden their viewer to-match those portrayed by ssreen charac-
-
horizons? Does it teach them skills desirable or ters. .. /Children also use television/ as one of
undesirable? Does it give them a distorted view of the sources from which they draw material for
the adult world? organizing and interpreting their experiences. They
The general conclusion, as stated by Dr. also use it to prepare themselves for their future
Himmelweit recently in a manuscript statement lives as students, as marriage partners, as m e m -
concerning the British film inquiry, is disappoint- bers of a professional or occupational group."" It
ment that television does not teach children more is clear that some of the customs and fashions
than it does. "Surely a medium with such possibi- which used to be learned in the home and from the
lities as television should be able to do more", she peer group are now acquired from television. In
writes. " W e should by now be able to point with some cases, also, children in trouble with the law
pride to a younger generation more curious,better have said that they have learned how to commit a
informed, more enterprising,through having been crime from television crime dramas. Although
able to offer them a window to the world. What is illegal skills like this m a y often be part of a child's
wrong? It seems to m e a devastating indictment incidental learning from television, still only a few
that while the ten-year-olds still pick up some children ever make use of such skills. The soil
knowledge from television,by the time they reach on which such seeds of knowledge fall determines
13 only the dull ones do so, and that the television to a large extent whether the seeds mature. And
hold becomes less the more intelligent the child ... before the advent of television, children in trouble
It must give even more cause for reflection to rea- often reported that they had learned criminal beha-
lize that these children view almost exclusively viour from the movies, from radio, from tkie dime
programmes designed for family and adult enter- novels, and indeed from every source of mass
tainment. Is it perhaps that much of the evening media and personal experience.
entertainment is at the level of a ten to eleven-year
old?" (p. 1).
It was found in Canada that children in a televi- WHEN D O E S TELEVISION AFFECT A CHILD'S
sion town came -to the first grade of school with OUTLOOK AND V A L U E S ?
vocabularies about a year more advanced than
children in a town without television (12). Half a Television has its m a x i m u m psychological effect
dozen years later, however, these differences had on children, one of the ablest writers on the sub-
disappeared, and the children with television knew ject has said. when:
actually less about public affairs (althoughmore 1. The values or viewpoints recur from programme
about entertainment matters) than the children with- to programme;
out television. Here, as in other studies, it was 2. The values are presented in dramatic form so
found that in the early school years the bright that they evoke emotional reactions;
children seem to make more use of and learn more 3. They link with the child's immediate needs and
from television, whereas after age 12 or 13 the interest s ;
slower children seem to use television more and 4. The viewer tends to be uncritical of,and attached
gain more from it, while the brighter ones depend to, the medium (e.g. , he has not developed
more and more on print (see 65). However, there 'I adult discountI' );
is also some evidence (e.g., 70) that parents and 5. The viewer, through his friends, parents, or
teachers think the level of general knowledge is immediate environment, is not already supplied
increased by television. with a set of values which would provide a
Studies of television content, of course, vary in standard against which to assess the views
their results from country to country,but many of offered on television. (10)
them point out that television brings a child face to Thus, in order to predict the effect of television
face with adult problems long before he ordinarily one must know something about the television and
would meet them, and in some countries at least something about the child. A child with high aggres-
tends to give him a view of adult life that is sion willprobablymake specialuse of the aggressive
distorted in terms of social class, desirable occu- material he finds in a television programme. Many
pations,and violent ways of solving problems (see children m a y learn from a television crime pro-
Section VI-C). T o what extent this television world gramme how a holdup is committed,but only a few
view becomes a child's real world view, affects his children - for example, some who have psycho-
plans and expectations and preparations, and con- pathic tendencies or have fallen under the influence
trols his behaviour as an adult is not yet fullyknown. of a criminal gang - are likely ever to make use of
There is no doubt that children imitate some of this information. For most children, television
the fashions and customs they see on television.
They "play out" television situations, and "take the QSee the important experiment by Siege1 (141)
13
will be a pleasing experience, a relaxation of ten- paid by researchers to the possible effect of all
sions and relief from pressing problems; but to this violence. N o other corresponding effect has
some children it will be a confusing experience be- been so closely studied. The original hypothesis
cause they will be unable entirely to separate the was that television violence might serve as a safety
fantasy world of television from the real world. valve, by means of which a child might rid himself
Thus the same television programme will not have vicariously of pent-up aggressions. This was the
the same effect on all children, any more than will conclusion of an early experiment by Feshbach( 131).
the same child derive the same effect from all However, other researchers have been unable to
programmes. replicate that result, and a series of experiments
But there is one element in the relation of child have now come out with exactly the opposite result
to programme which seems rather more important (see 121, 123-127, 129, 133, 140). Some of these
than any of the others in determining what effectthe experiments are very ingenious, and the similarity
programme has. This is the extent to which the of their results gives us considerable confidence in
child can identify with one or more of the characters their conclusions.
in a programme. By identification, w e mean the The typical method used in such experiments is
experience of being able to put oneself so deeply to frustrate a group of children so that they develop
into a television character, feel oneself to be so a high level of aggression. Then they are shown a
like the character, that one can feel the same emo- film or a television recording of a drama in which
tions and experience the same events as the charac- aggressive behaviour plays a prominent part. (In
ter is supposed to be feeling and experiencing. Thus different experiments, the ending, the type of
it is as though the viewer himself were passing aggression, the nature of the characters, and other
through the story which unfolds on the television elements of the story are varied.) A similar group
screen, and as though he himself were making the of children,who have not been frustrated,are shown
decisions, enduring the dangers, and winning the the same programme. Then the members of the
victories which the screen hero wins. When a child two groups are given chancesto express anyaggres-
thus identified himself with a character,he is much -
sion they m a y have either by behaviour or in
more ready to accept an idea or attitude which his tests of some type. Invariably there has been a
hero accepts, or to feel the fright of somethingthat great difference between the experimental and the
threatens his hero, or the anger his hero feels at control group. The children who were not frus-
some dastardly deed done to him. The emotional trated (the control group) seem no more aggressive
experience of viewing is thus heightened, and the than they were before seeing the picture. But the
likelihood of influence is considerably increased. children who were initially frustrated (the experi-
mental group) have not reduced their aggression;
if anything, they have built it up. They have in
TELEVISION AND DELINQUENCY many cases found ways to express it. For example,
shown a programme in which a large doll was pum-
Most students of television effects on children are melled and pounded, the experimental group pounded
unwilling to say, however, that identification or and punched the doll as they had seen done in the
incidental learning from television plays any large programme (125). The control group did not.
part in causing delinquency or crime. The roots Of course, this experiment proves only that the
of this criminal behaviour lie far deeper than tele- aggressive children had learned to take out their
vision; they reach into the personality, the family aggressions on the same target used in the pro-
experience, the peer group relationships of the gramme. Whether they would generalize the im-
delinquent or criminal individual. At most, televi- pulse, and act aggressively toward other persons
sion can be merely a contributory cause, and is or objects, would probably depend on other condi-
likely to affect only the child who is already mal- tions not controlled by the experimenter. But
adjusted and delinquency-prone. these results are not entirely reassuring, because
Television m a y contribute by teaching a criminal they leave little doubt that violent programmes on
skill which m a y be used when the individual decides television do not serve to reduce aggression vica-
to commit a crime. It m a y trigger off an act of riously, but if anything increase it and encourage
delinquency by feeding a child's aggressive nature. its later expression. W e know that children with
O r it m a y encourage delinquent behaviour by im- high levels of aggression are especially attracted
planting an unreal idea of the importance of violent to violent programmes on television. If television
behaviour in solving human problems. But in any now feeds, rather than reduces children's aggres-
of these cases, television by itself cannot make a sive tendencies, and if it gives them hints as to how
normal, well-adjusted child into a delinquent. This to take out aggression with fists, knives, or guns,
is the almost unanimous conclusion of research and then an opportunity m a y come to use those weapons
clinical investigation. at a moment when they are angry. W e assume this
does not happen often because social norms teach
THE EFFECT OF VIOLENCE them not to behave in such a way. But certainly
there is little to make us believe that violent
Because so much of the entertainment a child sees programmes on television reduce the likelihood of
on television is violent, special attention has been violence in real life.
14
N o w let us add another possible element to the group relationship and who has no foundation of
situation. Suppose an aggressive child regularly mental illness. For this reason, parents have been
identified with a hero who himself uses violence to advised that the greatest defence they can raise
solve problems. For example, French investiga- against possible ill-effects of television is to make
tors (135)found that delinquent boys were veryfond their children feel loved and secure at home, and
of a certain film hero who "fights ... knows how to to help them to satisfactory relationships with
treat women ... overcomes all obstacles ... res- friends their o w n age. And so far as fright is con-
pects no moral code and frequently plays an ambi- cerned, parents can help their children to avoid
guous r81e; one can never tell whether he is on the programmes that are too frightening.
side of the police or the side of the gangsters". O n the other hand, there are cases in the litera-
Analysing the reactions of the boys they were study- ture (for example, 157-160). which show that tele-
ing, they concluded that such a mass media experi- vision or films m a y contribute to a case of mental
ence as this is especially dangerous for juvenile illness, when the condition exists. What television
delinquents or potential delinquents. Worries have will contribute depends, then, on the situation, as
also been expressed about the effect on aggressive well as on television content, and the situation de-
children of seeing television heroes who, although pends largely on the personality and environment
on the right side of an argument, still use violence of the child.
to solve interpersonal problems, and themselves Dr. Lawrence Z.Freedman, a psychiatrist,
take on the punishing of the "bad guy". points out that most children in a reasonably stable
An interesting study by Riley and Riley (138) environment, do not confuse the make-believe
points out that a child's peer group relationships world of television with the real experiences of
help to determine how he reacts to violent pro- personal and family relationships (157). "Most
grammes. The child who has unsatisfactory rela- youngsters find the immediate personal relation-
tions with children his o w n age is often driven to a ships more compelling and rewarding than the
fantasy life in which the violence and excitement of animated,pictorial substitutes",he says. "... The
the picture tube helps him to forget his o w n frus- intensity and psychic significance of the child's
trations in real life. This is the kind of child who response to television is the reciprocal of the
is more likely than others to confuse the borders satisfaction he gains in the milieu of his family,
of fantasy and reality, and to make use of violence school, and friends. One would predict that the
learned from television in order to win honours less intelligent, the most disturbed youngsters,
from his peer group. W e know that unsatisfactory and those having the poorest relationships with their
home relationships are likely also to drive him to families and peers would be most likely to immerse
a fantasy life with television (12). Thus a child's themselves in televiewing as escape and stimulus,'I
home and group relationships are likely to have (p. 191-192).
much to do with the influence,if any, he derives Dr. Freedman constructs a pattern of the re-
from television violence. sults likely to occur when television interacts with
O n the whole,the weight of the evidence is behind various degrees of mental instability and malad-
Berkowitz's conclusion (126)that "the heavy dosage justment. Children with schizoid personalities,
of violence in the mass media", although not a who tend to avoid intimate relationships with other
major determinant of crime or delinquency, persons and to live deeply within their own day-
"heightens the probability that someone in the dreams and fantasies, are likely to use television
audience will behave aggressively in a later situa- as a retreat from the stresses of personal relation-
tion", (p. 134). ships. Children with hysterical and dissociative
tendencies,who easily identify with and imitate
their models, m a y easily find models on television,
TELEVISION AND M A L A D J U S T M E N T but the origin of their illness is not in television.
Psychopathic children, poised to rebel, m a y also
For the reasons just suggested, one of the most -
find a model of rebellion on television but the
important topics in the literature of television re- model does not originate their illness. Psychotic
search is the relation of television experience to a children, confused in their identifications,frigh-
child's social adjustment and his mental health. tened by the violence of their impulses, m a y find
This has not yet been adequately examined because in a violent episode on television the trigger that
of the scarcity of clinical studies, and especially brings about their o w n violent behaviour. O r they
of long-term clinical studies. The conclusions, m a y , if they are psychotically suggestible, follow
therefore, must be summarized in a tentative form. literally and completely the recommendations of
There is ample evidence that television some- television advertisers and characters. But it must
times frightens children, and of what kind ofmate- be pointed out again that the origin of their trouble
rial is most frightening (see 10). But children is not intelevision,but rather intheir personalities
often like to be frightened (witness the popularity and their social relationships.
of the roller-coaster!). And, no scholar contends Does television make children passive and with-
that television is likely to have a deleterious effect drawn? There is no proof that it does (but see 158),
on the social adjustment or the mental health of a although television clearly m a y contribute to
child who enjoys a warm and solid home and peer passivity and withdrawal when there is already a
15
schizoidtendency present. As Freedman points out, (12,165). Even eye weariness resulting from pro-
"when the automobile removed youngsters from the tracted and improper viewing can be overcome in a
surveillance of their homes, we were concerned short period of rest, a Japanese study found (163).
for their morals. N o w television immobilizes them
in the living room and w e deplore their passivity",
(p. 193). Nor is there any real evidence that S O M E NEEDED R E S E A R C H
television is good or bad for home life. It keeps
children more often at home. But watching televi- This has been merely a suggestive account, and
sionin a group does not seem to make for a really in no sense a complete summary, of the research
strong group relationship; each member of the listed in the bibliography that follows. Even this
family reacts individually more often than as part overview, however, must have suggested some of
of a group, to the television he sees. The conclu- the gaps in the research. W e are now rich in sur-
sion is that television is not likely either to ruin a veys, and, except where a country which has not
healthy home relationship or rescue an unhealthy had a large survey wants a broad picture of the
one. And a reasonable corollary is that the quality television behaviour of its children in order to see
of a child's social relationships is more likely to how their behaviour is different from that revealed
control his use of television,than vice versa. by other such surveys,there seems less need now
for survey than for experiment. Perhaps the most
obvious need is for additional close experimental
PHYSICAL E F F E C T S and clinical studies ofthe effect which a given kind
of television has on a given kind of child. It m a y
In general, the evidence on physical effects is be a long time before close, careful studies like
negative. Televisionpostpones average bedtimes a these answer all the effect questions, but without
few minutes, but seems to decrease sleeping time such studies w e shall never be able to say clearly
very little because children who have stayed up and sharply what w e are measuring and where our
later appearto goto sleep more quickly. It is true results apply. Whenever possible these studies
that there are reports in the research of children should be extended over a period of years, so that
who are frightened by eveningtelevision and unable we m a y begin to understand the cumulative effects
to go to sleep, and of children who are sleepy in of television.
school because they have stayed up late at night to Another aspect of television which deserves
see a programme, but none of the studies can find more attention than it has had in the past, is the
any evidence of widespread fatigue or other phy- problem of how to realize the potential of the
sical effect related to television. Indeed,there is medium. Early in this chapter we reported some
some reason to think that standards of behaviour disappointment with the fact that television had not
set by the parents m a y have more to do than tele- completely fulfilled its potential as a window on
vision with late bedtimes, and that if these same the world; it had not given us a generation better
homes did not have television the children might informed,more curious,and so forth. Instead of
still stay up late for other purposes. that it has merely provided the average child with
Nor is there any evidence that television,viewed two to three hours ofdaily entertainment. Perhaps
properly, has a bad effect on children's eyesight. now we should study howto make the non-entertain-
Some specialists say that reading is as likely as ment,non-fictionalprogrammes on television more
viewing to cause eyestrain, and others say thzt interesting, so that they will attract their share
viewing is good "exercise" for the eyes. In general of viewers and contribute their share of learning.
(see 10, p. 441), opthalmologists advise children And perhaps, too, w e need to study how taste is
to view television in a room where the television formed,so that instead of narrowing our children's
receiver is not the only source of light, and not to taste around a certain level of entertainment w e
sit closer than six feet from the screen,and to sit can broaden their television interests and encourage
with the screen at approximately eye level. (The them to use television when possible as a window
British opthalmologists say, "eye level or slightly on the world rather than as a momentary escape
below"; the Polish say, "eye level,or abit higher", from the stresses of growing up.
16
I. BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND S U M M A R I E S
18
11. LARGE GENERAL STUDIES OF CHILDREN AND TELEVISION
9. Furu. Takeo. Television and children's life: in this bibliography except as they add signifi-
A before-after study. Tokyo, Japan Broadcast- cant findings to those reported in this summary
ing Corporation, Radio and Television Culture article.
Research Institute, 1962. (In Japanese).
10. Himmelweit , Hilde , Oppenheim , A.N. and
In a medium-size Japanese industrial city, 3,700 Vince. Pamela. Television and the child; an
children in the third,fifth,and eighth grades,were empirical study of the effects of television on
selected by sampling school classes,and informa- the young. In collaboration with D.Blumenthal
tion was obtained about their daily routines after and others. London, N e w York, Published
school. At the time of this first survey, television for the Nuffield Foundation by the Oxford
was not yet available in that city. T w o years later, University Press, 1958. 522 p.
after both commercial and non-commercial televi-
sion had come into the city, the former third and This carefully designed research was carried out
fifth-grade students were followed up, and it was with equally great care in England in 1955 m d
possibletointerview about 80 per cent of them, Of 1956. Atotal of 473 thirteen- and fourteen-year-old
these,about 30 per cent now had television in their children and 454 ten- and eleven-year-oldchildren,
homes. A control group,matched as well as pos- who habitually viewed television, were matched
sible, was formed from the pupils whose families wite groups of similar size, age, sex, I.&. , and
did not yet have television. The children with tele- social class who did not view television. In addition
vision (the experimental group) and those without to these comparisons between viewers and non-
television (the control group) were then compared viewers, the researcher also made a study of 376
in a number of ways. children in Norwich, before and after their families
It was found that fifth-grade boys with television installed television. These children kept diaries
went to bed on Sunday, on the average, about 17 and answered questions. Questions were also
minutes later than the control group. H o m e work asked of teachers, and the content of television
time was reduced,on the average,about 14 minutes programmes was analysed.
a day in the same group of boys. (The difference The following summary of conclusions is
was in the same direction and significant for the reprinted, with permission, for Schramm, Lyle,
. -
other groups also.) Television had replaced some and Parker, Television in the Lives of Our
of the time previously spent on other media, and Children (q.v.):
home activities such as chores and playtime were W h o are the early viewers? The people with
also somewhat reduced in the television group as strongest need for ready-made entertainment.
compared to the control group. H o w many hours per week do children view
O n the other hand, there was only a very little television? Viewers in both age-groups watched
difference between the two groups in respect of 1 1 to 13 hours a week, more time than they put on
time devoted to social and creative activities. any other leisure activity.
The increase in reading ability between the be- What factors reduce interest in andtime spent
fore and after tests was significantly smaller for on viewing? Lower viewing goes with high intelli-
the seventh-gradeboys from the television homes. gence, with an active life, and with parental
There was no significant difference between the example in that direction.
girls I experimental and controlgroups of the same D o the children watch many programmes
grade. N o noteworthy differences were found in designed for adults? Yes, many.
their scores on science and social studies achieve- What kinds of programmes do children like
ment tests. -
best? Three-quarters of the votes were for adult
Paper and pencil tests in after-only comparison programmes, particularly crime thrillers. Adult
failed to reveal any greater "passivity", "escapist political programmes, documentaries,and discus-
tendency", or "nervous tendency" in the television sions held little appeal. Even the most popular
children. programme, however, was mentioned by no more
This study was made by the Radio and Television than one -third of the children.
Cultural Research Institute of the Japan Broadcast- Can children's tastes be developed by seeing
ing Company (NHK). Earlier reports on some programmes which are not,on the whole, popular
parts of it were published in the Institute's Monthly with children? When only one channel was avail-
Bulletin. These partial reports will not be listed able, it was observed that children viewed and
19
came to like programmes they ordinarily would not 11. Maletzke,_Gerhard.Fernsehen im Leben der
have selected, Jugend LTelevision in the life of youth/.
H o w is taste affected by access (in Great Hamburg,Hans Bredow Institute,1959. 208 p.
Britain) to a second channel? Programmes with
educational value or those produced especially for After summing up some of the previous literature
children are most likely to suffer. on adolescents, delinquency, and television,this
What constitutes television's appeal for book reports a study made from tape recordings
children? Easy availability ... value as time filler of interviews and group discussions with Hamburg
... the satisfaction of being in the know ... security youth. The total sample was 400, divided into
and reassurance through familiar themes and for- matched groups of viewers and non-viewers of
mats ...change,excitement,suspense ...escape ... television. The ages of these youth are 15 to 20,
identification ...w a r m and friendly personalities. and thus the results of this German study cannot
T o what extent is the child's outlook coloured be compared precisely to those of the Himmelweit ,
by what he sees on television? The values of tele- Oppenheim , and Vince study in England (where the
vision make an impact if they are presented in ages were 10 to 14). or the Schramm, Lyle, Parker
dramatic form,if they touch on ideas or values for study in the United States (where the ages were 3
which the child is emotionally ready, and if the to 16). Yet the conclusions are in many ways
child cannot turn for information on the same points parallelto those of both the British and the American
to parents and friends. studies.
What frightens children on television? Realistic These German 15 to 20-year-olds watch tele-
rather than stylized violence; fictional events in vision, on the average, between 7 and 8 hours a
horror or spaceprogrammes. Viewing in the dark week. This is probably somewhat less than their
or alone makes fright more likely. counterparts in the United States (where 16-year-
What types of aggression prove most disturb- olds average between 12 and 14 hours a week).
ing to children? Guns least, daggers and sharp However, German televisionis on only one channel
instruments most. Danger to animalslike Lassie. and many fewer hours of television are available
D o these programmes make children aggres- in Hamburg than in an American city of comparable
-
sive? No evidence was found that they did; but, on size. Half the German youth watch television every
the other hand,there was no evidence of beneficial night. Most of them take it lightly, responding
result. even to TV news as a form of entertainment, and
Does televisionimprove a child's generalknow- being rather uncritical about the source and
=? A net gain was found only for the younger, quality of programmes. As good points about tele-
duller viewers. vision they named, for example, that it carries
H o w does television affect children's school- information,knowledge,and pictures;it entertains;
-
work? Brighter children tended to fall behind
comparable children who were non-viewers.
and it brings movies into the home. As bad points,
they say that television seduces one so that one
What is the effect of television on leisure? spends too much time looking; that it is not good
Younger viewers reduced cinema-going, and all for family life; that it is dull, and suppresses
childrenlistenedlessto radio after television came. both imagination and talk.
Book reading was less at first, then returned to Dr. Maletzke could find no conclusive evidence
the expectedlevel. Entertaining at home increases that television causes juvenile delinquency, or has
with television, but casual companionship some- any clear and spectacular effect whatsoever on the
what decreases. social behaviour of youth.
What is the effect on family life? It keeps
members of the family at home more, but really 12. Schramm. Wilbur, Lyle, Jack and Parker,
does not bind them together. Edwin B. Television in the lives of our
Does television make children passive? The children. With a psychiatrists' comment on
authors found no evidence that it does. the effects of television by Lawrence Z.
Does television make childrenmore enterpris- Freedmann. Stanford, Ca., Stanford Uni-
ing,or stimulatethem to make things, enter c o m - versity Press, 1961. 324 p.
petitions, visit places of interest,or develop new
hobbies? Onthe whole,they conclude,it does not. This book is based on responses (diaries, inter-
What is the effect of television on night rest views, questionnaires)from6,000 children,2,000
and eyesight? Bedtime is, on the average, about parents, and severalhundred teachers in the United
twenty minutes later in television homes, but the States and Canada. Samples came from large
television children turn out the light more quickly cities and small towns, including two comparable
and play less in bed. Defective eyesight was no communities, one with and one without television.
more frequent among viewers than non-viewers. One result of this large study was the most
What type of child becomes a television addict? detailed picture yet obtained of children's televi-
The aul. ors treat addiction simply as heavy view- sion habits. In the United States, about one-third
ing. The chief correlates are lower intelligence, of all children are using television with some
insecurity,maladjustment,and inadequate contacts regularity by the age of 3; 80 per cent of them,
and friendships. by the time they go to kindergarten; 90 per cent,
20
by the time they are in the first grade. At 3, the overwhelmingly as entertainment,escape,fantasy.
average child is spending about 45 minutes a day Is a child better informed as a result of tele-
on television. By the time he is in the first grade, vi.sion?Children in a television town come to school
he is spending alittle over two hours a day on tele- with larger vocabularies than do children in a
vision. Viewing time slowly increases until about comparable town without television. This differ-
the age of 12, when it increases sharply to some- ence vanishes,however,in a few years. Thereafter,
thing over three hours a day. Then viewing time heavy viewers know more about light topics (such
slowly falls again, until by the end of high school as the entertainmentpersonalitiesthey see on tele-
thetimeis again alittle over two hours. But there vision), less about public affairs (whichlightviewers
are great individual differences: when the average seem to learn from print), and neither more nor
is two and one-halfhours,some children are spend- less about subjects like science, which they learn
ing more than four hours on television, and others chiefly in school.
less than 30 minutes. Television dominatesthe mass Does television stimulateintellectual or creative
media time of American children. activity? It is more effective in stimulating
Except in the very early years, there is no interest than activity.
distinct boundary between adult and children's Does television make children passive? No
programmes. First grade children were found to evidence is found for this.
be devoting 40 per cent of their viewing time to Does it prematurely "age" children? It cer-
programmes that are usually thought of as adult. tainly exposes them to adult ideas and behaviour
The authors estimate that well over two-thirds of earlier.
all children's viewingbetweenthe ages of 3 and 16, Does it often frighten children? Almost every
is devoted to programmes for which the majority young child, at some time, is frightened by a tele-
of the audience is adult. vision experience. Findings on frightens
What childl-enare heavy viewers? Those whose children agree with Himmelweit , Oppenheim, and
parents are heavy viewers; in the first six or Vince.
eight years of viewing,the brighter children;after Is television too exciting for children? The
that the brighter childrenturn away, and the slower question is discussed, but no definite answer is
ones become heavier viewers; and children who found.
have family troubles or unsatisfactory social rela- Does televisionviolence teach children violence?
tionships, from which they retreat to television. A child with psychopathic tendencies is likely to
The authors say no informed person can say pick up from television a suggestion for violence.
simply that "television is good or bad for children. A frustrated, aggressive child is at least as likely
For - some children, under Econditions, some to have his aggression increased as to have it re-
television is harmful. For =children under the leased by television, and at a later time when
same conditions, or for the same children under violence is called for he m a y remember some of
other conditions, it m a y be beneficial. For most
- the techniques he learned on television. F o r most
children, under - most conditions, television normal children, there is no evidence that televi-
is probably neither particularly harmful nor parti-' sion brings out in them violent behaviour.
cularly beneficial". Much of the book is therefore Does television cause juvenile delinquency?
devoted to ascertaining the critical conditions. Television can contribute but can hardly be the
Here are brief answers to some of the key basic cause.
questions in the concluding chapters: In the course of discussing other possible
What do children think of television? It has effects, and what parents, broadcasters, and
enormous prestige with them,but the brighter ones researchers can do about it, the authors several
think much less of it in their teens. times point out the importance of a w a r m , secure
What do children use television for? Partly home and of satisfactory peer-group relationships
as a social tool (like an automobile, for a date). as an antidote to any potential harm that might
Largely for its fantasy which lets them put aside come from television.
real life problems. And also for information, for The book has 100 pages of tables, and a long
its help in solving real life problems. But annotated bibliography.
21
111. PATTERNS OF CHILDREN'S U S E OF THE MEDIA AND
E F F E C T S ON THEIR LEISURE TIME'X
20. Boesler, Pawel. Les telespectateurs etJe The content of 70 programmes known to be favou-
programme de la television de Poznan /The- rites of children was measured during one month.
viewers and television programmes in Pozn+/, The programmes included adventure, detective
Biuletyn Telewizyjny, No. 2, 1958. p. 9. and thriller,home drama and comedyprogrammes.
It was found that these would have brought a child
Responses from 258 of 809 television owners in -
into contactwith onlytwo countries (Japan 46 pro-
Poznan to whom questionnaires had been sent led -
grammes, and the United States 22 programmes).
to the conclusion that children and youth constitute In the aggressive-herotype programmes, justice,
about 54 per cent of the viewers of television in courage, and self-confidencewere stressed,while
this part of Poland. About 74 per cent of respon- the villain usually illustrated cruelty, selfishness,
dents expressed themselves as highly pleased with and violence. Certain important characteristics
the children'sprogrammes. desired in everyday life, such as fairness, dili-
gence, and decent manners, were practically
21. British Broadcasting Corporation. Facts and ignored in the four types of drama. In the
figures about viewing and listening, in twelve aggressive-hero type dramas, good invariably
charts with a commentary. London, 1961. 31 p. overcame evil, but in a majority of the cases
violence was the means used to overcome the
Summarizes results of BBC audience survey figures evil,
23
25. Cunningham and Walsh. Videotown, 1948-1957. 28. Fager, J. and Smith,R. N e w views ontelevision,
NewYork,Cunningham and Walsh Pub., 1958. National Parent Teacher,No. 46, 1951. p. 39-40.
21 p.
Slightlymore of the parents in an upper middle-class
This is a summary of ten annual surveys of television suburb thoughtthat television had not affected the
viewinginthe city of N e w Brunswick,N e w Jersey. At parent-child relationshipthan thought it had. Less
the time ofthe first survey,in 1948, only 1 per cent than 3 per cent felt that television harmed their
ofthe homes hadtelevision;in 1957 92.7per centhad children's school work, 20 per centthought it ac-
it. Average hours of viewingincreased slowly to a tually helped. Most of the parents reported that the
peak in 1955, and slowly decreased thereafter. It was children'sinterestin such activities as scouting,
3.21 hours a dayin 1957. Aboutthree-fourths of all dramatics and music had notbeenlessened by tele-
children viewed on an average eveningin 1957 -two vision,and most reported no bad effects on sleeping
hours per evening onthe average. The general ave - or eating habits or emotional adjustment.
rage for children under 10 was abouttwo hours a day
on television; children 10-18 averaged 2.4 hours. As 29. Fine, B.J . and Maccoby , N. Television and
television came into Videotown, movie attendance family life; a survey of two N e w England c o m m u -
was verymuch reduced,as was magazine reading. nities, Boston, Boston UniversitySchool of
Radio listeninghad fallen almost to nothingby 19 51, Public Relations and Communications,1952.
but thereafter slightly increasedeachyear. Of all 37 p.
the media, onlythe newspaper has never shown any
reduction in time attributable to television. A study of childrenintwo N e w England communities
found that adolescents watch less television than
26. A n effect study of TV on children'sbehaviour younger children,and that there was no significant
with the difference of intelligence as an interven- difference between viewing patterns between children
ing variable,Annual Bulletin of Radio and Tele- who had had a television set for six months and those
vision Culture Research Institute,No. 6, 1961. who had had a set for two years.
Through the data obtainedfrom the second survey of 30. Geiger,Kent and Sokol,Robert. Social n o r m s
the large study,the children with higher intelligence in television watching, American Journal of
and with lowerintelligence were divided into TV and Sociology, No. 65, 1959. p. 174-181.
controlgroups. Analysis of variance for the totallei-
sure time activity revealed that the factor of TV acted Examining survey data they had gathered from more
more stronglythanthe factor of intelligence. TV and than 500 persons in the Boston area in 1956, these
intelligenceinteracted with each other upon the fifth- sociologists came to the conclusion that there is a
grade children in respect of homework time Among normative quality about television viewing. They
the children with higher intelligence, TV groups noted that people tended to speak of television
displayed a tendency toward shorter homework time, viewing as chiefly entertainment seeking, which,
but TV groups composed ofthe children with lower they say,more nearly fits ''thevalue given to im-
intelligence reported longer homework time. mediate gratification in the lower or working class
than ...the time orientation and ideal of deferred
27. An effect study of TV on children's behaviour gratification of the middle class". Therefore,they
with cultural environment as an intervening felt that middle-class people were less likely than
variable, Annual Bulletin of the Radio and lower-class people to be proud of their television
Television Culture Research Institute, No. 7, viewing; in fact, they thought they found evidence
1962. of a taboo in the middle class against television
watching. This led them to speculate as to the
H o m e cultural environment of a large sample of conditions which might bring about addiction to
children was evaluated in terms of children's television viewing. They said: "(1) behaviour in-
play equipment, library, study room, and other volving gratification but subject to cultural taboos
equipment and furnishing. As far as possible, is likely to lead to addiction; (2)there is a taboo
groups rated high in cultural environment were against television viewing in the middle class but
matched with groups rated low. Fifth graders not in the working class; (3) television addicts
in the low environment group were found to would therefore be found predominantly among
view more heavily than fifth graders in the middle-class persons who are constant viewers."
high group, but this difference was not found
among seventh graders. Among the seventh 3 1. Graham,S. Culturalcompatibility in the adop-
graders with high cultural environment, tion of television,SocialForces,No. 33, 1954.
those with television scored higher in read- p. 166-170.
ing tests than those without television.
In thr fifth grade high-environment group, W h o are the first people to put television into their
those with television scored higher in homes? O n the basis of interviews with 150 heads
social studies tests than those without tele- of households in N e w Haven, Connecticut,Graham
vision. concludes they are persons whose recreations and
24
behaviour before television were most compatible cent of the parents complained that their children
with the behaviour television demands. The people did not come to dinner promptly when they were
who accepted television early were more likely called to dinner from the TV set.
to be movie-goers and radio-listeners rather than
book-readers, less likelyto engage in active types 35. Hart,W.A. 't. Bioscoopbezoek door jongeren.
of recreation. Early accepters were also more Een bijdragetot de verkenningvanhetvraagstuk
likely to be persons of low education and low in- film enjeugd aan de hand van een enquete, in
come,for w h o m television offered non-demanding opdracht van het Instituut Film en Jeugd,
recreation, at home, at little cost after the initial Uitgevoerd door het ISONEVO /Visits to the
price of the receiving set. cinema by young people. A contribution to the
study of the problem of the cinema and youth,
32, Gratiot-AlphandBry , HClhe . L'enfant et la based on a survey carried out by ISoNEVO on
tClCvision /The child and television/, L'Ccole behalf of the Instituut Film en Jeugd/. Rotter-
des parents, No. 4 , 1956. p. 14-21. d a m , W.L. &J. Brusse, 1955. 45
This article is an attempt at a summary of the Summary report of a questionnaire survey by the
influence on children of television. The effect of "Instituut Sociaal Onderzoek Nederlandse Volk" in
television on the child's life, says the author, 1951-1952 among Dutch youth 14-19 years of age
is to decrease the hours of sleep, to increase the and of different socio-economic, ideological, and
hours spent at home, and to cause the child will- educational backgrounds. Covers questions on
ingly to abandon some of his reading in favour of frequency of film attendance, kind of movies, eva-
-
the television although,of course,when the tele- luations, motivations, selection, etc. The average
vision programme relates to a book,then that book frequencywas once a month,the liberally educated
enjoys an amazing success. The reactions of the showingthehighest frequency and orthodox Protes-
child are summarized as follows: the child makes tants the lowest. Attendance was mostly on week-
a choice amongst the programmes, typically pre- ends,at first evening performances, and in winter.
fers spectacles and variety, and shows a marked Boys were more likely than girls to go alone to the
interest in the stars and other living persons. cinema and were less dependent on parental per-
mission, Oral information and critics determine
33. Gratiot-AlphandCry,HClene and Rousselet,Jean. the choice, girls being influenced mainly by stars.
LatCl6vision et lafamille /Television and the Boys prefer detectives,westerns,war and maquis
familx7,L'Ccole des parents,No. 3, 1961. p. 24-37. films; girls prefer films on daily life,nature and
animal films; historical films are appreciated by
Inthe course of a survey study of 279 French families, both.
both rural and urban,workers and middle class,four
questions were asked in particular reference to child- 36. Japan. Ministry of Education. Effects of
ren and television. Asked whether, followingtelevi- television on children,1959 , Shimbun Kenkyu,
sion programmes,they talked about the programmes NO. 116, 1961. p. 4-11.
with their children,two-thirds of the parents said
"sometimes",one-thirdsaid "often".Ninetyper cent A diary study of 7,200 sixth- and ninth-grade
of the parents said that they considered certain pro- students,in nine prefectures, revealed that those
grammes bad for their children. Asked what action who viewed television more than three hours a day
they took when they believed the programme was not also read newspapers more than the average,but
suitablefor children,20 per cent said they turned off went to the movies considerably less than the
the set,68 per cent said they sentthe children away average for their age,and the sixth-grade students
from the set,and 12 per cent said they letthe children also listened less to radio. Sixth-grade children
watch the programme anyway. Concerningthe effect who were heavy viewers had slightly higher school
of television on children's work,several ideas were grades than light viewers. There was no such
advanced. One was that suppressingtheTV was some- difference in the ninth grade.
times a good wayto get studying done. Another was Questionnaires answered by 2,750 parents
that childrenbecome more interestedin their school who own television sets indicated that newspaper
work when they find in certain scientific or historical reading increases with length of time television
programmes referencesto topics they are studying. sets have been owned. (Other studies, however,
And finally,some parents noted that television is not have shown that it also increases considerably with
attractive enough to affect schoolwork which is moti- age up to the beginning of adulthood.)
vated by seriousfuture plans or professional goals.
37. Ktisel, Edmund. Juggndliche und ihre
34. Hakuhodo Advertising Company. Research Fernseheninteressen/Young people and their
Division. Television -
effect on children. interests in television2Jugend,Film,Fernsehen,
Tokyo, 1956. NO. 3, 1960. p. 32-44.
On basis of questionnaires from 501 parents inTV A study of 165 Munich children, by means of
homes reported, among other things, that 25 per interviews, discussion, and material written by
25
the children. Considerable differences were village of Siolkowize , the conclusion was reached
found in their interests. Among leisure time that most children want to watch adult television
activities, they said they were most interested programmes. The majority of parents consider
in sports (69 per cent), cinema (54 per cent), the children's programmes of "inferior quality".
television (39 per cent), and reading (38 per The integrating influence of television is observed
cent). Their television tastes depended greatly perhaps more often in the relations between
on their ages. Only 37.5 per cent of them said neighbours than among the members of a family.
they watched television every day, and 50 per About five per cent of the persons interviewed
cent watched occasionally. said that they bought their o w n receiving sets "so
*
that the children would not run to the neighbour's
38. Lewis, Philip. TV and teen-agers house to see TV". However, the families with
Educational Screen, No. 28, 1949 television sets tended to have relativelyfew children.
p. 159-161. Ten per cent of the families with sets had no
children, 45 per cent had only one, 18 per cent
In 1949, 1,700 high school students (about 13 to two, and 27 per cent three.
18 years old) filled out a questionnaire concern-
ing their television viewing habits. Average 42. Mehling, Reuben. Television's value to the
viewing time per day: 3-4 hours. American familymember,Journal of Broad-
casting, Vol. IV,No. 4, 1960. p. 307-313.
39. Maccoby, Eleanor E. Television: its impact
on schoolchildren, Public Opinion Quarterly, A mail questionnaire and interviews with families
Vol. 15, NO.3, 1951. p. 421-444. in Indiana (U.S.A.),indicated that about 55 per
cent of high school age children, and over 90 per
T w o groups of 311 children each, one group with, cent of grade schoolchildren, say they would keep
one group without television, were matched for television in preference to all other media, if
age, sex, and socio-economic status. The time permitted to keep only one. A small number of
was 1950 and 1951; the place was the Boston childrenkept diaries for the survey. These showed
area. The study found that children at that time that the grade schoolchildren were spending about
were substituting television for radio, movies, 17 hours a week with television, 1.9 hours with
and reading, for some of their play time, and newspapers,and half an hour with radio. The high
for some of the time they had previously spent schoolchildren, on the other hand, were spending
on household tasks. Television increased the time 10.4 hours with television, 2.3 hours with news-
the family spent together, but reduced the amount papers, and 3.3 hours with radio. College age
of joint family activity of any other kind except youth were spending 9.1 hours weekly with tele-
TV-viewing. The investigator concluded that the vision, 4.4 hours with newspapers, 4 hours with
-familycontact brought about by television is really radio. It should be noted that these were very
individual, rather than social activity, except for small samples.
the fact of being in the same room with other
persons. 43. Mori, Shigeru. Reference group as an inter-
vening variable in the mass communication
40. Magnin, William. Les Cmissions pour 1% process, Annals of Educational Research,
jeunesse /Programmes for young people/, No. 6 , 1960.
Cahiers dltudes de radiotCl6vision. No.-23, ------------ TV programme preferences of
1959. p. 307-310. children and their reference group,Radio-TV
Education, Vol. 16, No. 8 , 1961.
The author's observations lead him to the conclu-
sion that there is more difference between the These papers attempted to demonstrate the hypo-
reactions to television programmes of a child of thesis that the value-orientations of the reference
less than six years and one of twelve years, than group to which an individual belongs or aspires
between the reactions of an adult of 20 and an are an important variable in his media behaviour.
adult of 60. The programmes that appeal parti- The research was undertaken among 2,793 children
cularly to children of six to nine years, he states, from the fourth through the ninth grades of certain
are marionettes. F r o m 9 to 12, the child is public and private schools in Hiroshima. On the
particularly interested in romances, drama, and basis of the questionnaires and the factor analysis
comedy. After 12, the tastes of the young persons method, the pupils were divided into those who
approach those of adults. usedthe peer group as a reference group andthose
who did not. Pupils who shared the values of their
41. Markowski, Daniel. L_a t616vision dans la peers were found to be much more apt to like
campagne silCsienne-/Television in the the pleasure-oriented material in the commercial
Silesian countrysidg7, Wies Wspolczesna, programmes (e.g. , action or violence), while the
NO. 5, 1960. p. 151-155. family-oriented groups were significantly more
likely to be fond of reality-orientedmaterial or
Based on questionnaires and observation in the educational films.
26
44 Nederland. Centrad Bureau voor de Statistiek. 46. Nederland. CentraalBureau VOOL de Statistiek.
Heeft de televisie het bezoek a s vermakelijk- Leeftijd en vrije tijdsbesteding/Age andleisure
heidsinstellingen beihvloed? /Has television activitiegL Zeist, W. de Haan, 1959. 51 p.
influenced the attendance at public entertain- (English summary). (Report No. 10 of Vrije
ments27, Statistische en econometrische tijdsbesteding in Nederland).
onderzoekingen van het Centraal Bureau voor
de Statistiek,No. 1, 1960. p. 24-43. (English Based on an interview survey of a national sample
summary). of 10,500persons over age 12 (3,246 from 12-23)
in autumn 1955 and winter 1956. Boys are more
Analysis of changes in attendance of cinematheatre, interested than girls and older m e n in aggressive
concerts, sports events and increase of TV sets and adventure entertainment (detectives,wild west
between 1957 and 1958 in the Netherlands. Highly films and books). Older persons have a more serious
significant influence of television on cinema attend- pattern of entertainment.
-
ance each new set reduced cinema attendance by
at least 20 visits a year. N o such influence was 47. Nederland. Centrad Bureau vcor de Statistiek.
detected on concert and sports attendance. Radio en vrije tijdsbestedinglEadio and leisure
-
activities/. Utrecht, W. de Haan, 1954.
45 Nederland. Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. 118 p. (Report of Centraal Bureau voor de
Schooljeugd en televisie, Herfst 1957. & Statistiek).
Kijkgewoonten en kijknormen; 11. Invloed op
schoolprestatiesenbelangstellingsrichting Based on an interview survey in 1953 of a national
-
/Schoolchildren and television, Fall 1957. sample of 4,000 persons of 18 years and older.
I. Viewing habits and viewing norms; 11. In- Separate chapter on the younger generation (18-28
fluence on school achievement and focus of years): they are less at home, go more often to
interest/. Zeist,W. deHaan, 1959. Pt.I, 123p.; cinema, theatre, concert or sports events; but
Pt.11, 60p. (English summary). (Reports of also have significantly higher scores for indoor
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek). activities (reading,chess,checkers,music making)
than the average. Radio listening is slightly less
Purpose: to gauge (1)the penetration of TV viewing frequent, however, though programme selection
into leisure among Netherlands Youth; (2) amount and evaluation diverge only slightly from the
of institutionalization of TV viewing in the family; average.
(3) effects of TV viewing on school achievement.
Subjects: two-stageprobability sample (1 school, 48. Panski, Jerzy. Les enfants devant 1.s tC1C-
2 classes) of 14,159 children between 12 and 15 -
viseurs essai de reconnaissance /Children
years, in several kinds of continued or secondary -
in front of_the television set a tentative
education. exploration/, Polityka, No. 4, 1960. p. 5.
Method: Interviews with multiple-choice
questions of children and mothers. Ex post facto Analysing 2,029 responsesto a mail questionnaire,
experiment with matched groups of T V and non-TV researchers at Television Warsaw concluded that
children. childrenunder 15 constituted about 45 per cent
Results: 10% of children report TV set at of the Polish viewers of television. The average
home, 2/3 of those without TV are regular guest number of children per set in the cities varied from
viewers, 25 per cent of the TV-equipped are more 2.5 in Warsaw, to 4.7 in Wroclaw. There were
or less unlimited by parental norms, 40 per cent more children,on the average,in television homes
are allowed to watch only one day a week, 35 per in the country than in the city, and more in lower-
cent have a medium amount of parental limitation. class homes than in the homes of intellectuals or
Less than 10 per cent are allowed all sorts of pro- workers.
grammes. The higher the educational level the
lessthe average amount of TVviewing. Social class 49. Radiotelevisione Itdiana. Servizio Opinioni.
shows no marked association with TV viewing,when Alcune informazioni sull'ascolto dei piovani.
the educational level is controlled. The older the I1 aubblico della T V . Ascolto delle transmis-
pupil the more he watches and the less the parental sioni serali e pomeridiane nelle zone del sud
control. Catholic children report a higher average servite a partire dal 1957 /Some data on the
of viewingthan Protestants. TV viewing(entertain- listening habits of the young. The TV public.
ment) had no significant effect on school achieve- The audience of the afternoon and eveningtele-
ment, the higher percentage of TV equipped pupils casts in those regions of the south where
repeating a class probably being due to other television service started in 1951/. R o m e ,
features of the respective families. A five-point 1958. (Quaderni,No. 3).
scale of relative preference for educational versus
entertainment programmes showed positive corre- F r o m the data obtained from a survey conducted in
lation with amount of viewing, age, preference five regions of Italy it is possible to estimate that
of the mother; negative with mother's educational in 1957, at prime viewing hours,the evening pro-
level, father's occupation. grammes intended for adults were watched by at
27
least two-thirds of the children aged 12 to 17, and forecasts, home drama, and Japanese wrestling,
by at least half of those aged 6 to 11. in that order, were the most highly preferred
programmes. Children between 10 and 15 years
50. Riley, J.W.,Jr., Cantwell,F.V.,aid Ruthiger, of age preferred drama with detective, adventure,
Katherine. Some observations on the social and suspicion elements. Next in order of prefer-
effects of TV, Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. ence came quiz games and western drama.
13, NO. 2, 1949. p. 223-234.
54. Ukawa, Katsumi. Effects of television on
In an industrial city in the eastern part of the leisure time activities and school records of
United States, in 1948, these investigators inter-
viewed the inhabitants of 278 homes with television
and 278 homes without it. This gave them an
opportunity to examine the media habits of 1,100 Diaries kept in 1935 by fifth-grade children in
persons with TV and 1,027 persons without it. Takamatsu City showed that children with television
They found that children in TV homes averaged 3 in their homes did not reduce their outdoor play-
hours 7 minutes daily watching television; teen- time, their newspaper reading time but, in general,
agers averaged only 2 hours 33 minutes. In an reduced their time for almost all leisure activities.
attempt to find out whether television reduced Another study,made before and after televi-
children's participation in play and activities, it sion had come into homes, showed that boys with
was discovered that approximately the same per- television at home fell behind non-TV boys in
centage of TV- and non-TV-childrenparticipated grades, within a year after television came in.
in sports, and that nearly twice as many of the TV
children as of the others attended sports events. 55. Van Dijk,K. Radio en volksontwikkeling -
Sociaal culturele aspecten van de radio-
51. Seagoe, M.V. Children's television habits omroep LRadio and popular education-- Socio-
and preferences, Quarterly of Film,Radio cultural aspects of radio broadcasting/.
and Television, Vol. 6, NO. 2, 1951. p. Dissertation, University of Groningen. Assen,
143-152. Van Gorcum, 1953. 162 p. (English summary).
Concludes that children's television viewing time A discussion of the developing functions of popular
increases until age 12, and that children of lower education and modern mass media and some audi-
socio-economic status view more than those of ence research methods is followed by results of a
higher status. Notes a considerable reduction of research project. In 1951 questionnaire survey
radio listening and movie going as a result of the was made of 1,100 pupils from 16 to 25 years of
introduction of television. age in several secondary and professional schools
of a city and two towns in the Netherlands on the
52. Some considerations relative to children's topics of selection and appreciation of radio pro-
attitudes and the extent of televiewing. grammes. Listening habits are formed with age.
Monthly Bulletin of the Radio and Television Interests rank as follows: from quiz (mostinterest),
Culture Research Institute, Vol. 10, No. 7, sports, drama, news, regional programmes and
1960. classical music (least interest). The influence of
radio decreases with higher socio-economic status.
In addition to some findings reported in the sum-
mary article (Furu,p. 19) this study notes that 56. Wetterling, Horst. Das Fernsehen in pada-
fifth graders (about 10 or 11 years old) were found gogischen Aspekt; Bemerkungen zur Wirk-
to be viewing television for a longer time than samkeit, zu den Moglichkeiten und Aufgaben
seventh graders, that boys viewed more than did eines Jugendprogramms im Fernsehen LThe
girls, that children's viewing tended to decrease educational aspect of television; observations
one year or 18 months aftertelevision was installed, on the effectiveness,the potentialities and the
and that no correlation was found between intelli- tasks of television programmes for young
gence and amount of viewing. people/. Mtinchen, Evangelischer Presse-
Verband ftir Bayern, 1960. 294 p. (Schriften-
53. Survey of preference in TV programs. Tokyo, reihe der Evangelischen Akademie fur Rund-
Radio & Television Culture Research Institute, funk und Fernsehen, No. 9).
August 1962. (Monthly report).
An evaluation of German children's and youth pro-
Programmes were classified into 31 categories in grammes on TV, based on a comparison of the
terms of their specific characteristics. The res- reactions of 10 urban and 19 rural children (5-10
pondents were selected among persons older than years) and of 10 rural and 10 urban adolescents
10 but younger than 69, from all households with (10-14 years), observations of 10 family heads,
TV in Japan. and reactions of variable groups totalling 350
The findings of this survey, conducted in the youths.
s u m m e r of 1961, showed that news, weather With growing age the preference for television
28
over other media shifted to cinema and books. expect a film to ''grip and excite them"; they
Fiction,semi-documentaryprogrammes and youth must feel personally involved.
news were preferredto documentaries,discussions,
demonstrations. Reflections on psychological, edu- 60. Kobylanski, Wladyslaw. L a pr-sse et la
cationaland moral functions of youth programmes. jeunesse lThe press and youth/, Nowa
Kultura, No. 1 1 , 1960. p. 1-11.
57. Witty, Paul. Televiewingby children and youth,
Elementary English, No. 38, 1961. p. 2. A survey of Polish youth averaging between 16 and
17 years of age showed that these youngpeople
For 11 years, Professor Witty has obtained a were more interested in humour and satire in the
very large number of questionnaires in the Chicago newspaper than any other content. (Second place:
area from elementary and high school pupils,their games and recreation. Third: foreign news and
teachers and parents. In each case he has asked sports). Boys were much more interested in
the children about their favourite programmes and sports, technical subjects, and politics; girls
the time they spend viewing; the parents were much more in stories of cultural life, fashions,
asked the same questions and in addition other stories and novels, and games and recreation.
questions relating to their attitude toward tele- The authors analysed this period as one in which
vision. This is the latest annual report. the influence of the family diminishes,youth pro-
In 1950, elementary schoolchildren averaged tests against the norms of the older generation,
21 hours a week viewing television; the average and becomes more andmore interested inthe world
rose to 24 hours in 1955, then fell again to 21 in around him and in his own individuality. In this
1961. Professor Witty's first figure for high period,says the author,the conscience ofthe young
-
school students is 1951 14 hours a week. This is coming more and more to be formed by press,
rose to 17 hours a week in 1953, fell again to radio, and television.
14 by 1961.
The 11-year parade of favourite programmes 61. Lacis,A. andKzjlina,L Detii kino LEhildren
is most interesting, and calls for interpretation and the cinema/! Moscow, General Directorate
against a social background. of Social Education,People Is Commissariat of
Instruction of the RSFSR, 1928. 85 p.
B. RELATED STUDIES OF OTHER MEDIA F r o m the viewpoint of television, the most per-
tinent material in this monograph describes the
58. Heisler, Florence. A comparison between "cinematomania",or collectiveinfatuation with the
those elementary schoolchildren who attend movies, observed in a study of 2,000 children in
moving pictures, read comic books and listen Moscow. One of the conclusions is that children
to serial radio programmes to an excess, with m a y be dangerously influenced by films intended
those who indulge in these activities seldom or for older age levels.
not at all, Journal of Educational Research,
NO.42, 1948. p. 182-190. 62. Lyness, Paul I. The place of the mass media
in the lives of boys and girls, Journalism
The loper centof studentsin grades 2 to 8 (ages 7 Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1, 1952. p. 43-54.
through 14) who indulged least in movies, comics,
and radio were compared with the 10 per cent who This study was made in 1951, before television
indulged the most. Tested by standardized tests, came to Des Moines, Iowa. It is based on ques-
no significant differences were found between their tionnaires on the media behaviour of 1,418 Des
school achievementor their personalityadjustment. Moines children in grades three, five, seven,
nine, and eleven. Radio was found to be the
59. Keilhacker,Margarete. Zwei Haupmotive des favourite medium of these children, the one they
Filmbesuchsder Funfzehn bis Achtzehnjahrigen would keep if they had to give up all media except
-
/The two main reasons for cinema attendGce one. The majority named radio as their favourite
of adolescents between the ages of 15 and 18/; source of news, and considered it more reliable
Jugend,Film,Fernsehen,No. 2, 1958. 14 p. than newspapers.
Based on written materials obtained from 3,000 63. McIntosh, Douglas M. Attendance of school-
~
adolescents,and on other studies of the same topic, children at the cinema. Glasgow Scottish
the authors conclude that the two main reasons why Educational Film Association, 1949. 15 p.
adolescents go to the cinema are the desire to (Research Publications, No. 1).
escape from everyday life, and the desire to get
to know real life better. These motives are inter- In view of recent findings about social class differ-
locked,and are not to be interpretedin adult terms. ences in children's reactions to television, it is
For example, some adults who go to movies for interesting to note in this report that films seem
"escape" behave passively;they expect to be enter- to appeal more to Scottish children from poor
tained but not involved. Children, on the other hand, homes than to those from better homes.
29
64. Radio in the children'slife, Monthly Bulletin
~ ~~
66#.Shuttleworth, F.K.and May, Mark A. The
of the Radio and Television Culture Research social conduct and attitudes of movie fans.
Institute, Vol. 8,Nos. 8 and 10, 1958. N e w York, Macmillan, 1933. 142 p.
Research conducted in 1957 found that with third By comparing a large group of children who
and fifth-grade students (about 9 and 1 1 years attended the cinema several times a week with
old) the heavy listening group (3 hours or more another group who went only twice a month, the
a day) tended to be higher than the low listening investigators found that the frequent movie-goers
group (30 minutes or less a day) in intelligence, were emotionally less stable, less co-operative,
reading ability, and scholastic achievement in poorer students in school, but were more apt
social studies and science. With eighth graders to be cited by their fellows as "best friends".
(14 years old), the situation was different. Here Between the two groups no difference was found
in the case of boys the heavy listeners scored in honesty, obedience, or moral consciousness.
lower than the medium listeners on all the tests The frequent movie-goers were more likely than
mentioned above. the others to admire cowboys, popular actors
Third and fifth-grade children who listened and ballet girls; to believe that socially undesi-
to both serious and light programmes were higher rable conditions like alcoholism exist; to believe
than either the serious or the light listeners in that good clothes are important; to object more
intelligence, reading ability, and science and to parental control; and to go more often to
social studies achievement. In the eighth grade, dance parties. The authors do not contend that
however, the children who listened mainly to all these differences can be attributed to movie-
serious programmes were better in social studies, going. A Payne Fund study.
science, and English language.
67. Ward, J.C. Children and the cinema. An
65. Schramm, Wilbur, Lyle, Jack, and Parker inquiry
. . made by the Social Survey in October
30
IV. LEARNING FROM TELEVISION AND FILM;:
31
more informative topics than do those devoted to amount of learning,but are related to the student's
entertainment. The authors interpret this fact as likelihood of taking another class by TV.
positive and favourable to television. O n the other (Reproduced with permission from Television in
hand, in shaping the programme there is insuffi- the Lives of Our Children.)
cient understanding of the psychology of the various
ages. As regards the contents and formal shaping 78. Maccoby, Eleanor. The effects of television
there is uncertainty; often the transmissions con- on children. In: Schramm, Wilbur, G.T h e
tain too much factual detail. Recommendations science of human communication, N e w York,
are given for designing an educationally andpsycho- Basic Books, 1963. p. 116-127.
logically satisfying programme.
Reviews late studies and concludes: "There is
75. Ishida,Yuko and Shimaoka,Hisako. Children reason to believe that children's attitudes and be-
and television. Report. Osaka, Osaka Muni- liefs can be shaped by what they see on television,
cipal University, Department of H o m e and that emotions and impulses are aroused in the
Economics, n .d. child viewer to-match those portrayed by-screen
characters .../Children also use television/as one
A questionnaire and an examination of sixth-grade of the sources from which they draw material for
studentsI marks indicated a relation between lower organizing and interpreting their experiences.
grades and heavy viewing of television. They also use it to prepare themselves for their
future lives as students, as marriage partners,
76. Japan. Ministry of Education. Effect of tele- as members of a professional or occupational
vision on children and young people, Survey group ... There can no longer be much doubt that
conducted in 1958. Tokyo, 1959. 27 p. (mimeo). television does constitute an important source of
influence on children and as such is a legitimate
Questionnaires from television-owning parents of object of public concern and public action."
children at all levels from kindergarten to high
school indicate that most parents feel that tele- 79. Maccoby, Eleanor E.Statement.In:U.S.Senate.
vision has made no difference in their children's Committee on the Judiciary. Juvenile delinquency
school achievement. However, 18 to 30 per cent (Televisionprogrammes).Hearings before a
(dependingon the schoollevel)feel that their children sub-committee of the Committee on the Judici-
have done better in social studies and science since ary,U.S.Senate,84th Congress,First Session,
the family got television. pursuant to Res. 62,a resolutionto investigate
juvenile delinquency inthe United States,6-7
77. Kumata, Hideya. A decade ofteaching by tele- April 1955. Washington,U.S. Government
vision. In: Schramm, W.G.The impact of Printing Office, 1955. p. 4-23.
educational television. Urbana, Ill. , Univer- Mrs. Maccoby told the committee there was no
sity of Illinois Press, 1960. p. 176-192. doubt that children learn from television. They
learn such things as what to wear, and how to act
This article brings up to date Kumata's earlier on certain occasions. There is also good reason
summary ,, An inventory of instruction television to think that under certain conditionsthey m a y learn
research (Ann Arbor: Educational Television aggressive behaviour. She questioned the ideathat
and Radio Centre, 1956). Lists 121 researchtitles a child can discharge his aggressive feelings by
and sums up the present position. Kumata's viewing violence on television. "I expect ... that
general conclusions are as follows: w e shall find,'I she said, "that aggressive feelings
1. The mode of presentation, TV or face- are sometimes increased rather than reduced by
to-face,apparentlyhaslittle effect on how much aggressive scenes on television or in the movies."
knowledge is retained by the audience.
2. Motivation is aprime variable in determin- 80. Schramm, Wilbur. Television in the life of the
ing how much is retained. Voluntary classes usually -
child implicationsfor the school. In: Institute
learn more than captive audiences. for Communication Research,Newteaching aids
3. Adequate and skilful preparation of subject for the American classroom. Stanford, Ca. ,
matter and integration into a teaching process are 1960. p. 50-70.
prime factors. This m a y be one reason why supe-
riority of TV is reported more often at elementary Drawing on field research, the author concludes
than at higher levels. that home television is likely to produce students
4. Television seems to affect different intel- who come to school with larger vocabularies than
ligence levels differently, but the pattern is not pre-television children, and have a wider know-
quite understood as yet. ledge of their environment. These students are
5. Interaction is an important factor. If a introduced abnormally early to adult problems,
television audience has talk-back facilities, this have learned something about how to learn from
serves at least as a partial substitute for face- television and film, need help in finding the more
to-face interaction. intellectually rewarding aspects of television.
6. Attitudes toward TV are not related to They are accustomed to smooth and exciting
32
performances ontelevision and will expect high stan- viewers on total achievement,and particularly on
dards of performancefromtheir classroom teachers. achievementtests in arithmetic and reading. Intel-
ligence and social class were not controlled,how-
81. Schramm,Wilbur. What we know about learn- ever. Light viewershadhigherI.Q.'s, and came
ing from instructional television. In: Educa- from families with higher socio-economic status.
tional television: the next ten years. Stanford,
Ca. , Institute for Communication Research, 84. Tarr_oni,Evelina. Eroblemi educativi della
1962. p. 52-76. __
TV /Educational problems of TV/. Inquiry
conducted bythe Centro Italian0Femminile, on
Reviews 393 experimentalcomparisons of instruc- the subject of television and children. R o m e ,
tionaltelevision with classroomteaching. In 65 per C.I.F.,1957. 4 4 p .
cent of these experimentsthere was no difference in
the amount of learning; in 14 per cent,the classroom The author describes a questionnaireinquiry carried
studentslearned more, and in 21 per cent,the tele- out in northern and central Italy, among children,
vision studentslearnedmore. (Learning was m e a - teachers,and mothers. Mothers andteachers report
sured by the usual final examination for the course, an awakening ofinterests in the child who watches
or by standardizedtests,or both.) A higher percen- television,stimulation of curiosity about new things,
tage of the comparisons were favourableto television and a heightened level of generalknowledge. Atten-
inthe elementary schoolthanin higher schools, and tion is called to a widespread ignorance of and
the results in teaching mathematics and science and indifferencetoward TV on the part of teachers. The
social studies by television were better than the author emphasizes the power of television as an
results in teaching the humanities. Language skills educational tool, and the need for children's tele-
were taughtmore effectivelythan humanities, but vision programmes to take greater account of
less so than science and mathematics. Student school curricula, and for teachers to learn more
attitudes toward instructionaltelevision were quite about television and take greater advantage of its
favourablein the early grades,but less favourable in cultural and educational values.
high school,and stillless so in college. Teacher
attitudes were parallelto those of students,but in
general the more teachers worked with instructional B. RELATED STUDIES OF FILM
television the more they liked it.
85. Albertini, Laura and Caruso, Ada P.
82. Schramm, Wilbur, Lyle, Jack, and Parker, Percezione ed interpretazione di imagini cine-
Edwin B. Learning from television,Studies in matografiche nei ragazzi/Perception and-
Public Communication,No. 3, 1961. p. 86-98. interpretation of film images by children/,
Bianco e Nero, No. 10, 1949. p. 9-27.
Evidence that first-grade childrenin aCanadiantown
with television have larger vocabularies than compa- These investigators studied the reactions of 576
rable childrenin a Canadiantown without television. children,age 8 to age 14, to one film. Among their
By the time children reach the sixth grade,however, findings, the most pertinent to television was the
no such difference remains. In fact, at that level, discovery of a verylarge number of observational
there is evidence that children in television homes errors, and the often wide discrepancy between
-
know less aboutpublic affairs than do non-television
children. Television childrenin the sixth grade know
what the children thought they had seen and what
actually occurred in the film.The authors felt that
more than non-television children about entertain-
- the rapid successionof pictures,events,and sounds
ment personalities. There is no difference in what made it difficultfor the childrento see and remember
the two groups of children know about science. The sizes andlikenesses, geometric forms,and positions
implicationis that children benefitfrom television in of persons in relationto known objects,and move-
certain kinds of knowledge (e.g. early knowledge of ments and attitudes. Comparingthe older with the
vocabulary and,later,knowledge in such matters as younger amongtheir subjects,the authors saw little
entertainment which television emphasizes), but m a y sign that these difficultieslessened proportionally
be at a disadvantage inlearning about public affairs with age. The implicationis that a relatively small
(whichthey seem to learn more often from the printed proportion of the detailed information in a picture
media), and to be neither at a disadvantage nor an (and perhaps also in television?) is perceived and
advantage with respectto learning of science (which remembered sharply and accurately.
they learn chiefly in school).
86. Holaday, Perry W. and Stoddard George D.
83. Scott,L.F . Television and school achievement, Getting ideas from the movies. N e w York,
Phi DeltaKappan,No. 38,1956. p. 25-28. Macmillan, 1933.
Heavy viewers were compared with light viewers In this Payne Fund study, an effort was made to
of television among 456 sixth- and seventh-grade find out how much and what kind of information
children in California (11 to 13 years old). Light children remember from a film. It was found that
viewers scored significantly higher than heavy children 8 years old remember 3 out of 5 facts
33
which an adult remembers after seeing a film; on the whole, the main points of the film were
children 11 or 12 remember 3 out of 4 facts an adult better reproduced than directly after the children
recalls; children 15 or 16 remember 9 out of 10 saw the film. Adults given a similar test r e m e m -
facts an adult remembers. Children retain a large bered less than the children did.
proportion of thesefor many weeks after seeing a
film. Scenes of conflict,high emotion,and familiar 88. Zochbauer, Franz. Von neuen Gottern. Zur
surroundings are most likely to be remembered. Problematik des StarkultEs lsew
gods. Pro-
Children of all ages tend to accept what they see blems of film-star cults/, Jugend und Film,
in a movie as "fact", Young children fail to under- No. 1 , 1958. 12 p.
stand some of the things they see, and retain
distorted or misunderstood images. Over 70 per cent of 4,000children who responded
to questionnairesin Salzburg reportedthat they had
87. Paulsen,Ksthe. Was-bleibt? Kinder besinnen in some way modelled their manners and attitudes
sich auf eine-m FilmLWhat remains? Children on those of a film star. Notably the stars have
recallafilEA Film-Bild-Ton,No. 7, 1957.p. 8-13. furnished standards of preference among consumer
goods. Seventy-nine per cent of the respondents
Twenty-two months after the showing of a film to said that the movies had taught them to dress better,
28 11 -year-oldchildren in Hamburg, nearly 60 per and 51 per cent reported that they had learned from
cent of the children reproduced the plot fully, and the movies "how to act when in love".
34
V. P S Y C H O L O G I C A L E F F E C T S - IN GENERAL
35
94. Pool, Ithiel de Sola. Free discussion and Based on questionnaires filled out by 649 persons
public taste, Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. in Sweden, 74 per cent of whom were over 18, the
24, No. 1 , 1960. p. 19-23. author concludes that 32 per cent do not read news-
paper comics and 72 per cent do not read comic
This was presented as testimony before the Federal books. Manual workers and their children are
Communications Commission on 11 December 1959. more likely than white-collar workers and their
Citingthe Himmelweit findingthat childrenin England children to be interested in comics. Heavy comic
came to like "good cultural programmes" which they reading goes with frequent movie attendance. Con-
would not have selected if there were a choice for cerning effects, the author says: "The effect of
them, and which they tried because they had no al- comics ... is peripheral to the personality. The
ternative,the author statesthat "if the situation is security or insecurity of the personality depends
reciprocal, then we m a y guess that at times when on quite different things, and above all on the kind
only poor programming is available on the air of human relations developed in the home, with
people will watch it for lack of something better to father, mother, brothers, and sisters".
do, and in so doing they m a y develop bad taste
habits. If the Himmelweit finding can be genera-
lized, then when there is a choice of programme 98. Bellingroth, Friedhelm. Triebwirkung des
levels people will pick programmes at their o w n -
Films auf Jugendliche Einfuhrung in die
level,and the presence of a poor programme among analytische Filmpsychologie auf Grund experi-
those available will do little or no harm, for it will mentaller Analysen kollektiver Triebprozesse
not be chosen by viewers w h o m it would change". im Filmerleben /Influence of the cinema on
the instinctual life of young people. A n intro-
95, Ten Have, T.T.and Vastenhouw, M. Groeps- duction to the analytical psychology of the
gesprekken over televisie in een zestal dorpen cinema on the basis of the experimental ana_-
-
/Group discussions on television in six villages/i lysis of collective group reactions to films/.
Groningen,J.B. Wolters, 1957. 166 p. (Pae- Bern-Stuttgart,Verlag Hans Huber, 1958.
dagogische Monografieen, No. 7). 154 p.
A 1955 pilot study, by means of group discussions, Before and after study of groups of about 110 school-
of reactions to the introduction of television in six boys and students between the ages of 10 and 19
Dutch villages contains a chapter on influences on (totalling 1,105 persons seeing 10 regular story
family life and educational functions. films of different kinds), by means of Szondi tests
and Szondi-factural analysis, to estimate uncon-
scious effects of films on fundamental drive struc-
ture.
B. RELATED STUDIES OF OTHER MEDIA Conclusions: Films with different action pat-
terns have a clearly different effect on drive struc-
tures. Viewers with different personalities have
96. Accra and Kumasi. Department of Social Wel- clearly differentreactions. Gives a warning against
fare and Community Development. Children premature generalizations on THE effects of THE
and the cinema: a report of an inauirv into film, or THE effects of THE Western on THE young.
cinema-going among juveniles undertaken by
the Department of Social Welfare and C o m m u -
99. Blumer , Herbert. Movies and conduct. N e w
nity Development in Accra and Kumasi. Accra
York, Macmillan, 1933. 257 p.
(Ghana), 1954.
A study of the behaviour of children between 8 and This Payne Fund volume is based on "motion pic-
16, in Accra and Kumasi, who attend the movies ture autobiographies" obtained from 1,823 young
between noon and 3 p.m., and in order to do so Americans of high school age and up. Very large
sometimes miss school, and beg or steal the money proportions of the autobiographies mentioned these
for admission to the theatre. Most of these child- kinds of conduct, among others, as having resulted
ren do not understand the film dialogue and thus from seeing films:
experience the film only as a visual experience. 1. Re-enacting film stories, or playing the
The authors feel that one of the most dangerous part of a film hero or heroine. (Re-enactmentof
aspects of their behaviour is that they are attend- love scenes was c o m m o n among girls, and boys
ing these films secretly, against the wishes oftheir tended to prefer scenes of fighting, shooting, cow-
parents. Thus by partaking of "forbidden fruit" boy and Indian episodes, crime and pursuit.)
they are building up an addiction for it. 2. Daydreaming about motion pictures and
actors and actresses. (More than half of the res-
97. Allwood, Martin S. The impact of the comics pondents admitted daydreaming on topics related
on a European country. Mullsjo Sweden), In- to films.)
stitutet fyra Sam-hallsforskning /Institute for 3. Imitating the clothing styles, hair styles,
Social Research/: 1956. and personal mannerisms of film stars.
36
4. Being frightened by films; (93 per cent 103. Gray, Barbara. The social effects of the
of the children below high school age, and 61 per film, Sociological Review, Vol. 42, No. 7,
cent of high school students said they had had this 1950. p. 12.
experience. Yet many of them like movies that
frighten them). O n the basis of a survey of 300 children in West
Bromwich, the author concludes that there is no
100. Dysinger, Wendell S. and Ruckmick, C .A. evident relation between juvenile delinquency and
The emotional responses of children to the film attendance, and that films do not appear to
motion picture situation. N e w York. Mac- decrease children's respect for parents. She
millan, 1933. 122 p. stated, however, that the idealized portrayal of
luxury, and the representation of love chiefly as
Using galvanometre and pneumocardiograph to physical attraction endangers the sense of values
indicate emotional reactions, the authors of this of young and immature cinema-goers.
Payne Fund study studied the reactions of 150
children and young people to a variety of scenes 104. Keilhacker,Martin and Keilhacker,Margarete.
of conflict, violence, and erotism in film. The Jugend und Spielfilm. Erlebnisweisen und
scenes of danger, conflict, and tragedy had the Einflusse /Youth and the story film. H o w
greatest effect on children 6 to 12; on teen-age young people eKperience films and are influ-
children the effect was much less, and was weak- enced by theE/. Stuttgart, Ernst Klett
est in subjects 20 or over. O n the other hand, Verlag, 1953. 128 p.
love scenes have the greatest emotional effect on
the teen-agers, and the least effect on the children This is a summary volume, carrying many of the
12 and under. conclusions from the Keilhackers'long study of
children and films. They describe the different
reactions of children at various ages and various
101. Funk. Alois. Film und Jugend. Eine
U - .. IJn-
_ .. stages of sexual and social development, how
tersuchung ilber die psychischen Wirkungen children relate a film to their own lives, the occa-
des Films im Leben der Jugendlichen /The sions of identification and escape, the standards
cinema and youth. A n examination of the of judgement they apply, and the difficulties they
psychological effectofthe cinema on the life have vhth film language. The central theme of
of young people/. Munchen, Ernst Reinhardt , the book is the influence of films on the ''inner
1934. 174 p. lives''of children and youth.
37
children from "religious" homes than others were 110. Maccoby , Eleanor E,Wilson, William C .,
affected by "immoral" and violent scenes. and Burton,R.V. Differential movie-viewing
behaviour of male and female viewers,
107. Leroy-Boussion,A. Etude du comportement Journal of Personality, No. 26, 1958. p.
6motionnel enfantin_aucours de la projection 259-267.
d'un film comique /Study ofthe emotional be-
haviour of children during the projection of a In this experiment, eye-movements of 24 male
comic filG7, Revue internationale de filmo- and 24 female college students were observed as
w, NO.5, 1954. p. 103-123. the students watched scenes of films in which only
the hero and heroine ofthe picture were on stage.
This is a study ofthe behaviour of 222 children be- It.was found that young m e n spent more time than
tween 4 and 14 years of age, during the showing of did women watching the hero, and young women
a comic film, in Marseilles. The older children spentmore time than did m e n watching the heroine.
laughed more. Boys reached the "laugh ceiling''at This appearsto supportthe hypothesis (seeMaccoby
an earlier age than girls. Town children laughed and Wilson) that young people watching films or tele-
oftener than suburban children. Brighter children vision tend to identify with the leading character
understood the film better, but the frequency of of the same sex.
laughing did not always increase with intelligence,
because other characteristics of temperament and 1 1 1. Mayer, Jacob P. British cinemas and their
family background also influenced the tendency to audiences; sociological studies. London,
laugh. Dennis Dobson, 1948. 280 p.
108. Leroy-Boussion,-A. L e jeune spectateur et The part of this book which is most pertinent to later
son entourage The young spectator and his television research reports detailed statements
entouraggl Enfance,No. 4, 1954. p. 293-316. from 60 persons (three-quarters ofthem under 25)
about their experiences and reactions as movie-
This investigator observed closely the behaviour of goers. Nearly 66 per cent reported that a film at
one childin each of 222 showings of the same film. some time had caused them fright or nightmares.
H e noted about one ''social" reaction for approxi- A still larger percentage said that they had some-
mately every eight "solitary" reactions. Only 52 times felt so involved in a film that it was like
of 1,080 "social" reactions seemed to indicate a passing through a personal experience.
lack of interest in the film. The others were the
child tryingto make contact with his friends or with 112. Perron, Roger. Essai de mise en relation de
other members of the audience present in order to certains types de contenus filmiques et des
share his enjoyment of the film or to seek reassur- reactions des spectateurs enfants. /Study of
ance when frightened or shocked by a scene. The the relationship between certain kinds of film
investigator concludes that a child is seldom so sequecces and the reactions of juvenile spec-
absorbed in a film that he forgets the people watch- tators/. Paper read at the second Interna-
ing the film with him. tional Congress of Filmology, Paris, 1955.
109. Maccoby, Eleanor E. and Wilson,William C . This has significance in view of the often stated
Identification and observational learning from
I
charge that children observe films and television
films,Journal of Abnormal and Social Psycho- "passively". Children's motor, verbal, and non-
,- vol. 55, NO. 1 , 1957. P. 76-87. verbal sound reactions to nine different film
sequences were recorded. Not only were there a
Seventh grade children (about 12 or 13 years old) great many such reactions, but 60 to 80 per cent
were shown a film and tested a week later on what of the children consistently reacted the same way
they remembered from it. It was found that the boys to the same type of film content. Many of these
identified with the hero, and the girls with the he- reactions were classified as "activeparticipation",
roine,and tended to remember somewhat better the and many others as "emotional participation".
words and actions of the character with w h o m they O n the basis of these results, it is concluded that
identified. When there was a class difference in these children'sreactiontothe film was not passive.
characters, a child tended to identify with the cha-
racter who belongs to the class to which the child 113. Peterson, Ruth C. and Thurstone, Louis L.
-
aspires not necessarily the one to which he belongs. Motion pictures and the social attitudes of
What is remembered from the character identified children. N e w York, Macmillan, 1933. 75 p.
with, however, is affected by the relevance of his
actions to the felt needs of the child. Boys r e m e m - This is another of the Payne Fund studies. B y means
bered aggressive contentbetter than girls,provided oftests before and afterthe showing of 13 films to
thatthe boys'hero is the aggressor. Girls r e m e m - 4,000 high school students, these investigators
bered incidents of boy-girl interaction better than established conclusively that movies can change
boys did, if the girl's heroine was the agent ofthe the attitudes of children toward social issues.
action. Among the strongest changes were those achieved
38
in attitudes toward the Chinese people by the film have undesirable effects on children. The pro-
"Son of the Gods", toward Negroes (by the film blems of identification and escape are also
"Birth of a Nation"), toward war (by the film "All highly important in a child's use of films.
Quiet on the Western Front"), and toward prevail-
ing systems of punishment of criminals (by the film 116. Stuckrath, Fritz and Schottmayer, Georg.
"The Criminal Code"). By measuring the effects Psychologie des Filmerlebens in Kindheit
of several films on c o m m o n subjects,these authors und Jugend LPsychology of film experi-
demonstrated a cumulative effect of films, and by ence in children and youth/. Hamburg,
testing children at intervals of time up to 19 months Verlag der Schroppschen Lehrmittelanstalt,
they found that attitudes produced by films were 1955. 172 p.
lasting.
Three age levels of film experiences are identified
114. Sicker, Albert. Kind und Film. D e r Ein- in children by m e a n s of TAT tests on H a m b u r g
fluss des Filmes auf das Seelenleben des childrer 4 to 18 years of age. Age 6 is about the
Kindes. Eine experimentelle Studie unter middle point of a period in which most reactions
Verwendung des Pigem und des Tuanima- to a film are emotional. Seeing too m a n y films
test-.s LChild and film. The influence of at that time m a y endanger the health of emotional
films on the emotional life of the child. An development because the film contents will probably
experimental Ctudy, using the Pigem and not correspond tothe child's emotional level. Age
Tuanima tests/. Bern, Stuttgart, Verlag 12is atthe middle pointof a second level of expe-
Hans Huber, 1956. 143 p. rience. This is a time when the child is building
vital relationships with his peers and with the out-
A discussion of attendance and preference ratios side world in general. The child of this age is
in several countries is followed by an evaluation of strongly attracted by the cinema, and m a y attend
methods used by several effect studies (observa- either to compensate for failures and escape from
tion, wiggle test, questionnaires, interviews). A conflict or to seek peer group company. At this
replicable experimental design is chosen, not m e r e - age, suitable films can stimulate the child's vita-
ly relying on observation and introspection, but lity and m a k e for healthy personal relationships;
also usingprojective tests. After s o m e experimen- unsuitable films m a y contribute to anti-social
tation, a before and after design with seven ques- behaviour. With the beginning of adolescence, the
tions, Pigem test and Tuanima test a film on Hansel child feels a growing desire to assert his o w n per-
and Gretel was chosen, using as control another sonality. His cinema experience n o w begins to
film and a normal school hour. Subjects were 396 resemble that of adults. Escapism and identifica-
children, aged 9 to 16, of several European nationa- tion are c o m m o n . H e often imitates the behaviour
lities, studied by group tests in school demonstra- and adopts the ideas of film favourites. His film
tion rooms. experience is closely related to his sexual and
Conclusions: (1) Confirmations - The child social development. At this period the screen
experiences the film in the child's world of refer- can help him to rid himself of tensions, or it m a y
ence; its reaction is strongly emotional; it adheres contribute to increased tensions, and possibly to
to the side of the Good; it does apprehend the film anti-social or criminal behaviour.
as real; undesirable qualities of the child are
enhanced if frequently shown in the film; the s a m e 117.cWall, W.D. and SmithL E.M. Les adoles-
film is experienced differently by each child. (2) cents et le cinema /Adolescents and the
-
Refutations Film as such does not enhance super- cinemz', Revue intekationale de filmologie ,
ficiality; film as such does not create illusions, Vol. 2 NO. 6, 1951. p. 153-158.
this depends on film content; film does not eli-
minate "the inner eye"; film as such does not Studying the movie habits and tastes of m o r e
stimulate aggressiveness and crime. (3) S o m e than 5,000 children in Birmingham, these au-
generalized propositions on strength and direction thors found that nearly half of them had seen
of influences. films not suitable for their age, and that only
one-fifth of all the films they had seen in the
115. Stuckrath ,-Fritz. _Der Film als Erziehungs- test period had been passed by the censor for
- -
macht /The film as an educational force/. adolescents. The enthusiasm of these children
Hamburg, Verlag der Gesellschaft der for a given film s e e m s often to be determined
Freunde des vaterlandischen Schul- und by the extent to which they can identify them-
Erziehungswesens, 1953. 72 p. ('Zur selves with the chief characters. The scenes
Hamburger Schulreform' series, No. 10). most likely to be shocking or frightening to young
children are those involving violence, cruelty to
Professor Stuckrath s u m s up his impressions de- animals, or tragedy. Asked about the influences
rived from years of observing children's reactions of the cinema they observe in their friends, these
to films. The strength of the emotional effect of boys and girls express the opinion that styles in
films on children is emphasized, and the author clothing, and g a m e s and play patterns, are easily
concludes that violent and erotic scenes m a y often learned from movies.
39
118. Wetterling, Horst. Das Fernsehen in pada- and therefore satisfies real developmental needs.
gogischen Aspekt; Bemerkungen zur Wirk- For insecure, maladjusted children, however, the
samkeit, zu den Mtiglichkeiten und Aufgaben comics may become a substitutefor what they do not
eines Jugendprogramms im Fernsehen /The find in life, Thus, for some, Superman becomes
educationalaspect of television; observations a father-figure. Thus the comics provide "an au-
on the effectiveness, the potentialities and thority and power which settles the more difficult
the tasks of television programmes for young or ultimate issues, enables these children to per-
people/. Miinchen, Evangelischer Presse- form their daily tasks without too much anxiety".
Verband fiir Bayern, 1960. 294 p. (Schrif- If a child satisfies emotional needs with comics,
tenreihe der Evangelischen Akademie ftlr however, he does not readily outgrow the need.
Rundfunk und Fernsehen, No. 9. ) Unlike the normal child, he does not learnto stand
on his own feet. For the maladjusted child,"the
An evaluation of German children and youth pro- religion of comics is not easily given up, for the
grammes on TV, based on a comparison of the child is frightened and no new religion beckons".
reactions of 10 urban and 19 rural children (5-10 The conclusions are based on detailed interviews
years) and of 10 rural and 10 urban adolescents with children of different ages.
(10-14 years), observations of 10 family heads, and
reactions of variable groups totalling 350 youths. 120. Zazzo,Bianka and Zazzo,R e d . L a jeunesse
With growing age the preference for television et le cinema: Btude experimentale du Centre
as compared with other media shifted to cinema and internationalde l'enfance effectuee au labora-
books. Fiction, semi-documentaryprogrammes toire de psychobiologie de l'enfance /Youth
and youth-news were preferred to documentaries, and the cinema: an experimentalstudy carried
discussions, demonstrations. Reflections on psy- out by the Centre international de l'enfance
chological, educational and moral functions of at the Laboratory for Child PsychobioloD/,
youth programmes. Courrier du Centre internationalde l'enfance,
Vol. 8, NO.4, 1958. p. 185-197.
119. Wolfe, Katherine M. and Fiske , Marjorie.
W h y they read the comics. In: Lazarsfeld, F r o m the standpoint of television research,the most
P.F. and Stanton, F .N. Communications pertinent parts of this report deal with attempts
research, 1948-1949. N e w York, Harper, to analyse affective reactionsbrought to the surface
1949. p. 152-179. by exposure of 900 adolescents to a selected group
of films. In brief, the finding was that films do
For normal children, according to these authors, bring out such reactions,and enter into the forma-
comic reading is a means of ego-strengthening, tion of children's attitudes toward their parents.
40
VI. E F F E C T S OF VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION
41
veryyoung children at least are as likelyto imitate groups of college students were shown a film in
aggression seen on television or in films, as which a prize-fighter was seen absorbing a brutal
aggression seen in real life. beating. Half the groups had been provoked and
angered by an experimenter before seeing the film.
125. Bandura, Albert, Ross, Dorothea, and Ross, Half of them were told that the prize-fighter who
SheilaA. Transmission of aggression through was being beaten was a "downright scoundrel".
imitation of aggressive models, Journal of The question was whether the justification of this
Abnormal and Social Psycholoa,v o l . 637, hostility would enable the students to get rid vica-
No. 3 , 1961. p. 575-582. riously of their hostility toward the experimented.
It did not. O n the contrary, it increased the amount
One group of children were shown an adult hitting of overt hostility expressed toward the experimen-
-
and kicking a "bobo doll" a large rounded doll ter. The implication is that when aggressive be-
which has weights in its feet so that it can be used haviour is justified on film or television,it lowers
as a sort of punching bag. A comparable group of children's inhibitions against expressing their own
children were shown adultnon-aggressivebehaviour, aggressions, and does not reduce those aggressions
At a later time, the children were stimulated in vicariously.
such a way as to irritate them mildly and bringout
aggression in them. Then they were taken into a 128. Brodbeck. A.J. The mass media as a socia-
room where there were a number of attractivetoys, lizing agency. A paper read to the American
including the bobo doll. The children who had been Psychological Association Symposium on
shown the aggressive behaviour typically imitated Children and the Mass Media, San Francisco,
it; they went to the bobo doll and began hitting and 1955.
kicking it. The children who had not seen the
aggressive behaviour did not do this, and displayed The author of this paper considers television view-
considerably less aggression generally. The im- ing as a problem-solving activity for children. H e
plication is that when children see aggressive believes that the effect of television programmes
behaviour on television,they m a y imitate it when on children probably depends on the personality,
their own aggression is high and when the opportu- the situation, and the particular problems of the
nity is at hand. children, H e advises, therefore, against believ-
ing that a given kind of television will necessarily
126. Berkowitz, Leonard. Violence in the mass have a given kind of effect. For example, he re-
media. In: Paris-Stanford studies in c o m - ports that a cowboy film had considerable impact
munication. Stanford, Ca., Institute for on younger children, but very little on older ones -
Communication Research, 1962. p. 16. who supposedly had become familiar with the typi-
cal "western" plots. H e reports another case in
Reviews the pertinent research, including some which children'slevel of aggression rose greatly
recent work by the author. Concludes: "The pre- after reading a comic book story in which the vil-
sent analysis obviously has important social impli- lain got away with his dirty work; but these chil-
cations. While it m a y be true that television,m o - dren's standards of right and wrong did not change
vies, and comic books will excite anti-social con- at all. H e suggests that "when aggression is really
duct from only a relatively small number of people, successful in fantasy, it tends to remove inhibitions
we can also say that the rather heavy dosage of of aggression in real life; when punished in fantasy,
violence in the media heightens the probability that it tends to be inhibited in real life". Unfortunately
someone in the audience will behave aggressively the research to which he alludes in the paper has
in a later situation, This might not be so bad if the apparently never been published.
observer indulging the fantasy aggression were the
only person to suffer. H e had chosen to expose 129. Emery. F.E. and Martin. David. Psvcholo-
I .
himself to the influence of TV, movies, and comic gical effects of the ''Western"film: a
Y
-~study
Y
books. Unfortunately, however, the observer in television viewing. Melbourne, Depart-
instigated to carry out hostile acts usually injures ment of Audio-visual
Audio- Aids. Universitv of
an innocent bystander.'I Melbourne, 1957. 47 p. (Studies in Mass
Communication).
127. Berkowitz, Leonard and Rawlings , Edna.
Effects of film violence on inhibitions against The investigators showed Western films to small
subsequent aggression, Journal of Abnormal audiences of Australian children, and made various
and Social Psycholoa, Vol. 66, No. 3, 1963. psychological measures, including the Rosenweig
p. 405-412. Picture Fmstration Test, before and after the films
were seen. The results did not confirm the Fesh-
This experiment was a test of whether seeing ag- bach hypothesis that television or film fantasy re-
gressive scenes in films or television programmes leases pent-up aggression in viewers, and thus
could "purge" a youth of aggressive inclinations. lowers their overall level of aggression. The in-
The design was rather complicated,and will not be vestigators also came to the conclusion that child-
described in detail here. Essentially comparable ren develop a perceptual defence to protect them
42
against shock and anxiety experienced from violent Subjects: 2,250 pupils of all types of school,
films. Especially if they identify with a hero who in West Germany,between 12 and 16 years, exposed
wins out and seems more dynamic and effective in 1 1 groups of about 150 in 1956-1957.
after the action of the film,they seem to be able Methods: Before and after design measuring
to avoid the stress and anxiety which might other- effects of three types of regular story films
wise result from a violent film. (aggression arousing, appeasing, ambivalent) by
means of Thurstone scales.
130. Evry, Hal. TV murder causes bad dreams, Results: Films with dominant aggression
Film World, No. 8, 1952. p. 247. themes enhance aggressive attitudes, if realisti-
cally and dynamically screened, and when they
More than half of 2,000 six-year-oldsin private facilitate identification. Only one film,characte-
and parochial schools told teachers they dreamed rized by facilitated identification with harmonic
about the television programmes they watched, and and appeasing action, had appeasing effects. Films
about a quarter of those who dreamed about the without significant effects in either direction
programmes said their dreams were bad. About lacked either identification clues or dominating
59 per cent of children with television in their aggression themes.
homes said they were sometimes frightened by TV
programmes. 133. Lovaas, 0.J .Effectof exposure to symbolic
aggression on aggressive behaviour, Child
131. Feshbach, S. The drive reducing function of Development, No. 32, 1961. p. 37-44.
fantasy behaviour, Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology,Vol. 50, No. 1 , 1955. This experimenter showed an animated cartoon,
p. 3-12. with much aggressive material, to one group of
children,and a similarcartoon without much aggres-
Dr. Feshbach conducted an experiment in which sive material to another group. Afterward he gave
half of a group of experimental subjects (college each child a choice between two toys to play with.
students)were deliberately insulted so as to rouse One of these was an aggressive toy; by turning
their feelings of aggression. Then half the insulted a lever the child could make one doll hit another
group and half the non-insulted group were shown onthe head. The other toy had moving doll figures
pictures that encouraged them to express their that did not hit one another. The children who had
feelings in fantasy. Thematic apperception test seen the aggressive picture tended to prefer the
pictures were used for this purpose. The students aggressive toy; the others, the non-aggressive
who had been insulted and were then shown the toy. The implication is that viewing aggressive
fantasy pictures showed significantly less aggres- action in films or television programmes will tend
not
sion than those insulted but shown the fantasy in some degree to rouse children's aggressive im-
pictures. The insult-fantasy group expressed -
pulses it will not necessarily serve as a safety
significantly less aggression toward the experi- valve to relieve such impulses.
menter who had insulted them, than did the insult-
non-fantasy group. And the insult-fantasy group 134. Maccoby, Eleanor E., Levin H.,and Selya
showed considerably more aggression in their B.M. The effect of emotional arousal on the
responses to the pictures than did the non-insult-
fantasy group. Dr. Feshbach made no claim that
retention of aggressive
~- __
and non-aggressive
movie content, American Psychologist,No.
these results would necessarily apply in all cases 10, 1955. p. 359.
to television viewing. But assumingthatchildren's The effects of emotional arousal
television viewing is fantasy behaviour, other rea- on the retention of film content: a failure
ders have stated what has come to be called the to replicate, Journal of Abnormal and Social
"Feshbach hypothesis''- that the experience of Psychology,Vol. 53, NO. 3, 1956. p. 373-
viewing television helps children to reduce their 374.
level of aggression.
These two experiments were designed to test the
132. Heinrich,Karl. Filmerleben,, hypothesis that children who are frustrated (and
-
Filmerzeihung Der Einfluss des Films auf hence high in aggression) before seeing an adven-
die Agressivitat bei Jugendlichen,Experimen- ture film, are more likely than non-frustrated
telle Untersuchungen und ihre lernpsycholo- children to remember the violent and aggressive
gischenKonsequenzen/Film experience,film content of the film. One group of children was
effects,film education. The influence cjf film frustratedin a spelling contestby being given words
on aggressiveness of youth,experiments and- much too advanced and too hard for them, a con-
consequences for the psychology of learning/. trol group was given easy words and therefore not
Berlin,Hannover,Darmstadt,H. Schroedel, so frustrated. Both groups of children were then
1961. 372 p. shown afilm with much violent content. In the first
experiment, measures taken a week later (using
Purpose: Study of direction and amount of change childrenin the Boston area) showed that the child-
of aggressiveness as a result of film-exposure. ren who had been frustrated did indeed remember
43
more of the violent content of the film. Whenthe 138. Riley, Matilda W . and Riley, John W . , Jr.
experiment was replicated (using up-State N e w A sociological approach to communication
York children), no significant differences were research. In: Schramm, W. -~ ed. The pro-
found between experimental and control groups. cess and effects of mass communication.
Urbana, Ill., University of Illinois Press,
135. Parrot,Philippe,Spinat,P.,Guitton,R. and 1954. p. 389-401.
Corbal, F . Une identification heroi'que de
l'adolescent delinquant: Eddie Constantine This study was based on a survey designed to as-
-
/A heroic personification of juvenile delin- certain the relation of peer group membership to
quency: Eddie Constantine/, Reeducation, television viewing. The subjects were 400 United
NO.2, 1957. p. 23-33. States children. It was found that non-members
of peer groups (childrenwho had few friends) were
When 24 boys aged 16 to 18, under observation at more likely to view violent television programmes,
the reception and observation centre at Macanan, "including Westerns, mysteries, crime, horror,
were asked to write an essay on their favourite and other such adventure themes". Among older
movie actor or actress a high proportion of them children who are beyond the age when such
named Eddie Constantine. Their expressed rea- programmes are usually highly popular, the
sons were that "he fights", "knows how to treat children who still had most liking for such pro-
women", and ''overcomesall obstacles". The au- grammes were the ones who were most irustrated
thors analyse the apparently unconscious motives in wanting to belong to and be accepted by peer
for this preference, and conclude that this type of groups. The authors conclude: for non-members
film hero is especially dangerous for juvenile de- of the peer groups, such programmes "may form
linquents because he "respects no moral code and a fantasy world into which he m a y escape from a
frequentlyplays an ambiguous r61e; one can never real world in which the standards seem impos-
tellwhether he is on the side of the police or on the sibly high".
side of the gangsters".
136. Preston, M.I. Children's reactionsto movie 139. Scott, L.F , Social attitudes of children re-
horrors and radio crime,Journal of Pediatrics, vealed by response to television -programmes,
-
NO. 19, 1941. p. 147-168. California Journal of Elementary Education,
NO. 22, 1954. p. 176-179.
An emotional inventory was administered to 200
normal children, some of w h o m spent much more When 478 California schoolchildren filled out ques-
time than others on movie horror shows and radio tionnaires on law enforcement, it was found that:
crime programmes. Among the symptoms that 60 per cent thought it was all right to use dis-
increased with increasing attention to such pro- honesty in law enforcement (as television some-
grammes were nervousness, fears, sleeping dis- times did);
turbance, eating disturbances,nail-biting,day- 12 per cent thought real-life sheriffs today
dreaming, and sex-interest. These symptoms in- are dishonest (43 per cent thought television she-
creased in severity with the degree of addiction to riffs are dishonest);
these types of movies and radio programmes. 79 per cent thought law enforcement officials
mistreat Western bad m e n on television;
137. Rebeillard, Monique. Etat actuel de la re- 33 per cent thought cowboys today carry guns
cherche filmologique en neuro-psychiatrie as TV cowboys do.
infantile LPresent state of fiImologic_l re-
- Paris,
search in infantile neuro-psychiatry/.
L a Productrice, 1955. 45 p. 140. Siegel, Alberta E. Film-mediated fantasy
aggression and strength of aggressive drive,
Finding that cinema attendance was high among a Child Development, No. 27, 1956. p. 365-378.
sample of juvenile delinquents,this researcher
compared the reactions of normal and of malad- The main hypothesis for this study of 24 nursery
adjusted children to various films. In general, it schoolchildren was that aggression and guilt are
was found that movies stimulate intelligent and lower in children after they see a film or televi-
well-adjusted children, contribute to their voca- sion programme with much aggressive content.
bularies, and enrich their imaginations. Some The results, however, indicated that aggression
children, however, are wearied and depressed by and guilt might be higher, rather than lower,after
films, especially those in w-hichthey identify with seeing such a film, but the differences were not
unhappy heroes. Using electro-encephalograms statistically significant.
as well as paper-and-pencil tests, the researcher
concluded that young viewers project their own 141. Siegel, Alberta E. The influence of violence
personal conflicts into the conflicts shown on the in the mass media upon children'srBle espec-
screen. The techniques,however,did not permit them tations , Child Development,No. 29, 1958,
to draw very specific conclusionsfrom these results. p. 35-56.
44
. T w o groups of second-gradechildren (6 or 7 years 144. Zajonc, Robert. Some effects of the 'space'
old) were shown different versions of a film about serials, Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 18,
a taxi driver. One group saw a version in which No. 4, 1954. p. 367-374.
the taxi driver was shown as a very aggressive
person; the other, a version in which the driver T w o groups of children, 10-14 years old, listened
was not depicted as an aggressive person. When to different versions of a radio space drama,in one
they completed a story about a taxi driver, at a of which the hero was a power-seeking character,
later time, the group that had seen the aggressive in the other a friendship-seeking one. Each of the
driver in the film depicted a taxi driver as a more groups said overwhelminglyit would like to be like
aggressive person than did the other group. The the successfulcharacter (whetherhe was power-
implication is that the kind of adults children see oriented or affiliation-oriented). Furthermore, the
on television m a y lead them to expect to see such children who heard the power-oriented hero also
adults in real life; that is, if they become accus- concluded that power was a more desirable attri-
tomed to violence among adults on television,they bute than did the children who heard the other hero.
m a y expect considerable violence among real Although these effects m a y not be longlasting,still
adults when they grow up. the implication is that children admire and copy
behaviour they see in the media that "works".
142. Thomson, R.J. Television-Crime-Drama.
Its impact on children and adolescents. B. RELATION TO DELINQUENCY AND CRIME
Melbourne, F.W.Cheshire, 1959. 197 p.
145. Blumer,Herbert and Hauser,PhilipM. Movies,
This investigator showed two crime dramas to 48 delinquency,and crime. New York,Macmillan,
intermediate (earlyteen-age)studentsin Melbourne, 1933. 233 p.
Australia. Photographs taken of the audience dur-
ing the films indicated that tension built up in them This Payne Fund study made use of film showings
during the showing. Projective reactions to pic- to, interviews with and essays by, a number of
tures obtained from them afterward, however, did delinquent boys and girls and ex-convicts, The
not indicate any significant rise in aggression or conclusion of the study is that it is probable that
fear M r . Thomson suggested that his evidence
~
movies influence about 10 per cent of delinquent
might indicate ''some sort of natural safeguard boys and 25 per cent of delinquent girls. This in-
operating to protect the typical adolescent crime- fluence is usually unconscious; and indeed many
drama audience from stress effects". H e found more of these young people said they were influ-
no evidence "that viewing a crime film provoked enced by films than could demonstrate any such
any criminal or psychopathic tendencies in the great relationship. As television researchers have also
majority of viewers.. . If there is some risk to found, the mass media serve as convenient scape-
children viewing this type of programme constantly, goats to absorb the blame for criminal behaviour.
it would appear to lie rather in the direction of the The types of films which are believed to enter
acquiring of certain relatively stereotyped and most often into the making of delinquent behaviour
insensitivized reactions". The implication is that in boys are those which show the behaviour of cri-
children who view much of this kind of programme minals, which arouse desires for wealth and power
might possibly also acquire an insensitivity and and show socially unacceptable ways of attaining
stereotyped reaction to violent events in real life. these goals, which glorify toughness, arouse vio-
lent sexual desires, and commend careers like
143. Walters, R.H.,Thomas, D.E.,and Acker, those of gangsters. In the case of girls, the films
C .W. Enhancement of punitive behaviour by which are most likely to contribute to future delin-
audio-visualdisplays,Science,No. 136, 1962. quency are those which arouse sexual passions,
p. 872-873. stimulate desire for a life of luxury and gaietyand
Fourteen male hospital attendants in Toronto, Canada at the same time suggest undesirable ways of
watched the knife-fightscene in the motion picture achieving those goals, incite them to flirtations
-
Rebel Without a Cause. A controlgroup of the same and sexual experimenting, and occupy time intheir
size watched afilm showing adolescents engaged in lives which would be better devoted to home and
constructive activities. After seeingthe films the school.
members of the two groups were assigned to run a O n the other hand, the investigators point out
conditioningexperiment which gave them the oppor- that films m a y have a favourable as well as an un-
tunity to punish errors inthe experimentalsubjects favourable influence in the lives of boys and girls.
by administering electric shocks of variable inten- It depends on the film and the child.
sities. The group which had watched the fight behaved
in a much more punitive manner than did the other " . Paul G. and Thrasher. Frederick
146. Cressev.
group,using a significantlyhigher level of current M. Boys, movies, and city streets. New
to give shocks. The implication,say the authors,is York, Macmillan, 1933.
that "exposureto audio-visualdisplays containing
aggressive content can result in significantly Studying 949 boys in N e w York City,these investi-
greater willingness to inflict pain". gators found a correlation between frequent cinema
45
attendance and delinquency. They pointed out, 149. Haines, William H. Juvenile delinquency and
however, that their data do not enable them to say television,Journal of Social Therapy, No. 1 ,
whether frequent movie-goingleads to undesirable 1955. p. 192-198.
behaviour, or whether bad behaviour leads to
movie-going. While it m a y be concluded that One hundred tee,n-ageprisoners in Chicago jails
movies are not often solely responsible for delin- were interviewed concerning their histories and
quency, it is, on the other hand, unlikely that their opinions as to whether television,movies,
delinquents can go often to movies without being radio, and pornographic literature had anything to
influenced by what they see on the screen. do with their crimihal careers. Conclusion: 'ITV,
pornography, and movies play a distinct rBle in
147. An effect of TV on Children, T B S Research the creation of anti-social behaviour in susceptible
Information,No. 35, November 1961. teen-agers".
The National Association of Commercial Broad- 150. Japan. League of Non-Governmental Broad-
casters in Japan has been surveying the effect of casters. Effects of television on juveniles,
TV on children. The first two reports were pub- Shimbun Kenkyu, No. 116, 1961. p. 17-24.
lished under the title of "An Effect of TV on Child-
ren" and "PotentiallyMisbehaving Children and TV". A questionnaire survey of 461 delinquents, 14 to
In the former study, dwelling areas were clas- 26 years old, in Osaka, found that fewer blamed
sified as industrial, commercial, and residential, television as a cause for their delinquency than
and from each type of area two junior high schools blamed movies or magazines.
were selected. In addition to the six junior high Another questionnaire survey of 1,119 junior
schools, 17 parochial grammar schools were high school students and potential delinquents in a
selected in the areas, from which 3,000 children special school in Osaka found that the potential
were added to the 3,000 students selected from the delinquents had no stronger preference than the
six junior high schools, making a total of 6,000 other children for crime-thriller programmes.
children to be surveyed,together with children
from the grammar schools. These students were 151. Logan, C.S. What our children see, Year-
divided into a control group and a TV group, and book of the Institute for Education by Radio,
compared by an individual matching method. 1950. p. 170-174.
A s to TV's effect on children's interests,the
control group displayed a tendency to be a little When 314 pediatricians, sociologists, neuropsy-
more interested than the TV group in such static chiatrists, and psychologists were given a series
behaviour as reading books on science, composing of questions on the effects of television on child-
a poem, and so forth. ren, 90 per cent of them expressed the belief that
Although positive-negativetests were applied crime programmes have in some ways a harmful
in order to conceptualize the relationship between effect. About 81 per cent said they thought tele-
viewing behaviour and positive or negative perso- vision crime programmes contributed to children's
nalities, no significant differences were found. In delinquency or asocial behaviour.
physical activeness and social consciousness tests,
findings for the former revealed no statistical dif- 152, Potentially misbehaving children and TV,
ference, but findings for the latter revealed that Asahi Hoso, March 1961.
children in a TV group were a little more indivi-
dualistic and in favour of status quo, and the ones Potentially misbehaving children and potentially
in the control group were a little less favourable well-behaved childrento be compared were selected
to status quo and to meliorism. on the basis of a number of tests: an I Q test,
whether orphans or not,school grades,groups be-
longed to, a personality test by the Dr. Ushizima
148. Great Britain. H o m e Office. Report of the method, and a self-control test. A total of 1,000
departmental committee on children and the children in the second year in six junior high
cinema. London, H.M.S .O., 1950. schools, some of w h o m were juvenile delinquents,
were surveyed.
In this report of a committee set up in 1947 to in- The survey investigated the time they spent in
vestigate the effect of cinema-going on children, viewing, their selection of programmes, viewing
it is stated that out of 38,000 children under 16 behaviour,and preference in regard to programmes.
who appeared before a juvenile court during a pe- Findings as to time and selection of pro-
riod of six months, only 141 cases of criminal be- grammes did not show significant differences be-
haviour and 112 cases of moral misbehaviour could tween the two groups. Potentially misbehaving
be found in which there appeared to be a direct children tended to select comic programmes a
relationship with film attendance. The committee little more often, and action and thriller pro-
decided that criminal and amoral behaviour are grammes without complex stories, relatively sti-
the results of more subtle and complex influences mulating as these programmes were. On the other
than film-going. hand, potentially well-behaved children tended to
46
select educational programmes a little more fre- leading characters were middle class, and nearly
quently, and a considerable number of complex half were wealthy. T w o out of five were Americans
and intellectual action and thriller programmes. and seven out of ten unmarried. The main beha-
As the result of an I Q and a school grade test, viour motives in the films were love (68per cent),
interrelated with time, children with both extreme- fame or prestige(26 per cent), security and health
ly high school grades and a high I Q tended to have (16per cent), and money(l0per cent). The figures
alonger viewingtime than other children. Children just given add to more than 100 per cent because
with low school grades and with low I Q tended to some characters had more than one motive.
have short viewing times. Among other children,
the higher the IQ, the longer the viewing time.
Among children of equal IQ, the higher their 155. Mirams, Gordon. Drop that gun /Eas les
grades, the less likely were they to spend along armes/, Quarterly of Film, Radio, and
time on TV. Television, Vol. 6,No. 1 , 1951. p. 1-19.
47
VII. E F F E C T S ON M A L A D J U S T E D AND DISTURBED CHILDREN
48
VIII. PHYSICAL E F F E C T S
This Payne Fund study was based on a recording The opthalmology department of the Keio Univer-
of the movements during sleep of 163 children, sity medical school (Tokyo) studied the effect of
rangingfrom6to 19 years of age, who were shown television viewing on the eyes. Their finding was
a movie between6:30and 8:30 p.m., and then went that two hours of television viewing under unfa-
to bed at 9 p.m. The amount of movement increased vourable conditions can temporarily reduce the
as much as 90 per cent in some children on the ability of the eye to focus and adjust, but that the
night after seeing the movie, and the effect some- eye recovers after 30 minutes to one hour's rest,
times persisted for severalnights thereafter. With and that the effect can be moderated very greatly
some children the sleep-disturbingeffect of some by viewing under favourable conditions.
films was equal to that of drinking two cups of
coffee at bedtime. Great individual differences 164. Television and the eyes,Vision,No. 6 , 1952.
were found among childrenin the amount of disturb- p. 9-11.
ance a film could cause in their sleep, and some
films proved more disturbing than others. Concludes there is no evidence that television
viewed properly, harms children's eyes.
162. Mllller, Hans Peter. Veberdie Wirkung des
Fernsehens auf Kindle - /on the effect of 165. Zenczewski. Les conditions de la bonne
k e v ision upon children/. Internship report rgception du programme de la tClCvision
at the Institute for Psychology, Karl Marx -
/Conditions cor good reception of television
University, Berlin. progra_mmes/! Rodzina i Szkola,/Family and
- No. 1 1 , 1959. p. 7.
School/
Forty-three children, aged 7 through 1 1 , from
a day nursery school were tested in three ways to It is recommended that the child should be seated
determine whether their fatigue resulting from 90 directly in front of the screen at a distance six or
minutes of watching television was any different seven times the width of the screen. The middle
from fatigue resulting from the same time spent of the screen should be at eye level, or slightly
watching still pictures. Exposure to the two kinds higher. No other light should fall on the screen.
of pictu'res took place on alternate days. Before The receiver should be well adjusted. Children
and after exposure, the children were tested on should not eat while watching television. And it is
their ability to correlate familiar symbols with not recommended that the child be put to bed until
numbers showntothem; on their ability to perform atleast 15 minutes after the end of the programme
a motor skill test with a steady hand; and on their he has just seen.
"blur and flicker thresholds". The first two tests
revealed no statistically significant differences, :
::For comparable treatments of television's effect
but the third indicated that watching television is on a child's sleep, see the General Studies in
more fatiguing than looking at photographs. Section B.
49
PERIODICALS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLIOGRAPHY
53
Mayer, Jacob P. 111 Shimakoa, Hisako 75
Mehling , Reuben 42 Shuttleworth, F .K. 66
Miller, V.L. 161 Sicker, Albert 114
Mirams, Gordon 155 Siegel, Alberta E. 140, 141
Mori, Shigeru 43 Smith, E.M. 117
Muller, Hans Peter 162 Smith, R. 28
Nederland. Centraal Bureau Sokol, Robert 30
voor de Statistiek 44, 45. 46, 47 Spinat, P. 135
Oppenheim , A.N. 10 Stoddard, George D. 86
Pansky, J erzy 48 Stuckrath, Fritz 115, 116
Parker, Edwin B. 12, 65, 82 Tarroni, Evelina 84
Parker, Everett 92 Ten Have, Tonko T. 95
Parrot, Philippe 135 Thomas, D.E , 143
Paulsen,KBthe 87 Thomson, R.J. 142
Pearlin, Leonard I. 93 Thrasher, Frederick M , 146
Perron, Roger 112 Thurstone, Louis L . 113
Peterson, Ruth C. 113 Ukawa, Katsumi 54
Pool, Ithiel de Sola 94 Unesco 8
Preston, M .I. 136 Van Dijk, K. 55
Radiotelevizione Italiana 49 Vastenhouw, M . 95
Rawlings, Edna 127 Vince, Pamela 10
Rebeillard , Monique 137 Wall, William D. 117
Redslob, E. 159 Walters , R.H. 143
Riley, J. W. 50, 138 Ward, J.C. 67
Riley, Matilda W. 138 Westley, Bruce H. 68
Ross, Dorothea 124, 125 Wetterling, Horst 56, 118
Ross, Sheila 124, 125 Whalen. Ray 156
Rousselet, Jean 33 Wilson, William C . 109, 110
Ruckmick , C .A. 100 Witty, Paul 57
Ruthiger , Katherine 50 Wolfe, Glenn Joseph 18
Schottmayer, Georg 116 Wolfe, Katherine M. 119
Schramm, Wilbur 12, 65, 80, 81, 82 Zajonc, Robert 144
Scott, L.F. 83, 139 Zazzo, Bianka 120
Seagoe , M .V. 51 Zazzo, Ren6 120
Selya, B.M. 134 Zenczewski 165
Zochbauer, Franz 88
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