Effects of CTelevision Broadcasting
The television is one of the most widely known and utilized inventions of the twentieth century. As its popularity has grown, its effect on how people, especially children, view the world around them has become more prominent and recognized. “To suggest that children growing up in the 1990s live in a different world than the one their parents or grandparents experienced is not only to state the obvious, but to understate the obvious.” Increasing popularity of television between the generations is partly responsible for the changes. Television is at the center of a multimedia society. Television is especially prominent because it reaches children at a much younger age than other mediums. (Asamen 9) Television becomes a firm staple in most children’s lives a considerable amount of time before formal education begins. Children as young as six months react to television’s sights and sounds. “For young children, a major determinate of what... they view is what... their parents view.” This measure of coviewing decreases with age “as does the time spent with parents in other activities.” (Bryant 231)
Television and Time Control
It is generally recognized that television dominates a lot of children’s time, more than any other waking activity. TV watching is often paired with other activities, such as talking, reading, and studying though. The effects of television on children vary, depending on the programs watched and “when and with whom” they watch it. It also depends on how often and how much the child watches television. (Bryant 227)
Research on the effect has been sparse. "Recently, some investigators have taken account of the role played by television in family as planned or default activity, as subject matter for discussion and argument, as the occasion for parental regulation and for children's assumption of increasing responsibility for controlling their own time use." The media has taken on a partial role in raising children, just as church and school did in the past. (Bryant 227)
"Children's use of television is influenced by structural factors in their lives." Children who attend day care, for example, are less likely to watch large amounts of television than those who are home all day long. Other factors of how much television children watch are if they have access to all stations or a VCR, education, social class, and ethnicity. "[Researcher's] efforts to analyze family influences on viewing rest on some general assumptions about television use.