Critical Viewing of Television News: the impact of a Dutch schools television project

Using a quasi‐experimental pretest‐posttest control group design, the study investigated the educational effects of a six‐programme schools television series designed to teach children aged 10‐12 that television news broadcasts give a selective and thus subjective and incomplete impression of the news. Results indicated that the schools television series led to an increase in children's knowledge of the selection processes involved in the production of news programmes, and an increase in children's proficiency in recognizing the moments of selection in news items. However, the television series did not result in a decrease in the level of credibility children attribute to television news broadcasts. The reason for the latter finding probably is that the series showed that the makers of news programmes are conscious of the selection processes involved in making news programmes and do their utmost to make the choices in the most responsible way possible. As a result, the series may have unintentionally created the impression that the problem of selectivity can be satisfactorily solved.     

Prefixes as access units in visual word recognition: A comparison of Italian and Dutch data

Two experiments were conducted to compare morphological processing of skilled and less skilled Dutch readers. Prefixes and suffixes provide morphological information concerning meaning and/or function of the word stem. There is some empirical support for the hypothesis that these sublexical access units are functionally involved in the process of word recognition. The present study focuses on the role of prefixes as access units in visual word recognition. Adult skilled Dutch readers and elementary school children were presented a lexical decision task using polysyllabic word and nonword items. Prefix Frequency (high/low) and Prefix Quality (true/pseudo prefix ratio) were manipulated. Evidence for differential use of prefix information in adults and elementary school children was found. Characteristic difference patterns between skilled and less skilled readers are discussed. It is concluded that the information accessed by prefixes is semantically combined with the subsequent word stem (root). Characteristics of the prefix plus stem combination largely determine speed of access to the complex word item processed.     

Teaching television: the effects of critical television viewing curricula

Recognition of the important role television plays in children's lives has led during the 1970s to the beginnings of an effort to modify television's impact on children by teaching them how to manage their viewing behavior, how to understand the medium, and how to evaluate its content (so-called, “critical television viewing skills”). The objectives pursued by critical viewing curricula are discussed, and it is argued that critical viewing is strongly related to critical thinking. A review of studies of the effects achieved by television curricula indicates that television curricula can be effective in increasing children's knowledge of the medium and in altering children's perceptions of television content. However, there is little evidence that curricula can modify television's effects on children's attitudes and behaviors, and curricular effects on children's viewing behavior at home have yet to be demonstrated. The research conducted is evaluated, and suggestions are made for future work in this area.     

Teaching Children to Evaluate Television Violence Critically: the impact of a Dutch schools television project

Using a quasi‐experimental pretest‐posttest control group design, the study investigated the educational effects of a six‐programme schools television series designed to encourage children aged 10‐12 to become more discriminating consumers of violent television crime series. Results indicated that the schools television project led to an increase in factual knowledge of differences between violence as depicted in crime series and real‐life violence, and a decrease in the perceived realism of violent television programmes. Children reacted very positively to the schools broadcasts and found them instructive and useful. Teachers reacted positively to the broadcasts and the related materials (student workbook and teacher's manual) that accompanied the programmes.     

Children's Recall of Televised and Printed News as a Function of Test Expectation

An exploratory study was carried out to investigate the relative effectiveness of news stories watched on television and news stories read by children. Children aged 10 to 12 (n = 123) either watched five news stories or read print versions of the same news stories. In each condition, half of the children expected a retention test, whereas the other children did not. Results indicated that children who did not expect a retention test learned more from television news than from printed news. Among children who expected a retention test, televised and printed news were recalled about equally well.