The Teaching and Learning of Values Through Television

This study is based on the hypothesis that television contents themselves constitute a source of learning through television narratives. In specific terms, we defend the idea that it is possible to teach and learn values through said narratives. Some of the research dealing with the relationship between television and values is categorized from a three-fold standpoint: the contents themselves, the medium itself and the language. As a result of this review, we maintain that reiterated attacks on television, blaming it for the majority of problems suffered by young people today, are not supported by the studies carried out by psychologists over recent decades. We believe that viewers incorporate the information provided by television from different contexts and that the enculturation is not unidirectional. There is an interrelation between development contexts and messages. We are specifically interested in analyzing the implicit and explicit values underlying television contents. Thus, based on the model developed by Schwartz and Bilsky, we have compiled a questionnaire (Val-TV 0.1) with the aim of classifying values and interpreting the behaviours visualized in television texts, and relating them to adolescents’ own values.