Television is often accused of undermining children's academic achievement. This paper investigates two explanations which frequently accompany such a claim. The displacement hypothesis predicts that the time children spend with television is taken from activities that are more beneficial to school performance. The distraction hypothesis suggests that children's cumulative exposure to the structure of television—its pace, format, etc.–engenders an intolerance for the pace of schooling. A review of research on television viewing, time displacement, and academic performance fails to find any support for the displacement hypothesis. A review of studies relevant to the distraction hypothesis, however, uncovers mixed findings. This paper presents analyses of data gathered from school children in South Africa.
AndersonD.R.CollinsP. (1988). The impact on children's education: Television's influence on cognitive development (Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Working Paper No. 2). Washington, DC: US Department of Education
2.
AndersonD.R.LevinS.LorchE. (1977). The effects of TV program pacing on the behavior of preschool children. AV Communication Review, 25, 159–166
3.
AndersonD.R.LorchE.P.FieldD.E.CollinsP.A.NathanJ.G. (1986). Television viewing at home: Age trends in visual attention and time with TV. Child Development, 57, 1024–1033
4.
BechtelR.AchelpohlC.AkersR. (1972). Correlates between observed behavior and questionnaire responses on television viewing. In RubensteinE.A.ComstockG.A.MurrayJ.P. (Eds.), Television and social behaviour: Vol. 4, Television in day-to-day life: Patterns of use (pp. 274–344). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office
5.
BelsonW. (1961). The effects of television upon family life. Discovery, 21, 1–5
6.
BrownJ.R.CramondJ.K.WildeR.J. (1974). Displacement effects of television and the child's functional orientation to the media. In BlumlerJ.G.KatzE. (Eds.), The uses of mass communications (pp. 93–112). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage
7.
CampbellD.T.StanleyJ.C. (1963). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally
8.
ChristensonP.G.RobertsD.F. (1983). The role of television in the formation of children's social attitudes. In HoweM.J.A. (Ed.), Learning from television: Psychological and educational research (pp. 79–99). London: Academic Press
9.
ComstockG.ChaffeeS.H.KatzmanN.McCombsM.RobertsD. (1978). Television and human behavior. New York: Columbia University Press
10.
ComstockG.PaikH. (1991). Television and the American child. San Diego, CA: Academic Press
11.
DesmondR.SingerJ.SingerD. (1990). Family mediation: Parental communication patterns and the influences of television on children. In BryantJ. (Ed.), Television and the American family (pp. 293–310). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
FineG.A.MortimerJ.T.RobertsD.F. (1991). Leisure, work, and the mass media. In FeldmanS.S.ElliottG.R. (Eds.), At the threshold: The developing adolescent (pp. 225–252). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
14.
FinebergS. (1977). The classroom's no longer prime time. Today's Education, 66, 78–79
15.
FreidrichL.SteinA.H. (1973). Aggressive and prosocial television programs and the natural behavior of preschool children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (4, Serial No. 151)
16.
GadberryS. (1980). Effects of restricting first graders' TV viewing on leisure time use, IQ change, and cognitive style. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1, 45–57
17.
HarrisonR.EkmanP. (1976). TV's last frontier: South Africa. Journal of Communication, 26, 102–109
18.
HimmelweitH.T.OppenheimA.N.VinceP. (1958). Television and the child. London: Oxford University Press
19.
HornikR. (1981). Out-of-school television and schooling: Hypotheses and methods. Review of Educational Research, 51, 193–214
20.
Institute for Psychometric Research. (1970). Survey of study habits: Standards 6–10. Pretoria, RSA: Human Sciences Research Council
21.
KubeyR.CsikszentmihalyiM. (1990). Television and the quality of life: How viewing shapes everyday experience. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
22.
MaccobyE. (1951). Television: Its impact on school children. Public Opinion Quarterly, 32, 102–112
23.
MankiewiczF.SwerdlowJ. (1978). Remote control: Television and the manipulation of American life. New York: Times Books
24.
MoodyK. (1980). Growing up on television: The TV effect. New York: Times Books
25.
MurrayJ.P.KippaxS. (1978). Children's social behavior in three towns with differing television experience. Journal of Communication, 28, 19–29
26.
MutzD.RobertsD.F.van VuurenD.P. (1993). Reconsidering the displacement hypothesis: The South African case. Communication Research, 20, 51–75
27.
NassC.I.ReevesB. (1991). Combining, distinguishing, and generating theories in communication: A domains of analysis framework. Communication Research, 18, 240–261
28.
NeumanS. (1991). Literacy in the age of television. Norwood, NJ: Ablex
29.
PotterJ. (1987). Does television viewing hinder academic achievement among adolescents?Human Communication Research, 14, 27–46
30.
RitchieD.PriceV.RobertsD.F. (1987). Reading and television: A reappraisal. Communication Research, 14, 292–315
31.
RobinsonJ. (1969). Television and leisure time: Yesterday, today and (maybe) tomorrow. Public Opinion Quarterly, 33, 210–222
32.
RobinsonJ. (1972). TV's impact on everyday life: Some cross-national evidence. In RubinsteinE.A.ComstockG.A.MurrayJ.P. (Eds.), Television and social behavior: Vol. 4, Television in day-to-day life: Patterns of use (pp. 410–431). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office
33.
SalomonG. (1979). Interaction of media, cognition and learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
34.
SchrammW.LyleJ.ParkerE.B. (1961). Television in the lives of our children. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
35.
SingerJ.L.SingerD. (1983). Implications of childhood television viewing for cognition, imagination and emotion. In BryantJ.AndersonD.R. (Eds.), Children's understanding of television: Research on attention and comprehension (pp. 265–296). New York: Academic Press
36.
SingerJ.L.SingerD.G.DesmondR.HirschB.NicolA. (1988). Family mediation and children's cognition, aggression, and comprehension of television: A longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 9, 329–347
37.
SingerJ.L.SingerD.G.RapaczynskiW. (1984). Family patterns and television as predictors of children's beliefs and aggression. Journal of Communication, 34, 73–89
38.
SteinA.H.FreidrichL.K. (1972). Television content and young children's behavior. In MurrayJ.P.RubensteinE.A.ComstockG.A. (Eds.), Television and social behavior: Vol. 2, Television and social learning (pp. 202–317). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office
39.
Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior. (1972). Television and growing up: The impact of television violence. Report to the Surgeon General, United States Public Health Service. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office
40.
SwerdlowJ. (1981). What is television doing to real people?Today's Education, 70, 50–57
41.
TowerR.SingerD.SingerJ.BiggsA. (1979). Differential effects of television programming, preschoolers' cognition, imagination and social play. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 49, 265–281
42.
van VuurenD. (1981, M). The impact of television on adolescents in South Africa. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Experimental Research in TV Instruction, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
43.
WilliamsP.HaertelE.HaertelG.WalbergH. (1982). The impact of leisure-time television on school learning: A research synthesis. American Educational Research Journal, 19, 19–50
44.
WilliamsT. (Ed.). (1986). The impact of television: A natural experiment in three communities. London: Academic Press
45.
WinnM. (1977). The plug-in drug. New York: Viking Press
46.
WinnM. (1991). The trouble with television. In HansonJ.AlexanderA. (Eds.), Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial issues in mass media and society (pp. 44–50). Guilford, CT: Dushkin
47.
ZuckermanD.SingerD.SingerJ. (1980). Television viewing, children's reading, and related classroom behavior. Journal of Communication, 30, 166–174
