Children at Grades, 3, 5, and 8 wrote two narratives; one was a “television” story and one a “real-life” story. Stories were examined for presence of particular kinds of content (e.g., stereotyping, high aggression) and for presentational style and complexity (e.g., length, elaboration on character states, reliance on visual descriptors). Children portrayed different content in real-life versus television stories but there was no relationship between content portrayals and reported amount of television viewed. However, real-life stories were more elaborate and complex than television stories for low television viewers. This difference decreased as reported televiewing increased, and television stories were considerably more complex than real-life stories for high viewers at eighth grade. It is suggested that frequent exposure to television's symbol systems may provide higher viewers with formats with which to represent television prototypes as well as comparable real-life prototypes.
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