American and German children were asked to reflect and talk about picture books, television and radio. Three findings of this research are noteworthy. Firstly, media awareness, which is influenced by developmental mechanisms, could already be observed in three- and four-year-olds. Secondly, there were significant differences between American and German children in their judgement of, and knowledge about, media. These results can be explained by differences in the media presentations of the two countries. Thirdly, `heavy' viewers judged TV better than `light' viewers but knew less about it.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Böhme-Dürr, K.
(1988a) `Media Practitioners, Media Scientists, “Naive” Viewers: Do They Judge TV Differently?'. Paper presented to the third International Television Studies Conference, London, Great Britain.
2.
Böhme-Dürr, K.
(1988b) `Schwierigkeiten bei der Erfassung von Mediennutzung und Medienbewertung', pp. 93-111 in Deutsches Jugendinstitut (ed.), Medien im Alltag von Kindern und Jugendlichen — Methoden, Konzepte, Projekte. München: Deutsches Jugendinstitut.
3.
Böhme-Dürr, K.
(1988c) `Die kleinen Plastikleute im Fernsehen: Wie Kinder Fernsehrealität wahrnehmen', pp. 61-80 in E. Demurray (ed.), Medienwirklichkeit — Wirklichkeit. Nürnberg: Kreisjugendring.
4.
Bonfadelli, H.
(1986) `Uses and Functions of Mass Media for Swiss Youth'. Unpublished paper. Zürich: Swiss Youthbook Institute.
5.
Cojuc, J.R.
(1984) `How You See is What You Get: Children's Perceptions of Television Effects'. Paper presented to the International Communication Association, San Francisco, USA.
6.
Couzens, M.
(1986) `Invasion of the People Meters', Channels of Communications June: 40-45.
7.
Desmond, R.J.
, J.L. Singer, D.G. Singer, R. Calam and K. Colimore (1985) `Family Mediation Patterns and Television Viewing: Young Children's Use and Grasp of the Medium', Human Communication Research11(4): 461-480.
8.
Erdogan, I.
(1985) `Children's Media Use in a Turkish Town', Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media29: 195-199.
9.
Field, D.E.
and D.R. Anderson (1985) `Instruction and Modality Effects on Children's Television Attention and Comprehension', Journal of Educational Psychology77(1): 91-100.
10.
Haefner, M.J.
, L.S. Hunter and E. Wartella (1986) `Children and New Media: Expectations, Attitudes, and Use'. Paper presented to the International Communication Association, Chicago, USA.
11.
Hakes, D.T.
(1980) The Development of Metalinguistic Abilities in Children. Berlin: Springer.
12.
Ianco-Worrall, A.D.
(1972) `Bilingualism and Cognitive Development', Child Development43: 390-400.
13.
Jaglom, L.M.
, A. Fagre and P. Wilder (1980) `Preschoolers' Classification of the Televised World'. Harvard Project Zero Technical Report No. 16, Cambridge, MA, USA.
14.
Jaglom, L.M.
and H. Gardner (1981) `The Preschool Television Viewer as Anthropologist', pp. 9-30 in H. Kelly and H. Gardner (eds), Viewing Children Through Television. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
15.
Jörg, S.
(1987) Per Knopfdruck durch die Kindheit. Weinheim: Quadriga.
16.
Kunkel, D.
(1981) `Answering AIME: An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Mental Effort and Learning from TV'. Unpublished manuscript, University of Southern California.
17.
Lemish, D.
(1987) `Viewers in Diapers: The Early Development of Television Viewing', pp. 33-57 in T.R. Lindlof (ed.), Natural Audiences: Qualitative Research of Media Uses and Effects. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
18.
Levelt, W.J.M.
, A. Sinclair and R.J. Jarvella (1978) `Causes and Functions of Linguistic Awareness in Language Acquisition: Some Introductory Remarks', pp. 1-14 in A. Sinclair, R.J. Jarvella and W.J.M. Levelt (eds), The Child's Conception of Language. Berlin: Springer.
19.
McMane, A.
, K. Krendl and M. Fitzmaurice (1986) `Children and Computer Attitude: An Analysis of Gender, Use, and Parental Factors Across Seven Grades'. Paper presented to the International Communication Association, Chicago, USA.
20.
Palmgreen, P.
(1984) `The Uses and Gratifications Approach: A Theoretical Perspective', pp. 20-55 in R. Bostrom (ed.), Communication Yearbook VIII. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
21.
Rice, M.
, A.C. Huston and J.C. Wright (1983) `The Forms of Television: Effects on Children's Attention, Comprehension and Social Behaviour', pp. 21-55 in M. Meyer (ed.), Children and the Formal Features of Television. München: Saur.
22.
Salomon, G.
(1983) `Television Watching and Mental Effort. A Social Psychological View', pp. 181-198 in J. Bryant and D.R. Anderson (eds), Children's Understanding of Television. New York: Academic Press.
23.
Salomon, G.
(1984) `Television Is “Easy” and Print Is “Tough”. The Differential Investment of Mental Effort in Learning as a Function of Perceptions and Attributions', Journal of Educational Psychology76: 647-658.
24.
Salomon, G.
and T. Leigh (1984) `Predispositions about Learning from Print and Television', Journal of Communication34: 119-135.
25.
Schönbach, K.
(1985) `The Role of the Mass Media in West German Election Campaigns'. Paper presented to the Conference on Comparative Analysis of the Role of Media in Contemporary Legislative Campaigns, Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
26.
Selman, R.L.
and D.F. Byrne (1974) `A Structural Developmental Analysis of Levels of Role Taking in Middle Childhood', Child Development45: 803-806.
27.
Shiffrin, R.M.
and W. Schneider (1977) `Controlled and Automatic Human Information Processing: II. Perceptual Learning, Automatic Attending, and a General Theory', Psychological Review84: 127-190.
28.
Sinclair, A.
, R.J. Jarvella and W.J.M. Levelt (1978) The Child's Conception of Language. Berlin: Springer.
29.
Vibbert, M.
, L. Jaglom, H. Gardner and P. Wilder (1980) ` “That's My Favorite”: A Study of Preschoolers' Television Repertoires and Preferences'. Harvard Project Zero Technical Report No. 20, Cambridge, MA, USA.
30.
Winckler, K.
(1984) Kommerzielles Fernsehen in der Medienkonkurrenz: USA. Berlin: Spiess.
31.
Yussen, S.R.
(ed.) (1985) The Growth of Reflection in Children. Orlando: Academic Press.
