As a research area, children and television is in trouble. Even though its chief subject — television — has not yet reached the status of a ‘serious’ pursuit for researchers, the social, political and commercial pressures in this area are very strong for research results which are conclusive, reliable and relevant. It is too much to ask of any one study, of course, but even with generous funding, especially in the USA, the answers to urgent questions are not conclusive. There remains a disjunction between die broad social questions about children and television and the individualised, even behaviouristic ways of thinking about this area stick dominant in research practice.
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