Background Television Research Articles

Children, Adolescents, and the Media

Preface Barbara Wilson Introduction Dorothy G. Singer Chapter 1 Children and Adolescents: Unique Audiences Media Enviornment and Habits of Today's Youth Children Are Different From Adults Children Are Different from Each Other Adolescents Are Different From Children Develpomental Differences in Processing the Mass Media Conclusion Exercises References Chapter 2 Advertising Historical Changes in Advertising to Children Content Analyses of Television Advertising Cognitive Processing of Advertising Persuasive Impact of Advertising Phases of Consumer Behavior During Childhood Marketing Strategies in the 21st Century Regulation of Advertising Targeted to Youth Teaching Advertising LIteracy Conclusion Exercises References Chapter 3 Educational Media Economic and Regulatory Forces That Affect Educational Media Children's Learning From Media Learning to Learn From Media Conclusion Exercises References Chapter 4 Prosocial Effects of Media Prosocial Media for Adolescents National and International Prosocial Efforts Ratings Exercises References Chapter 5 Media Violence How Violent Are American Media? Does Media Violence Attract Youth? Can Media Violence Lead to Aggression? Can Media Violence Desensitize Young People? Can Media Violence Produce Fear? Cultural Debates About Media Violence Guns and the Media Suicide and the Media Marketing Violence to Youth Government Regulation of Media Violence Japan Verses the United States: A Cross-Cultural Comparision Can Media Violence Have Positive Effects? Conclusion Exercises References Chapter 6 Sexuality and the Media Background Television as a Source of Sexual Information What Do Children and Teenagers Learn From Television? Why Teenagers May Be Particularly Susceptible to Sexual Content in the Media Movies Questionable Language and Taste in Movies and Television: A New Trend? Print Media The Nature of the Research Prosocial Sexual Content on Television Contraceptive Advertising Pornography Solutions Conclusion: Unanswered Questions Exercises References Chapter 7 Drugs and the Media Adolescent Drug Use Determinants of Child and Adolescent Drug Use Impact of Advertising on Children and Adolescents Cigarettes Alcohol Drugs Solutions Exercises References Chapter 8 Rock Music and Music Videos Rock 'n' Roll Music How Teenagers Use Music Music Videos and Music Television (MTV) Conclusion Exercises References Chapter 9 Eating and Eating Disorders Food Advertisements The Impact of Food Advertisements on Behavior Food in Television Programming and Movies Food Advertised in Schools Does Television Viewing Increase Childhood Obesity? Eating Disorders and Body Image Disordered Body Image Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Conclusion Solutions Exercises References Chapter 10 Video Games Definitions The Development of Video Games Time Commitment Why Are Video Games Popular? Game Preference Game Ratings A Closer Look at Violent Video Games The Importance of a Preference for Violent Video Games Research on the Effects of Playing Violent Video Games A Brief Word About Online Games Video Games and Health The Positive Potential of Video Games Video Games and Education Implications for Public Policy and for Parents Exercises References Chapter 11 The Internet Are Children and Adolescents Using the Internet? Are Parents Concerned? The Internet: What Is It? Concerns About the Net Sex on the Net: A Primary Concern Advertising Food Products to Children: The Latest Concern Other Areas of Concern Solutions to Internet Concerns On the Positive Side Conclusion Exercises References Chapter 12 The Family and Media The Home as a Multimedia Environment Socialization to Media Use Within the Family Context Parental Mediation of Children's Media Use Theoretical Perspectives Reducing Screen Time in the Home Exercises References Chapter 13 Media Literacy/Media Education: Solution to Big Media Demands for Change Big Media: Part of the Solution? Defining Media Literacy Media Education Uses of Media Literacy Does Media Literacy Work? Reviewing the Literature Teaching Media Literacy Skills Media Literacy and Public Health: Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drugs Use of Emotion Conundrum: Big Money Media Literacy and Public Health: Nutrition and Obesity Media Literacy and Public Health: Body Image Media Literacy and Violence Violence: Changing the Media Diet Violence: Coviewing and Mediation Media Literacy Programs as Violence Intervention Using Media Productions Channel One: The Largest Media Literacy Experiment Channel One's Media Literacy Curriculum The Research on Channel One Media Literacy and Parents Media Literacy and Corporate Funding Teaching Media Literacy Content of Media Literacy Student-Produced Anti-Ads Skills of Media Literacy A Sample Deconstruction Media Literacy Production Creating Counter-Ads Activism and Media Education Summary Exercises References

Television Viewing Time and Mortality

Television viewing time, the predominant leisure-time sedentary behavior, is associated with biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk, but its relationship with mortality has not been studied. We examined the associations of prolonged television viewing time with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and non-CVD/noncancer mortality in Australian adults. Television viewing time in relation to subsequent all-cause, CVD, and cancer mortality (median follow-up, 6.6 years) was examined among 8800 adults > or =25 years of age in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). During 58 087 person-years of follow-up, there were 284 deaths (87 CVD deaths, 125 cancer deaths). After adjustment for age, sex, waist circumference, and exercise, the hazard ratios for each 1-hour increment in television viewing time per day were 1.11 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.20) for all-cause mortality, 1.18 (95% CI, 1.03 to 1.35) for CVD mortality, and 1.09 (95% CI, 0.96 to 1.23) for cancer mortality. Compared with a television viewing time of <2 h/d, the fully adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 1.13 (95% CI, 0.87 to 1.36) for > or =2 to <4 h/d and 1.46 (95% CI, 1.04 to 2.05) for > or =4 h/d. For CVD mortality, corresponding hazard ratios were 1.19 (95% CI, 0.72 to 1.99) and 1.80 (95% CI, 1.00 to 3.25). The associations with both cancer mortality and non-CVD/noncancer mortality were not significant. Television viewing time was associated with increased risk of all-cause and CVD mortality. In addition to the promotion of exercise, chronic disease prevention strategies could focus on reducing sitting time, particularly prolonged television viewing.

The Impact of Background Television on Parent–Child Interaction

This study investigated the hypothesis that background television affects interactions between parents and very young children. Fifty-one 12-, 24-, and 36-month-old children, each accompanied by 1 parent, were observed for 1 hr of free play in a laboratory space resembling a family room. For half of the hour, an adult-directed television program played in the background on a monaural television set. During the other half hour, the television was not on. Both the quantity and quality of parent-child interaction decreased in the presence of background television. These findings suggest one way in which early, chronic exposure to television may have a negative impact on development.

The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behavior of Very Young Children

This experiment tests the hypothesis that background, adult television is a disruptive influence on very young children's behavior. Fifty 12-, 24-, and 36-month-olds played with a variety of toys for 1 hr. For half of the hour, a game show played in the background on a monaural TV set. During the other half hour, the TV was off. The children looked at the TV for only a few seconds at a time and less than once per minute. Nevertheless, background TV significantly reduced toy play episode length as well as focused attention during play. Thus, background television disrupts very young children's play behavior even when they pay little overt attention to it. These findings have implications for subsequent cognitive development.

The Impact of Background Radio and Television on High School Students' Homework Performance

The Impact of Background Radio and Television on High School Students' Homework Performance

Distraction Effects of Background Television on Homework Performance

Students regularly combine their homework with listening to the radio or watching television. A survey study demonstrated that about 80% of the high school students regularly do homework with a radio and 50% more or less frequently do homework with a television in the background (Beentjes, Koolstra, &amp; van der Voort, 1996). With so many students combining homework with background media, the question arises whether students' cognitive system is capable of processing the information given in an assignment as accurately with background media as in a single-task situation without background media.

Music is as distracting as noise: the differential distraction of background music and noise on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts

Previous research has found that introverts' performance on complex cognitive tasks is more negatively affected by distracters, e.g. music and background television, than by extraverts' performance. This study extended previous research by examining whether background noise would be as distracting as music. In the presence of silence, background garage music and office noise, 38 introverts and 38 extraverts carried out a reading comprehension task, a prose recall task and a mental arithmetic task. It was predicted that there would be an interaction between personality and background sound on all three tasks: introverts would do less well on all of the tasks than extraverts in the presence of music and noise but in silence performance would be the same. A significant interaction was found on the reading comprehension task only, although a trend for this effect was clearly present on the other two tasks. It was also predicted that there would be a main effect for background sound: performance would be worse in the presence of music and noise than silence. Results confirmed this prediction. These findings support the Eysenckian hypothesis of the difference in optimum cortical arousal in introverts and extraverts.

Distraction Effects of Background Television on Homework Performance

Students regularly combine their homework with listening to the radio or watching television. A survey study demonstrated that about 80% of the high school students regularly do homework with a radio and 50% more or less frequently do homework with a television in the background (Beentjes, Koolstra, & van der Voort, 1996). With so many students combining homework with background media, the question arises whether students' cognitive system is capable of processing the information given in an assignment as accurately with background media as in a single-task situation without background media.

Background Television and Reading Memory in Context

Previous research has shown negative background television effects on reading comprehension and memory. This experiment addressed two questions about such negative effects: (a) Are these effects due to interference with processes of initial comprehension and memory encoding, processes of memory retrieval, or both? and (b) Are the effects of background TV stronger for recall or recognition memory? Possible compensating positive effects of background TV were also addressed: Can viewing similar background television content during recall as that viewed during reading improve memory through facilitative context effects? Participants read newspaper science articles with background TV or in silence and completed recall and recognition tests after a filled delay either with TV or in silence. Deleterious effects were obtained for recall memory only and resulted solely from the presence of background TV at the time of comprehension / encoding. No facilitative context effects were obtained by reinstating the same program at the time of recall as experienced at the time of reading.

Background Television as an Inhibitor of Performance on Easy and Difficult Homework Assignments

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of two types of background television programs on students' performance on easy and difficult homework assignments. In both experiments, students in Grade 8 (Experiment 1: N = 90; Experiment 2: N = 144) were matched on reading proficiency. Subsequently, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they did homework with (a) a Dutch-language soap opera, (b) English-language music videos, or (c) no television in the background. The execution of homework was hindered only when it was combined with watching a soap opera. The distraction effect of the soap opera was expressed either in a performance decrement (Experiment 1) or in an extension of performance time (Experiment 2).

Effects of Background Television on Phonological and Visuo-Spatial Working Memory

Research during the 1990s has demonstrated the potential of television-as-background to interfere with performance on concurrent cognitive processing tasks. An experiment examined hypothesized structural interference effects of background television on working memory. To assess effects on phonologically based working memory, participants were tested on their memory for lists of letters and digits. Background television caused stronger deleterious effects on the primacy component of verbal working memory. Participants were tested for effects on visuo-spatial working memory using the Brooks spatial sentence memory task. Where participants were left to choose their own strategy for performing the Brooks task, no significant influence of background television emerged. When participants were instructed in the specific memory technique to use in the Brooks visuo-spatial working memory task, background television had a significant negative effect on performance. However, stronger effects appeared when using a verbally based memory technique than a spatially based technique.

Cognitive interference from background television: Structural effects on verbal and spatial processing

Recent research has demonstrated that television‐as‐background can interfere with performance on several types of difficult cognitive processing tasks. Armstrong and Greenberg (1990) argue that these effects are most likely the result of competition between TV and a primary task for central processing resources (capacity interference). An alternative hypothesis is that observed effects result from competition for more specific types of processing resources, rather than general capacity limits. It was hypothesized that background television would produce structural interference specifically with semantic memory and visuo‐spatial processing tasks. Controlling for prior abilities as assessed by pretests using parallel test forms, background television had a significant deleterious effect on a geometric analogies and completions task involving visuo‐spatial processing, while performance on a parallel verbal analogies test was marginally improved. Concurrent TV exposure had no influence on a test of semantic m...

Background television and reading performance

An experiment was conducted testing Armstrong and Greenberg's (1990) model of the effect of background television on cognitive performance, as it applies to reading comprehension and memory. Subjects completed a cued‐recall test of the content of an expository prose passage read under quiet conditions or concurrently with the presence of one of two types of television content (prime‐time drama versus commercials). Effects on immediate versus delayed recall were examined. Overall, significant deleterious effects of background television were found, controlling for prior abilities and motivation. Deleterious effects were stronger and more consistent when testing occurred immediately after reading, rather than after a five‐minute filled delay. Background commercials resulted in more consistently negative effects than did TV drama.

Background Television as an Inhibitor of Cognitive Processing

Proposed and tested is a causal process that could account for empirical relationships between television viewing and academic achievement. It is argued that television, when used as a secondary activity, interferes with performance on otherwise intellectually demanding tasks. Performance on seven different cognitive processing tests were examined for respondents in four television-viewing conditions and a no-TV control group. Dependent variables included measures of short-term memory, linguistic processing speed, reading comprehension, complex problem-solving abilities, and mental flexibility. Predictions based on four mechanisms were tested. Significant performance decrements in television conditions occurred for measures of reading comprehension, spatial problem solving, and cognitive flexibility. Results were most consistent with the idea that background television influences performance by causing cognitive processing capacity limits to be exceeded on difficult and complex tasks.