Educational Television Relies on active processing and includes salient features such as: Womens voices Child dialogue Non-human voices Animation Music

Educational Television Children elect not to pay as much attention to programs that have: Male voices Adult dialogue

Educational Television When a well-designed, attention-holding program is produced, information that is slightly more complicated is introduced, allowing the exposure of children to information they may have previously ignored.

Educational Television Repetition is a good tool for learning.

Positive Effects Sesame Street study: Children who watched Sesame Street at ages 2 and 3 scored higher at age 5 on measures of language, math and school readiness. Viewing at age 4 and beyond had no significant effect

Positive Effects Educational TV viewers: Do better on standardized tests Are rated as more ready to learn Have getter preacademic skills Are prepared to learn more Think that learning is fun Are eager to go to “real school” and are more prepared for it.

Long Term Effects A study of adolescents who watched educational programming as a child showed that: A boy who watched 5 hours of educational tv a week had a GPA aproximately.35 higher than those who did not watch A girl who did the same had a GPA aproximately.10 higher

Prosocial Messages Any nonviolent social message designed to be helpful or beneficial Voluntary Altruism, friendliness, sharing, cooperation, sympathy and acceptance of others from different groups Aimed primarily at children

1990 Childrens Television Act Furthers the positive development of the child in and respect, including cognitive/intellectual or emotional/social needs Efforts to fullfill educational programming provided by major stations

Two basic learning mechanisms: We learn by observing how to do things and whether it is appropriate to do them. We have emotional responses while watching TV that affect our responses to simliar real-world events.

Television can have a strong impact on reaching children important values and pro- social behaviors such as helping others, sharing, telling the truth. It can also encourage anti-social behavior which often yields positive results. Entertainment Television

Children receive certain messages from television. The different motivations of TV characters send influential signals about the importance and value of various aspects of life.

Entertainment Television in % are motivated by peer relationships. 36% are motivated by sports and hobbies. 27% are motivated by romance. 24% are motivated by family relationships. 16% are motivated by society or community. 15% are motivated by school-related issues. 1% are motivated by religion or spirituality.

Entertainment Television in % feature children dealing with major social or family issues such as racism, substance abuse or public safety 2% feature children dealing with major family issues such as family crisis, child abuse, domestic abuse or family values Less than 12% of children are confronting important issues.

Entertainment Television in 2002 Child Behaviors Most Rewarded on Television Cooperating % Helping % Physical Aggression % Affection % Explaining Feelings % Deceit % Performing Responsibilities % Verbal Aggression %

Entertainment Television in 2002 prosocial vs. anti-social 70% of child characters on fictional shows engage in pro-social acts Pro-social behaviors are most likely to be seen as effective in meeting the child's goals 61 % of pro-social behaviors were effective 40% engage in anti-social acts while anti-social behaviors are more likely to be shown as ineffective anti-social behaviors were effective just 34% of the time.

Pro-Social Television Based on Neilsen ratings in 1999, out of the top 20 shows most watched by children ages 2 to 17, only four contained social lessions. Of the four, only 2 contained pro-social lessons. Of the 2, only one was designed explicitly for children

Pro-social Television in 2008 In a sample of 2,000 shows across 18 channels, the following information was found: 73% featured at least one act of altruism, defined as helping, sharing, giving, or donating On average, viewers of these programs saw about three acts of altruism an hour human characters rather than animated ones enacted most of the altruism about one-third of the behaviors were explicitly rewarded in the plot.

Pro-social Television in 2008 Altruism was more common in situation comedies and children's shows than in other types of programs It was also more common on children's cable networks such as Disney and Nickelodeon Programs targeted to younger viewers often portray helping behavior

Popular among preschoolers: Popular among young elementary: s s

Social Interaction Statistics Preschoolers and their parents spend less time talking with and looking at each other when the television set is turned on than when it is off. Families that eat dinner in front of the television converse less and talk about fewer topics than do families that turn the television off before they sit down to dinner. Families engage in more physical contact and cuddling when they watch television together than when they are doing other activities.

Pro-social Studies Repeated exposure to pro-social television can affect preschoolers' social behavior. In one study, three- to five-year-olds watched fifteen minutes a day of either Sesame Street or Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in their preschool. Observed behavior before, during and after.

Pro-social Studies Exposure to Mister Rogers increased the amount of social contact preschoolers had in the classroom and increased their giving of positive attention such as praise and physical affection to others. Sesame Street had a similar positive effect, but only for those who were low in social skills at the beginning.

Summary Viewing pro-social programming does in fact enhance children's pro-social behavior The strongest effects of pro-social content are on altruism It's easier for television characters to demonstrate behaviorally how to help someone than how to be cooperative or tolerant of others