Is television harmful to children? Does it destroy imagination, provode delinquency and violence, undermine family life and have other detrimental effects on children?; The author, himself a parent, teacher and researcher investigates the complex ways in which children actively make meaning and take pleasure from television. Chapters cover the popular debates about children and television from a general and academic perspective. The characteristics of children's talk about television are explored, as children interact with other children and other family members in "family viewing" sessions.; Key concepts which inform children's talk about television are investigated i. e. genre, narrative, character, modality, and agency. Finally, conclusions are presented and issues outlined for further research.; Drawing on theories and ideas developed within media and cultural studies, English, education, psychology, sociology, linguistics and other related areas, this book will be useful to both students and teachers in the field, and to the general reader with an interest in children and the media.

"David Kamp takes readers behind the scenes to show how ... programs [such as Mister Rogers' Neighboorhood, Sesame Street, and Schoolhouse Rock] made it on air, ... [explaining] how ... like-minded individuals found their way into television, not as fame- or money-hungry would-be auteurs and stars, but as people who wanted to use TV to help children ... [The book] captures a period in children's television where enlightened progressivism prevailed, and shows how this period changed the lives of millions"--

This book offers a magisterial overview on children and television from the accumulated global literature in this field of the past 50 years, combining both the American tradition, influenced heavily by developmental psychological studies, as well as the European tradition, characterized by more sociological and cultural studies perspectives to the field. Similarly, it draws together a methodological diversity from both the quantitative – experimental and survey research, together with the qualitative – ethnographic and interview – research of children and television. With a distinctively international approach, Children and Television highlights the global perspective in each of the chapters, balancing the need to contextualize television in children’s lives in their unique cultural spaces, as well as searching for universal understandings that hold true for children around the world.

A Companion to Television is a magisterial collection of 31 original essays that charter the field of television studies over the past century Explores a diverse range of topics and theories that have led to television’s current incarnation, and predict its likely future Covers technology and aesthetics, television’s relationship to the state, televisual commerce; texts, representation, genre, internationalism, and audience reception and effects Essays are by an international group of first-rate scholars For information, news, and content from Blackwell's reference publishing program please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/reference/

Comprises 17 papers presented at the Child Language Seminar, Bangor 1994, with contributions in areas as diverse as bilingual development, phonological disorders, sign language development, and the language of Down's syndrome children.

Broadcasters, parents, public officials, and teachers have all abandoned our children to a wasteland of vacuous, often violent television programing. In this eloquent book, Newton Minow and Craig LaMay persuasively demonstrate that this is a false application of the First Amendment. Broadcasters are required by law to serve the public interest, and the Supreme Court and Congress have said that service to children is a broadcaster's obligation under law, they remind us; the First Amendment can be used on behalf of children, to help make television a force that will nurture and not harm them.