Children and Television: A Global Perspective

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.

Preface. Introduction. 1. The Home of Television Viewing. 2. Television and Individual Development. 3. Television and the Behavior of Children. 4. Television and the Social Construction of Reality. 5. Television and Learning. 6. Implications for Education and Policy. 7. Conclusion: Growing up in a Global Screen Culture. Recommended Sources for Additional Readings. References. Index.

Dafna Lemish is Editor of Journal of Children and Media and Professor of the Department of Communication at Tel Aviv University. Among others, she co–authored The Make–Believe Worlds of Children: When Harry Potter met Pokémon in Disneyland and co–edited Children and Media in Times of War and Conflict. She has been studying children and television for 25 years in the USA, Europe and Israel, and has worked on the early socialization of television viewing, the effects of television violence, cultivation of stereotypes, development of television literacy, construction of gender identities, and the role of television in children′s lives during the Iraq war.

“An integrated analysis of research from all over the world on interrelationships between children and television in various national cultural contexts… Her book profits from her work in three areas of the world (the US, Europe, and Israel) [and] from her 25 years of research on this subject… Recommended.” CHOICE "Dafna Lemish offers up an overview of everything you ever wanted to know about children and television." Video Age "Children and Television is a very nicely crafted text that chronicles the integration of television into the lives of children and their families over the past 50 years. Given its accessible style, the text should have appeal within the academic community and among the lay public. In fact, the latter stand to gain the most in terms of better understanding, from a scientifically substantiated vantage point, of how television has fit into children′s lives today and how it will prepare them for the inevitable integration of more sophisticated media forms into their lives tomorrow." PsycCRITIQUES