Media in Children's Lives

Question 1

What is the percentage of parents that use television as a babysitter?

Answer 1

25%.

42% think it is good for children’s education.

Question 2

What could children’s screen time be predicted by?

Answer 2

Parents’ use and attitudes.

Question 3

What did Sesame street teach children?

Answer 3

Children gained more knowledge about cognitive (colours, letter, shapes) and social (malaria, healthy eating) areas than prosocial (anti-prejudice) areas.

Question 4

Which show improved narrative in children?

Answer 4

Uchikoshi (2005) - Arthur (as opposed to between the lions).
Arthur is beneficial for narrative structure learning.

Question 5

Which show improved literacy skills in emerging readers?

Answer 5

Linebarger et al (2004) - Between the lions lead to better word recognition + greater increases in letter naming, phonemic segmentation + nonsense word fluency.
No improvement on reading.

Question 6

What is the controversy around the Mozart effect?

Answer 6

It is incorrect. Listening to Einstein does not increase anything.

Question 7

What did watching baby Wordsworth improve?

Answer 7

Robb et al (2009) - nothing. it did not increase word learning.
Parent-child book reading was related to vocabulary instead.

Question 8

What did Linebarger & Walker (2005) discover about different types of programs?

Answer 8

Blue clues, Dora, Clifford = vocabulary development.
Teletubbies + Sesame street = no vocabulary increases.
Weakness of study - sesame street is aimed at older audiences. Teletubbies don’t speak, so how would vocabulary increase?

Question 9

How is background television related to parent talk?

Answer 9

Pempek et al (2014) - utterances per min is 1/2 when television is on. New words + words per min decrease in television condition (as opposed to no television) - television is distracting.

Question 10

What are the short and long-term effects of violence on television?

Answer 10

Huesmann (2007).
ST - priming violence, arousal, mimicry.
LT - observational learning, desensitisation.
Another study - children who watched power ranges were 8x more likely to hit another child in the playground.

Question 11

Name the two main negative effects of television discussed in the lecture.

Answer 11

Aggression - viewing violence makes it seem more acceptable and effective in solving interpersonal conflict.
Sexuality - adolescents. More TV = more likely to assume peers are sexually active + more likely to engaged in sexual intercourse themselves. Viewing sexual content can also be linked to a higher likelihood of pregnancy.

Question 12

What is magic window thinking (Valkenburg, 2004)?

Answer 12

Tendency of very young children to believe that television images are real.
“I used to believe TV was just another window in our house and the Sesame street characters were my neighbours”.

Question 13

How many parents think computers are good for children’s learning?

Answer 13

70%.

70% use devices for children when doing house chores. 65% to keep the children calm…

Question 14

How many children aged 3-4 can engage in media multitasking?

Answer 14

1/3.
At age 3-4 they can also use devices without help.
Weakness - this may not be accurate. Babies can point to apps but can’t search and set up things.
Most use tablets as a TV - to watch shows. This is controversial as researchers say TV research is outdated but most tablets are used as a TV anyway.

Question 15

What percentage of the top 100-selling apps target preschool and elementary aged children?

Answer 15

47%.

Shows how apps for toddlers are a significant market.

Question 16

What are the 4 pillars of learning?

Answer 16

Active learning.
Engagement in the learning process.
Meaningful learning.
Social interaction - like co-viewing + collaborative learning.

Question 17

Can children learn letters from an app?

Answer 17

D’Agostino et al (2016) - struggling 6-7yos. Half assigned to apps, half assigned to letter finding and sorting task.
Apps surpassed others on letter identifications - speed learning?
Still, teachers did not like it because of their beliefs!

Question 18

How can interactive e-books help learning?

Answer 18

Smeets & Bus (2015) - maths games, regular reading on computers, animated book, interactive book.
Vocabulary increases - interactive e-book had largest effect. Animated book was second largest. No differences in story comprehension.

Question 19

When can children distinguish television ads?

Answer 19

Age 5.

This is harder on web pages - only 26.6% recognise them at age 6 with a price as opposed to 76.9% at age 10.

Question 20

When can children distinguish persuasive intent in ads?

Answer 20

Age 8.

Question 21

How can advertising influence children’s choices?

Answer 21

Buijzen & Valkenberg (2010) - children see an advert - make more purchase requests (which lead to more materialistic attitudes) - parent-child conflict leads to more disappointments/life dissatisfaction.

Question 22

What are the two major steps in understanding advertisements?

Answer 22

Being able to recognise an advertisement.

Realising that advertisements aim to persuade people to purchase a product.

Question 23

Why do children believe there are advertisements (age 6-7 compared to 8-9)?

Answer 23

Adronikidis (2010) - 6-7 - they are necessary, otherwise, we would not know what to buy.
8-9 - they are made by advertising companies and paid for by those that have the products.

Question 24

What type of adverts are advertised on children’s websites?

Answer 24

Cereal - 45%, fast-food - 19%, fruit and veg - 0.1%.

Only 16% of sites met standards for HFSS.

Question 25

What did Boyland (2013)’s study show about the effects of advertising on children?

Answer 25

Children were more likely to eat Walker’s crisps when having seen the Walker’s advert or the football advert with the endorser - association.

Question 26

What is the no HFSS rule on television advertising?

Answer 26

No HFSS ads on children’s channel. No HFSS ads on non-children’s channels when particular programmes are appealing to 4-15yos.

Question 27

What is the socio-cultural theory?

Answer 27

Children develop through their participation in everyday interactions (e.g. parent-child conversations). Here they revise their folk theories.

Question 28

What are the two main media theories?

Answer 28

Cultivation analysis (Gerbner) - repetition of information. Views + behaviours of those who spend more time with media, internalise and reflect what they have seen on TV. 
Drench hypothesis (Greenberg) - critical images in media have the powerful effect of being able to overshadow/overwhelm stereotypical or recurrent images that crop up on a more regular basis.

Question 29

What did Spinner, Cameron & Tenenbaum find regarding messages from media?

Answer 29

In television - boys are more aggressive, speak more and are more present.
In books - boys are more active and have a larger range of occupations.
In toys - boys are more heroic, have expertise and have occupational roles (as opposed to girls). Girls are just learning.
Girl-orientated magazines are much more likely to say ‘ask an adult for help’.
Girl-orientated magazines have 0% of characters speaking on the front, compared to 56% for boys.
Boy-orientated magazines are much more likely to show occupations.
Male characters in magazines are more likely to show aggression than female characters.