Television: How Much is Too Much? |
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Do you really know what they’re watching?
We gratefully acknowledge the National PTA, The Center for Media Literacy, and the National Cable Television Association for their contributions.
Television has a tremendous influence on American family life. As the dominant force in our media culture, television has changed our habits, what we do with our free time, when and how we eat meals, when we go to bed, and how we raise and entertain our children. Television is an important part of children’s lives, offering them a look at many things they will never have the chance to see for themselves. But TV viewing, especially by children, needs to be controlled. Above all else, television teaches. And that’s why we should all be concerned about what our children learn from watching television. We hear that too much TV is bad for our children and that exposure to violence, especially at a young age, can have harmful, lifelong consequences. With children viewing, on average, 27 hours of TV each week, studies estimate that a typical child will witness 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence before graduating elementary school! Those certainly are some frighteningly, disturbing statistics. So what can we do about it? Well, we could get rid of our TV’s altogether, but for most of us that’s just not realistic. Television communicates important information that we want to know. It’s an important part of our society, and at it’s best, TV is not just informative, it’s very entertaining. So what is the solution? Critical Viewing. The average American child will spend more hours watching TV than sitting in a classroom by the time they are 18 years of age. Television has become more than entertainment. It baby-sits, tutors, and acts as surrogate parents in many homes. It impacts our children’s personalities, behavior and values. Parents must help their children become media literate. A media literate child has the ability to discern, question and decipher what they see on television or at the movies. Critical Viewing- The Characters: Help your child learn to question characters from their favorite TV shows. Do they talk or act like real kids? Are they good decision makers? How would you make the children more realistic? Critical Viewing- Stereotypes: Help your child understand that a stereotype is an oversimplified or prejudiced image of a group. Television has given us unflattering representations of women, racial minorities, senior citizens, religious and cultural groups, and those with alternative lifestyles. Help your child look for examples of positive portrayals as well as negative ones. Compare the negative examples to real life examples. Critical Viewing- The Gender Roles: Ask your child to look at the roles of men and women in an episode of a favorite show. What words are used to describe the roles of women on the show? The men? Who are the heroes? What are their occupations, hobbies, or interests? From whose point of view is the story told? How would the story change if the main characters switched gender? Critical Viewing- Violence: The Center for Media Literacy has identified four types of violence. They are: violence with a weapon, violence without a weapon, crashes and explosions, and verbal violence. Help your child recognize violence when they see it on TV. Ask them to determine what triggered it? What are the emotional and physical results? What could the characters have done instead? How could they have handled the situation differently? How did it make your child feel? The violence portrayed on television today, may cause children to become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others or it may make them more likely to behave in an aggressive or harmful way towards others. Re-sensitize your children to TV violence by asking how the victim might feel or how they would feel if the violent act happened to them or to someone that they cared about. Critical Viewing- Commercials: You can also teach your child to be media literate about advertisements too. Point out clever advertising techniques to help your children understand the subtle difference between hip and hype. They should ask themselves: What does the ad claim that the product will do? How realistic are the kids in the ad? Would they really play with that toy or use that product, or do they seem a little too old for it? Does the ad use special effects to make the product look different or more fun than it actually is? In the past it was primarily words written, read and spoken, that defined literacy. Books and newspapers made people literate and gave them the power to get important information, helping them to make decisions about their lives. Today, information comes through a variety of media-delivered messages and images, especially electronic. For our children to be media literate today, and into the 21st Century, they must know how to "read", interpret and evaluate the images, words and sounds that make up our contemporary mass media culture. Our first step is to have an awareness and an understanding of critical viewing skills. When we learn to ask questions about what we see and hear and when we intentionally evaluate program content, we are on the road to media literacy. We cannot protect our children from everything, but we can prepare them for anything.
Tips for taking control of the remote: *Set limits and stick to them! The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children watch no more than 1 to 2 hours per day. Build a video library of shows that you want your children to watch. Keep your TV in the family room, not in your child’s bedroom. *Children should ask your permission to watch TV rather than casually ‘channel surf’. Let your child know that they can watch specific shows, not just whatever is on. * Make TV watching a planned, interactive family event, and remember, when the show is over, turn the TV off! * Don’t be afraid to "talk back to your TV". Your child will absorb your values by hearing your opinion of what you see and hear. Make a particular point of bringing attention to injustice or unnecessary violence. *For the younger set, emphasize the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make believe’. Tell them that in ‘real life’, violent acts injure or kill people. *Encourage your child to develop hobbies, play sports, or get involved in community activities. *Make TV viewing a conscious choice, not just a habit. Choose programs wisely. Does the program encourage responsibility, worthwhile ideals, values, and beliefs? *Set an example. Ask yourself, if you were a child, what lessons about the world might you learn from the program you just watched?
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