Television, Educational and Prosocial Effects of

Shalom M. Fisch

Often, discussions of the effects of television on children focus solely on negative effects, such as the modeling of aggressive behavior, the persuasive power of advertising, and so on. Yet criticisms of television frequently refer only to television in general, and fail to distinguish among different types of television programs. Just as research has demonstrated negative effects of negative television programs, educational and prosocial programs have been found to produce positive effects among viewers. Educational effects have appeared among both preschool and school-aged children, in a wide variety of subject areas, such as literacy, mathematics, and science. Prosocial effects have been researched primarily (though not entirely) among preschool children and have been observed in domains such as positive interactions, altruism and cooperation, self-control and delay of gratification, and reduction of stereotypes. Empirical research on children's learning from educational television began in the early 1970s, with Ball and Bogatz's (e.g., 1970) ...

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