A Study of the Significance of a Commercial Network Broadcast Television News Program for Children

Abstract

The problem. Are the educational children's programs presented by network broadcasting truly instructional media? Procedures. Students were tested in groups of 100 each week over a four-week period on material presented in the CBS children's program In the News. Each week the students were divided into two groups prior to the programming. One group was instructed to view the program and one group was not specifically instructed to do so. Test scores were derived from multiple choice type tests written to cover news events discussed in the previous Saturday's programming. The tests were scored on a basis of per cent correct. The scores were analyzed in two sets of data. The first set of data compared the average scores of those who had viewed the program with the average scores of those who had not viewed the program. The second set of data involved comparing the average scores of those who had viewed as a result of being instructed to view with those who viewed but had not been instructed to do so. All scores were placed in tables. Findings. Students who had viewed the program In the News prior to the testing scored higher than those who had not viewed the program. Further, those students who had been instructed to view the program and did so scored higher than those who had viewed the program but had not been instructed to view.