Effects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children's learning in 15 countries

Sesame Street is broadcast to millions of children globally, including in some of the world's poorest regions. This meta-analysis examines the effects of children's exposure to international co-productions of Sesame Street, synthesizing the results of 24 studies, conducted with over 10,000 children in 15 countries. The results indicated significant positive effects of exposure to the program, aggregated across learning outcomes, and within each of the three outcome categories: cognitive outcomes, including literacy and numeracy; learning about the world, including health and safety knowledge; social reasoning and attitudes toward out-groups. The effects were significant across different methods, and they were observed in both low- and middle-income countries and also in high-income countries. The results are contextualized by considering the effects and reach of the program, relative to other early childhood interventions.     

Recall of Television Commercials as a Function of Viewing Context: The Impact of Program-Commercial Congruity on Commercial Messages

The effect of the congruity between the involvement types of advertising commercial and a television program on the effectiveness of the commercial was studied. Participants (N = 103) viewed either a cognitive or an affective commercial for a product, which was embedded in either a cognitive or an affective television program. The results showed that the effects of the congruence influence the impact on memory. Free recall and cued recall were significantly influenced by the program-commercial congruity. Free recall and cued recall were significantly higher for the cognitively involving commercial in the cognitively involving program context than in the affectively involving program context. Similarly, free recall and cued recall were significantly higher for the affectively involving commercial in the affectively involving program context than in the cognitively involving program context.     

Self-control depletion and sleep duration: the mediating role of television viewing

Abstract

Objective: Sleep insufficiency has been related to self-control failure: people fail to go to bed in time and end up sleep deprived. The role of state self-control in predicting bedtime and sleep duration has not yet been investigated. Based on research claiming an overlap between depleted self-control resources and fatigue, self-control depletion may foster earlier bedtimes. Conversely, self-control depletion also increases the propensity to procrastinate bedtime by giving in to the immediate gratification of late night entertainment. This study therefore looked at procrastinatory television viewing and its intermediary role in the association between state self-control and bedtime. The implications for sleep duration are examined. Design: Firstyear students (N = 234) participated in an online survey. Using Day Reconstruction Method, they charted their activities and experiences during the preceding day and subsequent bedtime behavior. Results: Self-control depletion was directly related to earlier bedtimes, which we explained by its similarity to fatigue. This was associated with longer sleep duration. Self-control depletion was indirectly related to later bedtimes because it increased the propensity to procrastinate by watching television. This was associated with shorter sleep duration. Conclusion: This study exposes a dual pathway between self-control depletion and sleep duration, whereby procrastinatory television viewing may reduce sleep duration.     

To watch or not to watch: Infants and toddlers in a brave new electronic world

For some time now, questions have been asked about the impact of television and video materials on the cognitive and social development of preschoolers and older children. More recently, these same questions have been asked in relation to the extensive exposure to these media that infants and toddlers are currently experiencing. To answer these questions, we review current research that explicitly targets these concerns and provide new insights into the role these media play in early development.     

Temporal and spatial integration of face,object, and scene features in occipito-temporal cortex

In three neuroimaging experiments, face, novel object, and building stimuli were compared under conditions of restricted (aperture) viewing and normal (whole) viewing. Aperture viewing restricted the view to a single face/object feature at a time, with the subjects able to move the aperture continuously though time to reveal different features. An analysis of the proportion of time spent viewing different features showed stereotypical exploration patterns for face, object, and building stimuli, and suggested that subjects constrained their viewing to the features most relevant for recognition. Aperture viewing showed much longer response times than whole viewing, due to sequential exploration of the relevant isolated features. An analysis of BOLD activation revealed face-selective activation with both whole viewing and aperture viewing in the left and right fusiform face areas (FFA). Aperture viewing showed strong and sustained activation throughout exploration, suggesting that aperture viewing recruited similar processes as whole viewing, but for a longer time period. Face-selective recruitment of the FFA with aperture viewing suggests that the FFA is involved in the integration of isolated features for the purpose of recognition.     

On the Meaning of Screens: Towards a Phenomenological Account of Screenness

This paper presents a Heideggerian phenomenological analysis of screens. In a world and an epoch where screens pervade a great many aspects of human experience, we submit that phenomenology, much in a traditional methodological form, can provide an interesting and novel basis for our understanding of screens. We ground our analysis in the ontology of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time [1927/1962], claiming that screens will only show themselves as they are if taken as screens-in-the-world. Thus, the phenomenon of screen is not investigated in its empirical form or conceptually. It is rather taken as a grounding intentional orientation that conditions our engagement with certain surfaces as we comport ourselves towards them “as screens.” In doing this we claim to have opened up the phenomenon of screen in a new and meaningful way.     

Representing Father–Son Relationships among African-American Muslim Men in Film and Television

African-American Muslims are well-known for their prison reform ministries and initiatives aimed at assisting disenfranchised men and women in inner city communities. In media discourse, the redemption narratives of young African-American Muslim men in these environments have often been stimulated by African-American Muslim leaders who function as highly influential fatherly figures that usually stress an importance of fatherhood in ameliorating juvenile delinquency and hopelessness. While fatherhood is a cherished institution among Muslim families, this analysis focuses on depictions of father-son relationships among African-American Muslim men in film and television. This study examines relationships between Muslim sons and non-Muslim fathers, Muslim fathers and non-Muslim sons, and fathers and sons who both embrace Islam throughout these visual narratives. In exploring these relationships, the article examines the impact of African-American Muslim fathers on their sons’ faith and spiritual development, negotiation of masculinity, management of racism, confrontation of Islamophobia, and maintenance of discipline, social mobility, and life skills.     

Parent–child interactions during traditional and interactive media settings: A pilot randomized control study

Parent–child interactions are pivotal for children's socioemotional development, yet might suffer with increased attention to screen media, as research has suggested. In response, we hypothesized that parent–child play on a tablet computer, as representative of interactive media, would generate higher‐quality parent–child interactions than toy play or watching TV . We examined the emotional availability of mothers and their 2‐year‐old child during the previous three contexts using a randomized crossover design (n = 22) in a laboratory room. Among other results, mothers were more sensitive and structuring during joint gaming on a tablet than when engaged in toy play or watching TV . In addition, mothers were more hostile toward their children during play with traditional toys than during joint tablet gaming and television co‐viewing. Such findings provide new insights into the impact of new media on parent–child interactions, chiefly by demonstrating that interactive media devices such as tablets can afford growth‐enhancing parent–child interactions.     

The changing dynamics of religious authority on Pakistani religious television

This paper analyses the production, ownership and control of Pakistani religious talk shows, which have emerged as a popular genre of religious programming, subsequent to the liberalisation of Pakistani media in 2002. Much scholarship has implicated the nexus between Islam and televisual media in enabling the fragmentation of religious authority, by altering ‘lay’ engagements with Islam and thereby eliciting wider participation in religious discourse. In contrast, this paper focuses on the changing terms of asserting religious authority in the newly liberalised media context. Based on an analysis of the innovative formats and modes of editorial control characterising contemporary religious shows, I posit the significance of religious talk shows in both altering the nature of scholarly participation in religious public debate, and subjecting featured scholars to non-scholarly interests and agendas. I argue that the latter two insights into the nature of religious authority on television are only accessible from a production-based perspective, which is crucial for evaluating the wider implications of broadcast media for religious authority.