Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This text addresses many of the issues surrounding Western culture's continuing immersion into technology, and particularly the emerging information technologies influencing children. Calvert poses questions about the effects of these and discusses their meaning for parents, teachers and policymakers. The work features thorough coverage of both old and new technologies, and examines contemporary issues such as public policy, violence, gender and ethinic images.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. xvii)
• Preface (p. xxi)
• 1 The Medium as the Messenger (p. 1)
• What Are the Information Technologies? (p. 3)
• Mass Media: Television and Radio (p. 3)
• Computer Technologies: Personal Computers, CD-ROM, Video Games, Virtual Reality, and the Internet (p. 3)
• Children's Access to Information Technologies (p. 6)
• Ownership Patterns (p. 7)
• Gender and Ethnic Issues (p. 7)
• Selective Exposure (p. 8)
• Uses and Gratification Theory (p. 8)
• Active Versus Passive Exposure (p. 9)
• What Is Television Viewing? (p. 10)
• Impact of New Technologies on Viewing (p. 16)
• Displacement Effects: What Activities Do Information Technologies Replace? (p. 16)
• The Introduction of Television (p. 17)
• The Introduction of New Technologies (p. 18)
• Impact of Television on Reading Skills (p. 22)
• The Symbol Systems of Radios, Books, Televisions, and Computers (p. 24)
• Summary (p. 26)
• 2 Media Violence (p. 27)
• The Action-and-Violence Formula (p. 28)
• Violent Television Content (p. 29)
• Violent Content in the New Technologies: Video Games and Virtual Reality Games (p. 32)
• Technological Interfaces: From Observation to Interaction (p. 35)
• The Observational Television Experience (p. 35)
• The Interactive Experience (p. 36)
• How Does Violence Affect Children? (p. 36)
• Arousal Theory (p. 37)
• Social Cognitive Theory: Violent Characters as Social Models (p. 41)
• Cultivating Aggressive Beliefs and Scripts (p. 44)
• Psychoanalytic Theory (p. 46)
• Is There a Causal Link Between Media Violence and Real-life Aggression? (p. 48)
• Censorship or V-Chip? (p. 52)
• Summary (p. 53)
• 3 Pink and Blue Media Images (p. 55)
• Pink and Blue Messages on the Information Highway (p. 57)
• Television Content: Content Analyses (p. 57)
• Video Game and Computer Content (p. 61)
• Gender as an Organizer of Human Experience (p. 63)
• Gender Schema Theory (p. 63)
• Television Effects on Gender Schemas: Activation versus Differentiation (p. 65)
• Computers and Children's Gender Schemas (p. 71)
• Altering Children's Gender Schemas about Computers (p. 74)
• Summary on Gender Schemas and Computers (p. 77)
• Cognitive Developmental Theory: From Gender Identity to Gender Constancy (p. 77)
• Gender Constancy and Television Content (p. 78)
• Gender Constancy and Computer Content (p. 79)
• Summary on Gender Constancy (p. 80)
• Social Cognitive Theory (p. 80)
• Gender Roles and Television Content (p. 81)
• Social Cognitive Theory and Computer Interactions (p. 83)
• Summary (p. 84)
• 4 Black and White Media Images (p. 85)
• Content Analyses of Minority Portrayals (p. 86)
• The Number of Ethnic Minority Television Characters (p. 87)
• Television Roles of Ethnic Minority Characters (p. 89)
• Summary of Content (p. 91)
• A Theoretical Lens for Predicting Ethnic Portrayal Effects (p. 91)
• Effects of Racial Television Portrayals on Children (p. 93)
• Schema Theory: Constructing Beliefs about the Races (p. 93)
• Social Cognitive Theory: Role Models for Children (p. 99)
• The Drench Hypothesis: Assessing the Value of a Few Nonstereotyped Media Images (p. 100)
• Cultivation Theory: Cultivating Racial Beliefs (p. 101)
• Summary of the Theoretical Findings (p. 101)
• The Influence of New Technologies (p. 102)
• Summary (p. 103)
• 5 Green Media Images: The Color of Money (p. 105)
• Content Analyses of Children's Advertisements (p. 106)
• Commercial Selling Techniques (p. 109)
• Theoretical Models in Relation to Advertising (p. 110)
• Impact of Advertising on Children (p. 111)
• Attention to Advertisements (p. 111)
• Product Recognition (p. 112)
• Comprehension of Commercial Intent (p. 112)
• Behavioral Effects: Product Requests and Purchasing Patterns (p. 115)
• Deceptive Practices in Children's Advertisements (p. 116)
• Consumer Education Programs (p. 117)
• Commercial Advertising Practices on the Internet (p. 121)
• Violating Children's Right to Privacy (p. 121)
• Unfair and Deceptive Advertising Practices (p. 121)
• Solutions to Internet Commercial Issues (p. 123)
• Summary (p. 123)
• 6 Media, Public Policy, and Government Regulation (p. 125)
• Overview (p. 126)
• Structural Aspects of the Television Industry (p. 128)
• The Financial Base of Television Programs (p. 129)
• Government Regulation of Television Content and Advertisements (p. 130)
• Impact of the Children's Television Act on Children's Programs (p. 133)
• Educational and Informational Programming (p. 134)
• The Three-Hour Rule (p. 135)
• Advertising Regulations (p. 137)
• Parent Advisories and Program Ratings (p. 140)
• Roadblocks to Quality Television Programs (p. 140)
• Creating A Market for Quality Television Programs (p. 141)
• Implications for the Interactive Technologies (p. 145)
• Summary (p. 145)
• 7 The Form of the Information Highway (p. 147)
• What are Formal Production Features? (p. 149)
• Macro Formal Features (p. 149)
• Visual Micro Features (p. 151)
• Auditory Micro Features (p. 151)
• Children's Cognitive Skills: Theoretical Underpinnings (p. 152)
• Perception: The Intake of Information (p. 153)
• Attention: Passing through the Gatekeeper (p. 154)
• Representation and Memory of Information (p. 155)
• Action as Output (p. 156)
• Summary of Cognitive Skills (p. 156)
• Empirical Inquiries in the Television and Computer Areas (p. 157)
• Children's Attention to, and Memory of, Television Content (p. 157)
• Summary of the Empirical Evidence (p. 165)
• Production Features and the New Technologies (p. 165)
• Motivational Aspects of Features (p. 166)
• Action Superiority in Computer Interactions (p. 167)
• Interactive Experiences: Will the Medium Become the Message? (p. 171)
• Video Games and the Cultivation of Visual Spatial Skills (p. 171)
• Creating Video and Computer Programs: Windows to the Mind (p. 174)
• Virtual Reality Experiences: Enactive Representations of the Future (p. 176)
• Summary (p. 177)
• 8 Educational Media (p. 178)
• What is an Educational Television or Computer Program? (p. 179)
• History of Educational Television Programs (p. 180)
• Characteristics of Effective Educational Television and Computer Programs (p. 184)
• Age-Appropriate Content (p. 184)
• Gender- and Ethnic-Appropriate Content (p. 188)
• Perceptually Salient Production Techniques (p. 188)
• Comprehensible Language (p. 188)
• Interactivity (p. 189)
• Repetition (p. 189)
• Familiar Host and Cast (p. 190)
• Familiar Setting (p. 190)
• Themes (p. 190)
• Learning Is Fun! (p. 191)
• Multimedia Learning Environments (p. 191)
• Effectiveness of Educational Television Programs (p. 192)
• Evaluations of Sesame Street (p. 193)
• The Comprehensibility Hypothesis (p. 196)
• Evaluations of School House Rock (p. 199)
• Evaluations of Other Educational Programs (p. 201)
• Summary of Educational Television Programs (p. 202)
• Effectiveness of Educational Computer Programs (p. 203)
• Educational Pathways on the Internet (p. 205)
• Summary (p. 207)
• 9 Prosocial and Imaginative Media (p. 208)
• What is Prosocial Behavior? (p. 209)
• Content Analyses of Television Programs (p. 210)
• Can Television Viewing Increase Children's Prosocial Behaviors? (p. 212)
• Verbal Labeling and Role Playing as Aids for Prosocial Activity (p. 213)
• Previewing and Reviewing Content to Aid Comprehension (p. 217)
• Mixing the Message: Combining Prosocial and Aggressive Content (p. 218)
• Effective Formats for Presenting Prosocial Television Programs (p. 220)
• Influences of Television Content on Children's Imagination (p. 221)
• Summary of Prosocial Effects (p. 226)
• The New Technologies and Children's Prosocial Behaviors (p. 227)
• Cooperative and Collaborative Computer Activities (p. 227)
• Summary of the New Technologies (p. 231)
• Imaginative Activities on the Computer (p. 231)
• Communicating on the Internet (p. 232)
• Summary (p. 233)
• 10 The Convergence of Information Technologies (p. 235)
• The Content (p. 237)
• Regulation and Deregulation (p. 239)
• Technological Changes in Information Delivery (p. 239)
• High-Definition Television (p. 240)
• Interactive Television (p. 241)
• Virtual Reality Interfaces (p. 242)
• Summary on Changes in Delivery (p. 242)
• Ubiquitous Access (p. 243)
• Educational and Prosocial Content (p. 244)
• Implications for the Form of Thought (p. 246)
• Summary (p. 247)
• Glossary (p. 249)
• References (p. 258)
• Credits (p. 283)
• Author Index (p. 285)
• Subject Index (p. 293)