Critical Viewing of Television News: the impact of a Dutch schools television project |
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| Authors: | Marcel W Vooijs Tom HA Van Der Voort Jacqueline Hoogeweij |
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| Institution: | Leiden University , The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Using a quasi‐experimental pretest‐posttest control group design, the study investigated the educational effects of a six‐programme schools television series designed to teach children aged 10‐12 that television news broadcasts give a selective and thus subjective and incomplete impression of the news. Results indicated that the schools television series led to an increase in children's knowledge of the selection processes involved in the production of news programmes, and an increase in children's proficiency in recognizing the moments of selection in news items. However, the television series did not result in a decrease in the level of credibility children attribute to television news broadcasts. The reason for the latter finding probably is that the series showed that the makers of news programmes are conscious of the selection processes involved in making news programmes and do their utmost to make the choices in the most responsible way possible. As a result, the series may have unintentionally created the impression that the problem of selectivity can be satisfactorily solved. |
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