TV OR NOT TV

• Compare a book and a TV program with similar themes and note the main differences.
• Identify the information in at least one commercial and describe how it appeals to viewers.
• Give examples of some possibilities in TV programming.
• Explain a new way they would like to use TV.

Comments to the Teacher

• Compare TV viewing to reading, to get at the special qualities of each. First, conduct a class poll of favorite programs; then collaborate with the school librarian in locating books that include similar themes and settings. Include fiction and nonfiction. Have groups of students whose TV tastes agree read these parallel books. Each group can then report to the class on a book and a program. Ask what features of each they like, and what the main differences are.
• Even students at this age can begin to analyze commercials. Watch a commercial as a class; or assign individual students to analyze commercials they especially like or dislike. Either way, you will want to allow for several viewingsöso the whole process may take a few days to complete. Make up a simple fill-in chart for students to work with. Possible chart items are:
  • Length of commercial (a watch with a second hand is needed for this)
  • Written and spoken messages
  • Personality of narrator/main character
  • Number and kind of scene or pictures
  • Dramatic action (is there a story?)
• Conclude with questions that require students to use the data they have collected:
  • Does the commercial tell you what you think you should know in order to make an intelligent decision on whether to buy?
  • Does it appeal to you? Why or why not?
  • Do you think the message is "honest" or is it trying to convince you to buy something you don't want or need?

    The range of possible TV programming is not always dear to students. Have the class go through a TV guide and check all the shows they have never seen. Apart from the "adult" programs, what kinds are least known to your group? Use this activity to make up a list of programs you think your class could understand. Encourage students to see them and to report to the class as a whole.

• It is often said that American television isn't used as well as it could be. Discuss some kinds of TV other than the largely entertainment-oriented commercial stations, such as:
• the Public Broadcasting System;
• nationalized stations in other countries, supported by taxes (such as the BBC;
• closed circuit TV.
  
  Check library media centers or film libraries at universities. You should be able to find programs the class will find appealing and yet more rewarding then the usual TV fare.
  
  Ask students to tell how they would like to see TV used. Get them started with questions: How could TV help more with shopping? How could it make your work or your parents' work easier? How could it help you talk better with others around the world? How could it be more fun?
  
  
• Judging television viewing. One of the most fruitless exercises schools can engage in is to moralize about watching TVöas does one social studies text which shows a child in front of a television set with a big X drawn across the screen. Students in thisöor any otheröage group are going to watch hundreds of hours of television unless they are actually prevented. Given this fact, there is much schools can do to help young people become more discerning, and perhaps more selective, in their viewing.
  
  Peer group influence can be important. Class discussions of what makes a program good may help some of the better programs bubble to the surface. Also, without sermonizing, it is possible to talk about the dangers of television's heavy diet of violence. You might explore this from the perspective of how the class feels about having younger children (especially brothers and sisters) exposed to too much violence.
  
  Besides moralizing, another pitfall to avoid is transmitting the message that only programs with some learning value are worthwhile viewing. This would set the school or teacher in opposition to popular culture, and that is bound to be a losing battle. In the first place, viewing for purposes of entertainment is healthyöwithin limits. Second, many educational programs are needlessly dull and lifeless. You might take one such and, after viewing it, have the studentsöin groups or as a classöwork out a set of directions for changing the program to make it more appealing.