Radio Commentary
In attempting to help children become wise to the ways of television, it can help if parents encourage them to become armchair critics.
As a start, one important principle to stress is that TV’s world is not the real world. This seems so obvious to us as adults that sometimes we forget to point it out to young people.Children — particularly those under age seven — are especially vulnerable to the illusion that the events portrayed on television are real.
According to developmental research, it’s not until about the second grade that children develop the intellectual ability to tell the difference between what is real and what is imaginary.
At that point, discussions can take place about what is being viewed.
Parents can learn to casually “pull out” bits of information about laugh tracks, and the mashed potatoes that masquerade as ice cream in commercials. Pointing out these techniques helps break the video spell.
Showing how these images are manipulated helps persuade children to be skeptical about what they see on the small screen.
In turn, being skeptical cuts down on the manipulation that media messages can exert on young people.
So give your young “armchair critics” the ammunition they need to dissect media messages and understand how advertising, cartoons, and other programming can exert influence if you don’t know how they work.
