Children and TV: How to Fine-Tune Their Viewing

Many formal education programs have been developed in colleges and universities in recent years in the art of the electronic media, and research suggests that such curricula can be effective. But there are also informal ways for parents to teach their children at home to be more alert and sophisticated television watchers, said Robert Kubey, an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University and Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.

Here are some suggestions from their forthcoming book, “Television and the Quality of Life: How Viewing Shapes Everyday Experience.”

Parents, the authors say, can help their children view television in more complex ways by:

* Comparing the current episode of a favorite show with previous ones.

* Focusing attention on aspects of the plot, special effects, characterization and acting.

* Turning off the sound to see what can be deduced from the television pictures alone.

* Listening only to the sound to try to guess what the pictures might be.

* Charting the family’s viewing behavior.

* Analyzing how television reflects society and why it reflects certain facets of society in certain ways.

* Pointing out the absurd and silly elements in television programs, encouraging children to be irreverent about television viewing, and to grow into more savvy media consumers.