Overview

Concerns about the effects of television on young children are a recurrent focus of public controversy. Yet amid all the anxiety, children's voices are rarely heard. In this book, one of Britain's leading television researchers investigates children's own perspectives on what they find frightening, moving and upsetting. From "Nightmare on Elm Street" to "My Girl", from "The Colour Purple" to "The News at Ten", what children find upsetting is often difficult to predict. David Blackburn gives a detailed insight into children's responses to horror films, to "weepies" and soap operas, to news and to "reality programmes". He looks at how they learn to cope with their feelings about such material, and how their parents help or hinder them in doing so. This study offers a new approach to studying the role of television in children's lives, and should be of interest to parents and teachers, as well as policy makers and educationalists.