DOCUNENT RESUME 'ED 203 8711 IR -009 458 = _ UTHOR Corder-Bolz--,Charles--Ed.- TalevisiOn and Youth:Proteedings.of the Naticinal Workshop (Washington, D.C., March -1213, WOO). =-.INSTITUTION Southwest Educational Develdpment Lab.,Austin, Tex. SPONSAGENCy Office of Education (DHEwl, Washington PUB DATE Mar 80 _NOTE 217p. EDRS PRICE- HF01/PC09 PlusPostage. DESCRIPTORS Broadcast-Industry:'.Childrens Television; *Educational-Television:' Elementary-Secondary Education: Parent ASsociationi:*Programing- (DrOadcast)::*Television Viewing: *Youth: Youth. Leaders IDENTIFIERS. *Critical Viewing. ABSTRACT The workshOp documented'in_these-prliteedingS.hadfour-. purposes todevelop dialogue yithinand between'theseveral:- sect ors- of society whbse-interests and'expertiseare focused upon the role of television in the lives of children-andyouth; (21 try increase- awareness of the need for making: the televiSion,viewing, experience-of children and ,youth positive,peneficial,.. and educational: (3) to encourage and assist the, deVelopment of programmatic,efforts within organizatiOns:iand(4) to identifY and develop: the ,ftundations ior c011aborativeefforts awong organizations. Each workshop, participant was,a member of a special interest,group andcl oeebr of a task:forte. Each'of the four spetial interest groups-(educators, youth leaders,parent:leaders,,-and TV industryi:developed- recommendations whichcould be taken back-to-the representatives, organizations and shared withsimilar organizations. Each of the..four task.forces, with equalrepresentation -of' parent leaders,- educators, youth'leaders, and' industryprofessionals, developed recommendations for collaborativeefforts at ths national -and local levels. (Author LLs1 -=- ******* *********** ************ applied by MRS are the best thatcan be made from the original document. ***************************** U S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION i WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF tout/MON : THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN- REPRO- DUCED' EXACTLY ASRECEIVED.FROM , THE PEESON.OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN- ATiNG-.IT POINTS OF VIEW ON OPINIONS R _ STATEDDO NOT-NECESSARILY= EPRE-_ SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL' INSTITUTEOF _ EDUCAT'ON POSITION ORrpwcy Television and .Youths kiceedingSAfthe'-National WOrkshov: held at Washington, D.C. on march 12 and 1980 edited by 'CharlesCorder-Bolz DiVision.bf- Learning and Media ?esearch SoutnOst-Edu.cational Development Laborat061.-- The. National Worksh60 on Television and Youth 'was 'part of the Critical TV Viewing Skills'Project funded Under a contract from the U..S. Office of Ed4cation,-DHW. The content Of the pi'esenta- - . tions, papers, and-recommendations prepared for or developed at the Workshop are the-contributions .of those people giveh credit. and no endorsement by- the'Office of .Education or by_DNEW is to be inferred.. = use -OUTV-Prorams,as ^adjuncts tcr=classroom- activities in public . schools. 114sbeOn very'-sPcbeSsfulelevision scripts have,b-ephused to teach reading, and-Many.-teachttsguides toprogramS have bet(-published,--'and distributed priortcrsdheduled:broaddastsi The ideas expreSsed-.WparticipantS-ofthe conference, -!'TeliviSioh;' the __BOok'_=and:---the:,ClassrOom,-!!,$ponSoredjointlyby,theA. S. OffideT.of---IdudatiOn- and:the :Library- of. Congre0Hin- April, 1g78,-further .Contributed-'to-the: development of. _the'. Q. $.:Offict-af:EdUdation'sprogram, td develop. critical television viewing. skijlsin bridge the programOSesidesigne0----,to-- gap .lietweep-what,,thiTdren-learn--from their-TV sets -andwhat they learn in their, schoel- Classrooms." two -year 'program,-beguh:_Oatober 1; 1978, covered tWophases: 01aphipgdesign; prototypedevelopment, andlield.testing:during-tbe first year, rnd national_ distribution -and traini.hgduring i.the year. contractors second Four were -...selected.: -SouthwettEdUtationaM--DeWbpMenitHl.ab- for 'elementary. school:(kfOergarten through fifth grad0,..StUdents,-WNET formiddle. school students:F:ar WeSt,Educational Labfor secondarysChbol-students;:and Boston Universityve. for post-sedondary choOl students.--- The objectives of the Critical TVViewing Skills Projectwere to enable and encourage students ,to learn critical TV viewing skillsand to use,these skills to become evaluative and reasoning_ consumers of televlsion. As delineated by the U. S. Office of Education,' critical television viewing skills are those factors which enable ,a person to (1) distinguish among a wide range of program elements, (2)-makejudicious use of their viewing time, 3) understand the Psychological implications of commercials, 4) distinguish- fact fromfiction, (5) recognize and appreciate differing and/Or. oppbsin§--'views, (6) understand thestyle and content ofdramatic presentations, documentaries, public. affairs, news, and other television programming, and (7) understand the relation between television and the printed wor A majoi- = priority tl of -the U. Sil'Office of Educatiod prograM was the dissemination of information and the raising ofawareness about the need for students to learn and tb ',use critical TV viewing skills. Leaders in education; parent, and -youth-serving agencies' and organizations on the national, state and local levelswere involved in many Aspects of thefour contractors' projects. Each of the four projects culminated ina series of workshops heldaround the country. While the workshops varied considerablyin format, style, participants and length, the general objective Was to train leaders who in turn.could train andassist others in their organizations As part of their- project, the Southwest Educational Development. Lab organized a national workshop of leaders in four majorareas: television industrY, education`,: parent' associations, andyouth-serving organizations. Whiles several prior meetings, conferences_ And -symposia involving- eepresentatives of-several of these areas,had been held in previo syears, the dialogue usually turned negative andcounter-productive.; In sho t, there had been little productive dialogueamong represedtatives from all four areas. People in each area have theirown perceptions of the benefits anproblems of television and these are often construed as being in-conflict with the perceptions-of-the-people- in-another-area: -TW-iMportant iabue-s-hid beebine clear. Forst, people in the areas of parent organizatiogs, youth-serVigg - organizations, education and the television industry halie.:nformation, -insights and resources which would be very, helpful to eaellother, but largely have not been able to interact constructively and thus f il to benefit from each others! information, insights and Second, to achieve the' goal of making the television viewing experience beneficial to youth, the collaborative efforts'of educators, parents, the-television industry, and 'youth leaders is essential. It is.now apparent that parents can't achieve this goal alone. It is similarly agparent that the television industry alone cannot achieve thegoal without help.Furthermore, the assistance of youth leaders and educators is needed. Therefore, SEDL organized a special workshop to initiate the four-way dialogue. The ground rules were made very clear. Regardless of previous rhetoric, the workshop was not a forum to discuss why the televiaion industry had not provided letter programming;was not a forum to discuss why parents had not used better child-rearing approaches; was not forum-to-discuss-why-teachers-had-not-mad*-more-edlritional-use-of-televii-on-- and was-not a forum to discuss why youth-leaders had riot been more invol!ved in helping youth use television more wisely. The workshop was indeed the time and place -for:representatives of the four areas to begin the process of working together.- Many people provided.the seededskills, energy, and enthusiasm make the National Workshopon Television and Youth successful. Very special thanks to the fivegroup leaders who made the fruitful: discussions K4ren Bartz of Campfire, -Inc.,-- JeanDye of the National PTA, Rosemary Potter, a reading specialist for the PinelleountyFlorida Schools, Lee Polk of Gold KeyEntertainment,,and Debbi Bilowit of MNET. ) The five speakers providedus all with a sense of' direction: Comstock Georg of SvracusehUniverSity, Patrick Daly of the AmericanFederation for Teachers, Thomas Bolger of thebNational Association of Broadcasters; Virginia Snarling of the Netionel-PTA, andAbbott WashbUrn of the Federal CoMmunic Ion Commission. p -t- Many.thoughtful insights'weresharedby the resource people: Daugherty Hope. of the'Department ofAgriculture (4-H), Julie Gilligan of Girl Scouts df the USA, Bradley Greenberg ofMichigan StateUniversity, Trish Gormanof the American Federation for Teachert, . Ben login of the Media Action Research Center, EllibeMedrich ofthe UniversitYige California-at Ilerkeley, Oliver Moles _pf the National Institute of Education, JeromeSinger of Yale University, Ellen Wartella ofthe University of Illindis, andTannis Williams of- the University of British Columbia. Special appreciation needsto be expressed to the eight organizationswho cosponsored' the workshop with the U.S. Office of Education: American Associetion'of School Administrators,AmericanFederaton ofTeachers, Girl Scbots -of the ASA, National Association of Elementary School Principals, 'National Association of State Boardsof Education, National PTA, National School Boards Association, and theTelevision Information Office of the National Association of Broadcasters. The supportor-the Prnject'Monitor,:F.rankWithrow,of the U.S. Office of Educaton was-instrumentatjn tbe suctess