Pediatricians can play a role in helping their patients begin to think constructively about how television can affect their expectations about life, love and their future. Television's world continues to evolve. Its images have undergone numerous changes over the past 30 years, and it will continue to grow and change. People's attitudes about the roles of men and women in society also have evolved and changed during the past 30 years. How much greater, however, would society's changes be if television were truly reflective of the status and role of women in the United States.
Television can be a positive force in a youngster's life, but only if that child is media-literate.
Nancy Signorielli is a noted researcher in the field of children and the media, and professor of communications at the University of Delaware. Reprinted with permission. American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP News , February 1998.