Audience and Reception

Order Description

Option 1
Critically assess the view that children are more susceptible than adults to the influence of television.
Advice to students
This question relates primarily to Units 43 (Moss), 45 (Robinson) and 46 (Cumberbatch) and their associated readings. Different aspects of television content may produce different kinds of concern regarding the question of influence or effect, and you may want to structure your answer in relation to specific issues such as advertising or violence.
Drawing on your reading of the relevant course materials, what evidence is there that children are more susceptible than adults to the influence of television, and how conclusive, or otherwise, is such evidence? The question is inviting you to consider how firmly we can, or indeed should, make a distinction between ‘children’ and ‘adults’ as discrete groups when discussing the possibility of effects from exposure to television. On what basis might we want to make such a distinction? What would be the grounds for doing so and what problems may be involved in the process: how important are questions of definition, for example? Are there any particular factors that are more significant with respect to children’s television consumption compared to that of adults? If so, what light might these factors shed upon the question of children’s greater susceptibility to television influence?