ABSTRACT

This chapter is devoted to the analysis of children’s and young people’s expressed preferences for television programs and electronic games. It therefore seeks to address the often neglected issue of media content, a theme that has emerged as important but has thus far remained implicit in this volume. Findings are based on the answers of children and teenagers from 12 European countries (DK, FI, BE-vlg, FR, DE, IT, NL, ES, SE, CH, GB) and from Israel who were asked to name their favorite television program and/or their favorite type of electronic game. In several of these countries, they were also invited to identify their main interest from a list of 14 topics and to name the media they considered best for following it up. On the basis of their replies, we are able to address the following intriguing questions:

Does children’s choice of favorite program and favorite type of electronic game reflect their more general interest in particular types of subject matter, or do the media generate their own distinctive set of interests?

Do children follow their interests across several different media, or do they follow particular interests in relation to particular media?

Do children’s television preferences indicate an appetite for contents specifically produced for child or youth audiences?