ABSTRACT
There is widespread concern about our reading culture today. In essays and lectures, in newspapers and journals, in policy papers and scholarly papers, the fear has been expressed that children are reading less and less or, put differently, that leisure-time reading is on the decline. A second concern is that children’s reading skills are declining or, at least, leave much to be desired. In this chapter I examine whether television is to blame. Is television, in fact, contributing to the decline in reading? And does television harm the development of children’s reading skills?
