ABSTRACT
Children and adolescents increasingly grow up in a world permeated by mass media-at home, at school, during leisure hours, staying connected with widening circles of friends, and even establishing identity. Parents and other adults involved in the lives of young people worry and wonder about the in uence of media-not only about the harmful in uences of images and messages, but also how to recognize and promote positive and healthy themes. If media depictions can lead to negative attitudes and behaviors in some children and adolescents, could prosocial, tolerant, and helpful attitudes and behaviors also be learned and imitated by young media consumers? As stated in 1973 by Federal Communications Commission chairperson Johnson: “…all television is educational television. The only question is, what is it teaching?” (Liebert, Neale, & Davidson, 1973).
