ABSTRACT
The work which we include in this chapter was produced in the context of a considerable public debate about the cultural influence of television, video and film. In 1994, the Professional Association of Teachers produced a major report on teachers’ perceptions of the influence of television and computer games on children’s behaviour. The PAT report was especially interesting as it contained comments from teachers on what they saw as behavioural change over long periods. In the survey, literally hundreds of teachers pointed to what they saw as the harmful effects of video, TV or computer games. One issue raised was the amount of time which children now devoted to these. As one teacher commented: ‘The sole topic of conversation is TV, videos or computer games. It occupies all out-of-school time. They have stopped reading from choice, they now play games.’ (Miller and Carver, 1994: 10)
