Where do snails watch television?

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Lealand, G. (1988). Where do snails watch television? Preschool television and New Zealand children. Chapter one in Wired Up. Young people and electronic media. Howard. S (Ed). PP1-17, UCL Press London.
Keywords: children activity, attention, Palmer’s categories of Expressive Interaction, Lealand

This chapter got its title because a little girl ask that question to her mom while watching a snail in Sesame Street and wondering weather it might have a TV set in the shell or not.
The author narrates the situation of Children’s Television in NZ and the variation of degrees of attention according to the age of the children (since 1 to 3 years old). The research consisted in observing children activity while watching television (activities ranging from sleeping, playing with toys, drawing, to talking, tussling and dancing).
Useful concepts

• … Palmer’s categories of Expressive Interaction, which included Parasocial Interaction, Performance, Comment, Discussion, Self-talk, Monitoring and Remake to describe and illustrate examples where television content was expressed, visibly and/or verbally in manifest behaviour (e.g. Children repeating words or phrases first heard on television) P9-10.

Further Reading

• Palmer, P (1986) The lively Audience: A Study of Children Around the TV. Set, Sydney; Allen and Unwin.

Alberto Ramirez Martinell