Mainstream research on children and television has tended to define children as more or less 'incompetent' viewers. What children do with television is typically compared with adult norms, and thereby found wanting. Children, it is argued, are unselective, uncritical and unsophisticated viewer. They lack many of the ‘skills’, which are required to make sense of television and to use it in a responsible and sensible way. “children are incapable of distinguishing between television fantasy and reality; they are unable to identify the essential elements of a narrative or the motivations of characters; they do not understand the persuasive functions of advertising; and that they are ignorant about how television is produced.”
On analysing cartoons, it is usually the verbal code, which carried the necessary clues for children to 'understand' the plot as a whole. Children have been observed to pay greatest attention to television when other children are talking.
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