J.W.J. Beentjes

Children's Vocabulary Acquisition in a Foreign Language through Watching Subtitled Television Programs at Home.

Subtitled television programs seem to provide a rich context for foreign language acquisition. Moreover, viewers are generally quite motivated to understand what is shown and said on television. The present study investigated whether children in Grades 4 and 6 (N = 246) learn English words through watching a television program with an English soundtrack and Dutch subtitles. Children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: (a) watching an English television program with Dutch subtitles, (b) watching the same English program without subtitles, and (c) watching a Dutch television program (control). The study was carried out using a 15-min documentary about grizzly bears. Vocabulary acquisition and recognition of English words were highest in the subtitled condition, indicating that Dutch elementary school children can incidentally acquire vocabulary in a foreign language through watching subtitled television programs.

Identification as a Mechanism of Narrative Persuasion

To provide a causal test of identification as a mechanism of narrative persuasion, this study uses the perspective from which a story is told to manipulate identification experimentally and test effects on attitudes. In experiment 1, 120 participants read a story that was told either from the perspective of one character or another character, with both characters having opposing goals. Results showed that perspective influenced identification and story consistency of attitudes. Moreover, identification with one of the characters mediated the effect of perspective on attitudes. In experiment 2, 200 participants read a different story that was told from one of two perspectives, with both characters having opposing opinions. Results showed that identification with both characters mediated the effect of perspective on attitudes. The results of these experiments indicate that identification can be a mechanism of narrative persuasion.

News in an age of competition: the case of sensationalism in Dutch television news, 1995–2001

Trends in sensationalism in Dutch television news were investigated through a content analysis of 3 Dutch TV news programs in 1995 and 2001, a period when the competition between Dutch TV news programs increased. Indicators of sensationalism were derived from 4 categories: tabloid packaging, basic needs content, concreteness, and proximity. Results showed a trend toward the use of more sensational production techniques in Dutch TV news. However, these increases were not found on all indicators nor in all newscasts. No trend toward more sensational story subjects could be observed.

Young People's Ownership and Uses of New and Old Forms of Media in Britain and the Netherlands

Using data obtained in a national survey carried out in Britain (N = 1309) and the Netherlands (N = 1355), this article compares British and Dutch children and young people aged 6-17 with respect to: (1) the availability of different media in childrens homes, and particularly in the childrens own room; (2) the amount of time spent on different media; and (3) the gratifications associated with the use of different types of media. Attention is paid to new forms of media (electronic games and the personal computer) as well as old forms of media (print media and television and video). Cross-national similarities and differences in ownership and uses of media are established, both for the whole 6-17 age group and for subgroups formed in terms of gender, age and socioeconomic status. Special attention is devoted to points where British children and young people are clearly differentiated from their Dutch peers.

The Influence of Age and Gender on Preferences for Negative Content and Tabloid Packaging in Television News Stories

This study aimed at answering the question whether preferences for negative content and a tabloid production style in television news stories vary with different age groups and gender. An experiment with 288 participants was conducted. As expected, results showed that age and gender moderated the influence of negative content and tabloid packaging on the viewers’ preferences. Compared with middle-aged and older viewers, young viewers had a stronger preference for negative content rather than neutral content. Preferences for tabloid packaging rather than standard packaging were stronger for men than for women.

Arousing news characteristics in Dutch television news 1990-2004: an exploration of competitive strategies

This study investigates the processes by which competition in the television news market might promote the presence of arousing characteristics in television news. A total of 3,024 news stories from six Dutch television news programs over the period 1990 to 2004 were investigated through content analysis. The findings of the study show overall increases in all 6 arousing characteristics. The findings also show that commercial newcomers included more arousing characteristics in their news stories than the public service broadcasters, that commercial newcomers developed a news format that featured more arousing characteristics, and that existing programs reacted to newcomers by increasing the amount of arousing characteristics in their news stories.

Mapping Media Literacy: Key Concepts and Future Directions

This chapter examines how different researchers define media literacy (i.e., what people need to know about the media and their use to be deemed media literate). As opposed to previous reviews, this chapter attempts to structure the multitude of definitions using a schematic representation of media production and use. Such a construction provides a thematic overview of diverse definitions of media literacy. Thus, it specifies key aspects of the media and their use in terms of media literacy and corresponding emphasis in the media literacy literature. This analysis reveals that the vast majority of researchers consider understanding how media content is created to be a central aspect of media literacy. Scholars treat the ability to handle the media in a constructive manner as far less important, and the media literacy literature virtually ignores the fact that media producers are prone to media influence. Furthermore, this chapter indicates that little has changed in the field of media literacy in the last few decades, with the majority of the dimensions of media literacy present in definitions utilized in the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, this chapter also identifies the features of media literacy that require additional investigation, such as the relationship between media literacy and Internet-based technologies.

Television and Young People's Reading Behaviour: A Review of Research

On the basis of the available research evidence this article examines whether television induces young people to read less and to develop a preference for qualitatively inferior reading material. Several hypotheses proposing mechanisms by which television is supposed to stimulate or reduce reading are discussed. The findings are inconclusive but most studies suggest that television reduces the amount of reading. Young peoples reading preferences are influenced by television, because books, the film versions of which have been broadcast, gain in popularity. Whether or not television influences the development of a preference for easy reading material, such as comics and picture-dominated books has not been investigated. Suggestions are made to improve the conclusiveness of future research.

Research note: sensationalism in Dutch current affairs programmes 1992-2001

Both news critics and scholars often contend that increasing competition in the news market urges journalists to sensationalize their stories. Starting from this hypothesis, this article investigates changes in the level of sensationalism in three Dutch current affairs programmes that merged in 1996 as part of a strategy to fight increasing competition. A content analysis of these programmes in 1992 and 2001 shows a partial trend towards greater use of sensationalism.

Ownership and use of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media among ethnic minority youth in the Netherlands. The role of the ethno-cultural position.

Abstract The starting point of the present study is to investigate which environmental factors play a role in the media behavior of ethnic minority youth. To what extent do socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, SES and country of origin) influence ownership and use of the media? We also address the role of religion, cultural origin and the cultural distance between ethnic minority youth and indigenous Dutch youth. Three numerically important groups of ethnic minority youth are discussed: Turks, Moroccans (as examples of a group with greater cultural distance from indigenous Dutch youth) and Surinamese (with less cultural distance from indigenous Dutch youth). In a survey conducted among Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese youth aged between 12 and 19, residing in the Netherlands, we investigated which environmental factors play a role in the media behavior of ethnic minority youth. A control group of indigenous Dutch youth was established and likewise exposed to the variables under study.