"Based on a study examining the meaning of the term "media literacy" in children, this volume concentrates on audiovisual narratives of television and film and their effects. It closely examines children's concepts of real and unreal and how they learn to make distinctions between the two. It also explores the idea that children are protected from the harmful effects of violence on television by the knowledge that what they see is not real.".

"This volume is special in using children's own words to explore their awareness of submerged conventions of television genres, of their functions and effects, of their relationship to the real world, and of how this awareness varies with age and other factors."--BOOK JACKET.