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Media And The American Child George A Comstock Erica Scharrer

Media And The American Child George A Comstock Erica Scharrer Media And The American Child George A Comstock Erica Scharrer Media And The American Child George A Comstock Erica Scharrer

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MEDIA AND THE AMERICAN CHILD
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GEORGE COMSTOCK and ERICA SCHARRER MEDIA AND THE AMERICAN CHILD AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Academic press is an imprint of Elsevier
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495, USA 84 Theobald’s Road, London WCIX 8RR, UK This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2007, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, E-mail: permissions@elsevier.com. You may also complete “Support & Contact” then “Copyright and Permission” and then “Obtaining Permissions.” Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Application submitted British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 13: 978-0-12-369425-6 ISBN 10: 0-12-369425-6 For information on all Academic Press publications visit our Web site at www.books.elsevier.com Printed in the United States of America 07 08 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
v CONTENTS Preface xiii Acknowledgments xiv CHAPTER I: Demographics and Preferences in Media Use, with Special Attention to the Very Young 1 I. MEDIA EXPOSURE: PRINT 3 A. Use of Print Media 4 B. Demographic Variables That Impact Use of Print Media 5 C. Print Preferences among Children and Teenagers 6 D. Print Use and Preferences of the Very Young 6 II. MEDIA EXPOSURE: AUDIO 8 A. Use of Audio Media 8 B. Demographic Differences in Audio Use 9 C. Audio Preferences of Children and Teenagers 10 D. Audio Use and Preferences of the Very Young 10 III. MEDIA EXPOSURE: SCREEN 11 A. Television Exposure 12 B. Demographic Differences in Television Use 13 C. Viewing Preferences among Children and Teenagers 15 D. Television Viewing by the Very Young 16 IV. MEDIA EXPOSURE: INTERACTIVE MEDIA 18 A. Use of Interactive Media by Young People 19 B. Interactive Media Use and Demographics 21 C. Preferences in Interactive Media by Children and Teens 23 D. Interactive Media Use by the Very Young 25
V. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 27 A. Total Time Spent with Each Type of Media 27 B. How Time Spent Using Media Is Divided 31 C. Prevalence of Media in the Home 32 1. The Media Environment 33 2. Media Use in the Bedroom 34 D. Orientations toward Media 36 1. Rules and Norms of Media Use in the Home 37 2. Typology of Media Behavior among Young People 38 CHAPTER II: The Extraordinary Appeal of Screen Media 42 I. PURPOSES AND MOTIVES OF TELEVISION VIEWING 43 A. Ritualistic versus Instrumental Viewing 43 B. Gratifications for Viewing 44 II. MODES OF RESPONSE 45 A. Content Indifference 46 B. Low Involvement 48 C. Monitoring less versus Viewing 48 D. Equilibrium: Understanding versus Inattention 50 III. DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE VIEWING 50 A. Viewing Preferences of Children and Teenagers 51 1. Three-phase Model 51 2. Cognitive Stages and Media Use 52 3. Gender, Race, and Socioeconomic Status 59 4. Perceptual Filters 61 B. Reactions to the Screen 61 1. Fright 61 2. Maturity of the Viewer 62 IV. THE INFLUENCE OF VIEWING ON OTHER ACTIVITIES 65 A. Introduction of Television 65 B. Contemporary Use of Television Viewing 72 1. Realities of Television Viewing 72 2. The Effect of Viewing on Leisure Activities 73 3. Suppression of Viewing 73 4. Recent Data Regarding Viewing Trends 74 V. SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF TELEVISION VIEWING 76 vi Contents
CHAPTER III: The World as Portrayed by Media 79 I. MEDIA CONTENT 79 II. STUDYING THE ATTRIBUTES OF TELEVISION CHARACTERS 81 A. Gender Representation 82 1. Gender Disparity in Television and Film 82 2. Gender Bias in Video and Computer Games 86 B. Race and Ethnicity in Media 88 C. Age Distribution in Primetime Programming 91 D. Characters with Disabilities 94 E. Depiction of Sexual Orientation 94 F. Beauty and Body Images in Media 95 III. BEHAVIOR OF MEDIA CHARACTERS 97 A. Violence and Aggression 98 1. Presence of Violence in General Audience Television 98 2. Violence in Commercials 101 3. Violence in Children’s Television 103 4. Violence in Children’s Films 103 5. Violence in Video and Computer Games 105 B. Prosocial Behavior in Media 106 C. Prevalence of Alcohol and Tobacco in Media 107 D. Influence of Food and Beverages in Media 109 E. Exposure to Sex and Profane Language in Media 112 IV. TWO WORLDS OF CONTENT: FOR THE VERY YOUNG VERSUS THE GENERAL AUDIENCE 117 CHAPTER IV: Effects of Media on Scholastic Performance and the Developing Intellect 120 I. EFFECTS OF TELEVISION VIEWING ON SCHOLASTIC PERFORMANCE 120 A. The Studies 121 B. Explanations of Television’s Impact on Academic 125 Performance 1. The Effects of Television on Homework 127 2. The Effects of Television on Reading and Mental Effort 128 3. The Effects of Television on Attention and Arousal 129 4. The Learning Hypothesis 131 Contents vii
C. Caveats and Corollaries 132 1. Caveats 132 2. Corollaries 136 II. EXPOSURE TO EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION 137 A. Setting the Stage 137 B. Sesame Street—A Pioneer in Children’s Programming 139 1. Academic Effects of Sesame Street 139 2. Prosocial Effects of Sesame Street 141 C. Other Educational Television Programs 143 1. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood 143 2. Blue’s Clues 144 3. Barney and Friends 145 D. Concepts, Models, and Theory of Television Viewing 146 1. Attention and Comprehension 146 2. Properties of Attention 147 3. Very Young Children and the Impact of Television 149 4. The Capacity Model 151 5. Our Interpretation of the Studies 153 III. TELEVISION’S INFLUENCE ON THE DEVELOPING INTELLECT OF THE CHILD 154 A. Fantasy Play and Daydreaming 154 1. Fantasy Play 154 2. Daydreaming 156 B. Television’s Effect on Creativity and Imaginative Thinking 157 C. Television’s Effect on Language Acquisition 160 IV. THE EFFECT OF MEDIA ON COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 161 CHAPTER V: Young Customers—Creating the Modern Consumer through Advertising and Marketing 164 I. EVOLUTION OF THE ISSUE OF TELEVISION ADVERTISING 164 A. Public Displeasure of Advertising in Primetime Programming 165 B. NSF and FTC 166 II. THE EVIDENTIARY RECORD 168 A. Points of Contention 168 1. Recognition and Comprehension of Advertising 168 2. Harmfulness of Advertising to Young Viewers 169 viii Contents
3. The Effect of Advertising on Parent–Child Relations 169 4. Should Advertising Drive Programming? 169 5. Does Advertising Take Advantage of Program Content? 169 B. Evidence of the Effects of Television Advertising 170 1. Recognizing, Comprehending, and Evaluating Commercials 170 2. Accepting the Message of a Commercial 176 3. Exchanges between Parent and Child 186 III. THE BUYING MACHINE 189 A. The Influence of Other Media 189 B. The Latent Role of Children as Consumers 190 C. The Nag Factor 191 IV. CONSIDERATION OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN ADVERTISING 193 A. The Boundary of Comprehension 193 B. The Child and Teenage Marketplace 195 C. The Scholarly View of the Influence of Advertising 199 CHAPTER VI: Television Violence, Aggression, and Other Behavioral Effects 203 I. EVIDENCE OF INCREASED AGGRESSIVENESS CAUSED BY TELEVISION VIOLENCE 204 A. Experiments with Young Children 204 B. Experiments with Teenagers and Young Adults 207 C. Using Surveys for Causal Inference 210 D. Meta-analyses 217 E. The Role of Mediating Factors 220 1. Developmental Pattern 220 2. Predisposition to Aggressive or Violent Behavior 221 3. Does Gender Play a Role? 222 4. Seriousness of Aggressive or Violent Acts 223 5. Effect Size 224 II. REVERSE HYPOTHESIS: DO AGGRESSIVE PERSONALITIES SEEK OUT VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT? 227 III. EXPLANATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF VIOLENCE IN TELEVISION AND FILM 228 A. Social Cognition 228 B. Neoassociationism and Neural Circuitry 229 C. Excitation Transfer 230 D. General Aggression Model 230 Contents ix
IV. THE EFFECTS OF VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES 234 V. OTHER HYPOTHESES REGARDING MEDIA INFLUENCE 238 A. Fear 238 B. Desensitization 239 C. Cultivation 241 D. Sexual Activity 243 VI. GENERALIZABILITY FROM EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS 245 CHAPTER VII: Learning Rules and Norms—Further Evidence of Media Effects 250 I. ROLES AND NORMS AS INFLUENCED BY MEDIA 251 A. Politics 251 1. Autonomy in the Development of Political Dispositions 253 2. School 253 3. Participation in the Political Process 254 B. The Impact of Gender Differences 256 1. Gender Differences in Politics 257 2. Gender-biased Roles 258 3. Gender Bias in Occupational Roles 265 C. Media’s Influence on Physical Presence 267 1. The Importance of Appearance in Early and Middle Childhood 268 2. The Importance of Appearance in Adolescence 270 II. THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS FOR HOW AND WHY MEDIA CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIALIZATION 276 A. The Role of Social Comparison 276 1. Case Study 277 B. The Role of Social Identity 280 1. Case Study 281 C. The Role of Social Cognition 282 1. Case Study 285 D. The Role of Cultivation 288 1. Case Study 290 CHAPTER VIII: Knowledge for What? 292 I. USING THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES 292 II. THE ACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ROLE OF MEDIA 294 A. The Role of Federal Regulation 295 x Contents
B. The Role of Industries 295 C. The Role of Parents 296 III. WHERE THE DATA POINT 296 A. Media Use 296 1. Early Media Use 297 2. Media Use in Isolation 297 3. Media Use Apart from Family 297 4. Preference for Screen Media 298 B. Data on Television Viewing 298 C. Messages Disseminated by Media 298 D. Converting Young People to Customers 300 E. The Effect of Viewing on Academic Achievement 300 F. Influence of Screen Media on Behavior 301 G. Socialization 303 IV. THE THREE M’S—STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE A CRITICAL STANCE 304 References 307 Author Index 351 Subject Index 365 Contents xi
PREFACE When we began a revised edition of the first author’s Television and the American Child (Academic Press, 1991), we had four goals: expand the coverage to include other media; extend the age range to give greater attention to the very young and to teenagers; and emphasize the central role of cognitive stages, particularly in regard to tastes and preferences in media use and responses to advertising, brand names, and products; and, as before, to base interpretations and conclusions on evidence with valid claims to scientific credibility. We leave it to our readers to judge our success. xii
xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We owe a major debt to the many dozens of individuals who conducted the studies upon which we have drawn. We hope they will find our treatment of their work of interest. We are grateful to David Rubin, Dean, S.I. Newhouse School, and Michael Morgan, Chair, University of Massachusetts Amherst Depart- ment of Communication, for providing scholarly settings; and to the S.I. Newhouse chair for financial support. We thank Marcia Wisehoon for a painstaking and thoroughly professional preparation of the manu- script. We also thank graduate assistant Jack Powers, whose stalwart mastery of the Internet was invaluable. Finally, the second author thanks her husband, Jody Barker, for being an unwavering source of solace and support. We found several analyses to be particularly helpful. These key studies include: Acuff, D. S. (1997). What kids buy and why: The psychology of mar- keting to kids. New York, NY: Free Press. Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D., Malamuth, N. M. & Wartella, E. (2003). The influence of media violence on youth. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(3), 81–110. The Kaiser Family Foundation-sponsored media use studies: Rideout, V. J., Foehr, U. G., Roberts, D. F. & Brodie, M. (1999). Kids & media at the new millennium. A Kaiser Family Foundation Report. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Accessed 6/30/05 at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/loader. cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=13265. Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A. & Wartella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Roberts, D. F. & Foehr, U. G. (2004). Kids & media in America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Founda- tion Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Accessed 6/30/05 at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/7250.cfm. McNeal, J. (1999). The kids market: Myths and realities. Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. A Journal of The Associa- tion for Psychological Science. Schor, J. B. (2004). Born to buy. New York: Scribner. Singer, D. G. & Singer, J. L. (2005). Imagination and play in the elec- tronic age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services; and National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. xiv Acknowledgments
1 Childhood and adolescence in the United States (and well beyond) is marked by the centrality of the media. Growing up in the contempo- rary world means immersion in the sights and sounds supplied by tele- vision and computer. Later childhood and adolescence extends these daily experiences to include music accessed through the airwaves, pur- chased on CD, or acquired through download or streaming audio; a smorgasbord of games to be played on the computer or through high- tech console systems; and, of course, an abundance of glossy magazines that appeal to every whim, hobby, and pursuit. The prominence of media is astonishing—for the degree of gratification they provide, as testified to by the amount of time allocated to them, and the myriad of content-specific uses they serve. Young people’s use of the media raises significant questions. Spending time with media is one of the pleasures afforded by modern life, and anal- ysis of media use patterns constitutes a window into the ways that young people are entertained, informed, persuaded, and educated. Another set of reasons for studying media use is more troubling. There is ample evidence that either the amount of time spent with particular media or the content viewed, read, or heard can have adverse effects (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999). A great deal of research has convincingly linked either DEMOGRAPHICS and PREFERENCES in MEDIA USE, WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION to the VERY YOUNG I
amount of media exposure or exposure to particular types of content with a range of important outcomes, including but not limited to performing poorly in school; learning aggression; behaving antisocially; developing unhealthy attitudes and behavior regarding such disparate topics as nutri- tion, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and sexual behavior; and increasing the odds that a child will be overweight. We eventually take up all of these troubling (and often controversial) issues, but we begin with a review of media use. We assess preferences within major media categories—genres, programs, and types favored. We focus on aggregates defined by demographics—age, gender, race or ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (usually operationalized by paren- tal education or income)—and orientations toward the media. When possible, we record the uses young people make of media, such as entertainment, information, or communication with others. We give preference to data that are current and drawn from national, representative samples in order to ensure comprehensive, valid conclu- sions. We adopt the four-part conceptualization of media offered by Roberts and Foehr (2004): • Print • Audio • Screen • Interactive media treating each separately before integrating the data into estimates and characterizations of total media use. The data on media exposure are striking for their cohesion around two major themes: (1) young people allocate a staggering amount of time to media, and (2) despite the obvious attraction of new media technologies (and with the sole exception of the attention to music that is a hallmark of adolescence), in terms of time use television still reigns supreme. The most reliable source of data on the media use of young people in the United States comes from a nationally representative sample of just over two thousand (2,032, to be precise) 8- to 18-year-olds, surveyed in 2004 by Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005), under the auspices of the Kaiser Fam- ily Foundation. In the dataset, young people of color were over-sampled to allow for comparisons based on race or ethnicity; the respondents were accessed in schools; and questions pertaining to amount of media expo- sure asked about the number of minutes and hours spent using each form of media on the previous day. The timing of data collection varied, so that each day of the week was represented in “time spent yesterday.” Some of the questions posed to the children and teenagers were duplicated from previous data collected in 1999 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004), so that, occasionally, comparisons between 1999 and 2004 are permitted. 2 Demographics and Preferences
A somewhat similar study, also commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation, widens the lens to include children younger than 8-years old. These data, collected in 1999, combine in-home responses of par- ents reporting on behalf of 1,090 very young children (aged 2 to 7) and in-school responses of an additional 2,014 8- to 18-year-olds, employ- ing nationally representative probability samples (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts & Brodie, 1999; Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Addressing still unanswered questions regarding media use patterns among the youngest of the young, the Kaiser Family Foundation in partnership with the Children’s Digital Media Center (CDMC) funded a nationwide study, this time among those six and younger (Rideout, Vandewater & Wartella, 2003). These data were collected in 2003 via a nationally representative telephone survey using random-digit dialing procedures to elicit responses from 1,065 parents of children who ranged from six months to six years old. Finally, the Kaiser Family Foundation sponsored an update to the six-month to six-year-old data, drawing responses from 1,051 nationally representative parents in September through November 2005 (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). We will also draw from a number of key contributions in the area of young people’s use of computer-based media. These include recent data from Robinson and Alvarez (2005) and the U.S. Department of Educa- tion (2003). These sources make possible a comprehensive view of the role of the media in the daily lives of children and adolescents in the United States. For each category of media, we begin with estimates of use. We turn then to differences that demographic variables make. Next, we review content preferences. Finally, we isolate the media use of children seven years of age or younger because of (recent) increased interest in and concern over media use among very young children by parents, caregivers, and acad- emics (child psychologists, pediatricians, teachers, and social research- ers). Throughout, we trace media patterns of young people during childhood and adolescence, from six months to eighteen years of age. I. MEDIA EXPOSURE: PRINT In many ways, print media—newspapers, magazines, and books—are the granddaddies among the current media choices available to young people. They have been around for so long that one cannot picture a time when they would have been called “new media.” Parents and crit- ics alike have expressed concern over the vulnerability of print media to displacement by the newer, flashier, and occasionally even mesmer- izing possibilities accessed through screen and interactive media. The fear is that kids will no longer benefit from the imagination-evoking and vocabulary-producing effects of reading. I. Media Exposure: Print 3
4 Demograpics and Preferences A. Use of Print Media The data, in fact, document that print media occupy a consistent, albeit modest, presence in the daily lives of young people. Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005) confine themselves to time spent with print media out- side of school or work. They place daily leisure-time exposure to all print media at an average of 43 minutes per day for 8- to 18-year-olds. Parents and caregivers may be comforted to know that reading books accounts for the bulk of the print media time, averaging 23 minutes per day. Magazine reading occurs for an average of 14 minutes per day, and newspaper reading for a scant six minutes. When the sample of respondents is divided by age, estimates of print media use are surprisingly uniform across the board (see Table 1.1). The exception is newspaper reading, an activity engaged in signifi- cantly more among the oldest age group (15- to 18-year-olds) compared to the youngest (8- to 10-year-olds)—but even so, the oldest group spent just seven minutes a day with newspapers compared to four minutes for the youngest group. The Roberts and colleagues (2005) data also show that nearly three- quarters of 8- to 18-year-olds spend at least five minutes with print media on any given day (73%) whereas slightly less than half (47%) Table 1.1 Average Exposure to Various Media, Ages Six Months to 18 Years Age 0–3* 4–6* 8–10 11–14 15–18 Screen media 1:47 2:10 4:41 4:25 3:40 TV 1:01 1:10 3:17 3:16 2:36 Audio 1:03 0:49 0:59 1:42 2:24 Print 0:37 0:41 0:44 0:41 0:45 Computers 0:05 0:16 0:37 1:02 1:22 Video games 0:01 0:10 1:05 0:52 0:33 *For these age groups, audio media means listening to music, and print media means reading or being read to. Screen media includes TV, videotapes, DVDs, and movies. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Founda- tion. Also from Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A. & Wartella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
spend 30 minutes or more. Although most young people access print media every day, many tend to spend modest amounts of time with such media. Books, far lengthier than what magazines and newspapers offer (and sometimes more demanding of thought and attention), inspire the dedication of 30 minutes or more a day among just 30 per- cent of the nation’s 8- to 18-year-olds. Many have expressed concern that young people today are no longer reading newspapers, and there is no doubt that the amount of time adults spend reading newspapers has declined (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999; Rob- inson & Godbey, 1997). Nevertheless, the data reported by Roberts and colleagues (2005) show about one in every three children and adolescents (34%) takes at least a glance through the paper for five minutes or more on any given day. Roberts and Foehr (2004) point out that although time spent reading newspapers is low for young people in the United States, the proportion of young people accessing newspapers each day has not changed dramatically. Comparing their estimates with those collected in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Schramm, Lyle & Parker, 1961), in the early 1970s (Lyle & Hoffman, 1972a), and in the late 1970s (Newspaper Advertising Bureau, 1978), they find sufficient similarity to conclude, “if ‘newspaper reading’ is taken to mean at least glancing at some part of the paper for a few minutes, the proportion of U.S. children and adolescents who do so has remained fairly constant over the past 50 years” (Roberts & Foehr, 2004, p. 99). Thus, any increased vulnerability of newspapers to displacement by other media rests not on changes in the use by and famil- iarity of children and teenagers with newspapers but with attractiveness of other media when decisions about use are made later in life. B. Demographic Variables That Impact Use of Print Media Spending leisure time reading books decreases as children grow up (see Table 1.1). In the data of Roberts and colleagues (2005), 63 percent of 8- to 10-year-olds devoted at least five minutes “yesterday” to this activity compared to 44 percent of 11- to 14-year-olds and 34 percent of 15- to 18-year-olds. We concur with the interpretation of the investiga- tors that this shift is likely explained by the increased required reading for schoolwork among those older that would leave less time for read- ing for pleasure and might make such an activity less appealing. The youngest kids, although more likely to have spent some time reading a book, were less likely than the two older groups to have spent five minutes or more with a newspaper or a magazine (see Table 1.1). Thus, the desire to keep up with news, sports, and features in the paper as well as an interest in magazines that cover fashion, sports, popular culture, or various hobbies, as we would expect, increases with age. I. Media Exposure: Print 5
6 Demograpics and Preferences Additional demographic variables reveal interesting patterns. Rob- erts and colleagues (2005) found no differences in amount or likelihood of reading print media for children of color compared to White children, or for children from households with varying levels of income (one of two indices of socioeconomic status employed). Gender did not matter much, with one significant exception: girls spent more time with books than boys—28 minutes compared to 19 minutes. However, one particu- lar demographic variable, level of education of the child’s parent(s) (the other index of socioeconomic status), had a substantial role. The more educated the parent, the greater the amount of time the child spent with all forms of print media—books, magazines, and newspapers. In total, 8- to 18-year-olds with parents whose education consisted of high school or less spent an average of 32 minutes with all forms of print media, compared to 43 minutes for those with parents with some college education and 50 minutes for those with parents with college diplomas or more. Level of parental education significantly predicted the likelihood that the child spent 30 minutes or more with books or magazines the day before, but not the likelihood that the child spent at least five minutes. Young people with better educated parents read for longer periods of time than those whose parents have less education. C. Print Preferences among Children and Teenagers Roberts and Foehr (2004) in 1999 asked the older children and teenag- ers what they read. The results convey tremendous variability. Look- ing at newspapers first, the data show the sports section is attended to most often among the 12- to 18-year-olds (52% indicated it), followed by local news (42%), comics (39%), entertainment news (32%), national news (29%), and horoscope or advice sections (28%). Interestingly, fashion was cited by a mere 7 percent. Book preferences also run the gamut among the teens in the sample. Mysteries (listed by 25%) and adventures (22%) appear to be the most popular, but an additional five genres also garnered double-digit scores including science fiction/fantasy, history/current events, humor, romance, and sports. A smaller number of highly popular magazine genres emerged, the most frequently selected being teen magazines (38%), followed by sports (26%), entertainment/popular culture (21%), and hobby/travel (19%). There was very low interest in health, home, news, and general-interest magazines. D. Print Use and Preferences of the Very Young Roberts and Foehr (2004) in their 1999 data extend the analysis of print media use to children below the age of eight. Parents of 2- to 7-year-
olds were asked to estimate the amount of time their child spent read- ing the day before, as well as the amount of time their child was read to by an adult. In doing so, the data capture exposure to books, maga- zines, and newspapers even among children too young to know how to read. We can safely conclude that most young children are reading books or being read to everyday. Eighty-four percent of 2- to 4-year-olds and 74 percent of 5- to 7-year-olds were said by their parents to have spent at least five minutes with books the day before. Given the brevity of children’s books and the short attention span of the very young, rela- tively few parents reported 30 minutes or more time spent with books (just 30% of 2- to 4-year-olds and 15% of 5- to 7-year-olds). Even maga- zines hold some appeal for these young children. Slightly more than half (56% of 2- to 4-year-olds and 51% of 5- to 7-year-olds) spent at least five minutes with a magazine the previous day. As with the 8- to 18-year-olds, the likelihood of 2- to 7-year-olds spending time reading is dependent on the education levels of their parents, although the association is less pronounced at the younger age. Among the 2- to 7-year-olds, only 6 percent of parents who com- pleted college reported no reading had occurred the day before com- pared to 18 percent for parents with a high school education or less. College educated parents also reported that their young children devote longer periods of time to reading than parents with high school or less. The difference is largely explained by book reading rather than maga- zine or newspaper reading. Race or ethnicity had only a small role. No differences occurred for average amount of time exposed to print media and only a slight difference emerged for whether any reading at all occurred the previous day: • White children, 91% • Black children, 81% • Latino children, 80% Reading to babies and toddlers is common practice. In the Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) data reflecting media use among the very young, about three-fourths (76%) of zero- to three-year-olds were read to on a typical day; the figure for zero- to six-year-olds was 79 per- cent. The most recent data place the figure for zero- to six-year-olds at 83 percent who read or are read to on a “typical” day (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Daily reading with zero- to three-year-old children occurred in 63 percent of households, and reading several times a week occurred in an additional 24 percent (Rideout et al., 2003). (Only 12% of parents of these very young children selected the “several times a month,” “less than several times a month” and “never” categories.) The average I. Media Exposure: Print 7
8 Demograpics and Preferences amount of time parents reported reading to or with the six-month-olds to six-year-olds in the sample was 39 minutes per day among all respon- dents (including those who reported 0 minutes the previous day) and 49 minutes per day among those with some reported use the previous day (see Table 1.1). The typical residence of a very young child in the United States contains quite a few books from which to choose, with 59 percent of parents of children aged six and younger reporting 50 or more books present in the house and 24 percent estimating between 20 and 49 books. Reading with and to the very young is a highly valued activity for which most parents reserve a substantial amount of time every day. II. MEDIA EXPOSURE: AUDIO Whether accessed at home or in cars, through the airwaves, on a CD or MP3 player, or by the Internet, audio media occupy an important and even cherished role in childhood and adolescence. What is listened to has not changed nearly as dramatically over the years as how it is lis- tened to. The means of transmission of audio media for personal use has evolved from records to eight-tracks to cassettes to CDs and now to various forms of digital media that include very small and highly portable devices able to store thousands of songs (like the popular iPod). They still include radio stations whose signals are picked up in the traditional manner but have also expanded to encompass “streaming audio” through the Internet and satellite radio. Regardless of the means of transmission, however, the single most noteworthy aspect of audio media to children and teenagers nationwide is that it provides music. News and sports and other forms of information continue to be avail- able through audio media, but they are not nearly as vitally important to young people as the various types of music for which audio media provide platforms. The result, as noted by Roberts and colleagues (2005), is that one can interpret time spent with audio media as almost synonymous with time spent with music. A. Use of Audio Media The most recent data from 8- to 18-year-olds (Roberts et al., 2005) point unequivocally to the large role that audio media play in daily life. The average amount of time these young people spend each day with audio media is 1 hour and 44 minutes, a figure nearly equally divided between the radio (55 minutes a day) and personal media such as CDs, tapes, and MP3 players (49 minutes). The proportion of 8- to 18-year-olds spending at least five minutes with audio media the day before the survey was a very high 85 percent, and almost half (44%) spent an hour or more.
The patterns apparent in the data regarding young people’s use of audio media are remarkable for two reasons. First, Roberts and Foehr (2004) observe that audio media—which, again, include both radio and personal music playback devices such as CD, tape, and MP3 players— are the only major media form that increase in frequency of use in a neat, linear fashion between the ages of 8 and 18. Second, audio media have the distinction of being the sole type of media that at any time in the life cycle surpasses television in amount of daily exposure among young people in the United States. In the Roberts and Foehr (2004) data, late adolescence, from age 15 through 18, is the only time in the life of the typical young person in the United States when television is not the medium with which they spend the greatest amount of time. The importance of music in the lives of teenagers allows audio media to surpass television during these years. This rise in the comparative prominence of music in the most recent time use data (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) counters earlier findings (Brown, Childers, Bauman & Koch, 1990; Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Larson & Kubey, 1983) and either is attributable to the greater ease of access made possible by new technologies or meticulousness of the more recent collection of data. B. Demographic Differences in Audio Use The emerging popularity of rock-and-roll among the nation’s teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s is one example of the ability of the tastes and preferences of young people to fuel the billion-dollar music industry. The expression of the many moods of adolescence, from exuberance to angst, seems to find an outlet through immersion in the lyrics and the rhythms of songs and identification with the artists who provide them. The time use data verify the growing importance of music from child- hood through adolescence (see Table 1.1). The average amount of time spent with audio media increases linearly from 8 to 10 years of age (59 minutes), to 11 to 14 (1 hour, 42 minutes), to 15 to 18 (2 hours, 24 minutes) (Roberts et al., 2005). The proportion spending at least five minutes the previous day rises from 74 percent of 8- to 10-year-olds to 90 percent of 15- to 18-year-olds, and the proportion spending an hour or more grows from 26 to 60 percent. The data of Roberts and colleagues (2005) also reveal some interesting gender differences. Girls are both more likely to listen and more likely to listen longer than boys. They spend about a half-hour more per day with audio media. Larger proportions of girls spent both five minutes or lon- ger (80% vs. 69%) and one hour or more the previous day (27% vs. 15%), a difference that is largely attributable to a greater number of girls listen- ing to the radio rather than a greater use of personal playback devices. II. Media Exposure: Audio 9
10 Demograpics and Preferences C. Audio Preferences of Children and Teenagers A remarkable array of musical choices is offered by modern media. In the 2005 survey, Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005) provided a list of 17 musical genre options, as well as an eighteenth “Other” category. They asked the seventh through twelfth graders to indicate the genres they listened to through CD, tapes, and MP3s the previous day (because they wanted to focus on actively selected music, they ignored radio listening). Tastes differed somewhat, but a few genres stood out as the most popular. Chief among these was rap/hip hop. About two-thirds (65%) selected rap/hip hop as a genre they listened to the previous day, a figure about double that for the next most popular option. Second was alternative rock, specified by 32 percent. Hard rock/heavy metal was chosen by 27 percent and ska/punk by 23 percent. No other musi- cal genre was cited by 20 percent or more. Tastes of young people show some variability when taking into account race or ethnicity. Rap/hip hop was universal in its position as the number one choice (by far) of White (non-Latino), African Ameri- can, and Latino young people, but it was listed significantly more often by African American youth. Eighty-one percent of African Americans cited rap/hip hop compared to 70 percent of Latinos and 60 percent of White, non-Latinos. Rhythm and blues (R&B) music was cited by 33 percent and reggae by 24 percent of the African Americans, and Latin/ salsa music had comparable appeal among Latinos, with 33 percent cit- ing that genre. Country/Western was more popular among White, non- Latino youth (26%) compared to African Americans or Latinos, as was classic rock (21%). Race or ethnicity clearly partially shapes musical preferences among the young. D. Audio Use and Preferences of the Very Young Music boxes and mobiles above the crib play lullabies to dozing babies. Portable cassette or CD players are carried by toddlers around the house. Music often seems to take center stage. The data that include children from ages two to seven (Roberts & Foehr, 2004) confirm this centrality. Two- to seven-year-olds averaged 46 minutes per day with audio media (see Table 1.1), divided about equally between radio, CDs, and tapes (use of MP3s was not measured in this study). Even among the youngest, the two- to four-year-olds, 75 percent had listened to audio media for at least five minutes the previous day. Recordings cre- ated specifically for children—such as stories, nursery rhymes, and children’s music—were the most popular choice for those two to seven. The gender differences that appear later in childhood are not present among those seven and under.
In the Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) data obtained from parents, 81 percent of zero- to three-year-olds were recorded as listen- ing to music on a typical day. In the more recent data, 88 percent of parents of six-month to one-year-olds reported music use on a “typi- cal” day, as did 84 percent of parents of 2- to 3-year-olds and 78 percent of four- to six-year-olds (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). The average amount of time zero- to three-year-olds spent was just under one hour (54 minutes) (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Thus, the very young spend a sub- stantial amount of time with music. Rideout and colleagues (2003) describe the array of audio media available to young children and the quickly developed ability to negotiate these devices: “The typical child six or under lives in a home with an average of four to five radios and CD/tape players, and four in ten (42%) even have their own CD or cas- sette player in their bedroom. One-third of all youngsters this age (36%) know how to use CD or cassette players themselves” (p. 9). We draw three conclusions: Children are exposed to music virtually from infancy; they develop the skills to play their favorite songs by themselves at an early age; and preschool-aged children enjoy the audio content that is made expressly for their age group. III. MEDIA EXPOSURE: SCREEN Even with all of the attractive new options at the fingertips of most American children, television remains the dominant medium. It com- mands more daily attention with the single exception of audio media for 15- to 18-year-olds. In many ways, new technologies have helped to cement television’s position as the leading medium. VCRs and then DVDs, digital video recorders (DVRs) like TiVo, computer links and iPods, flat screens and bigger and better sets with higher definition offer- ing satellite or cable services have served to increase the allure of this already universally appealing medium. Young people as well as adults certainly no longer watch television the way they used to—as a mass audience divided primarily into large segments attending to the broad- casts of ABC, CBS, and NBC. Instead, the “mass” audience is much more divided (primetime shares of the three original networks that once approximated 95% have dwindled to less than 40%), more than three- fourths of households receive their signals from cable or satellite rather than by broadcast, and scheduled signals are extensively supplemented by more selective playback and on-demand sources (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999). The audience now is scattered across dozens of chan- nels, many of which are so specialized that the term “niche” is apt. Other options include a DVD of a favorite show, playback of a recorded program, or renting a movie from a video store, ordering instantaneously III. Media Exposure: Screen 11
12 Demograpics and Preferences through the cable provider, subscribing to a DVD mail service, or access- ing a show on an iPod. Yet, in each of these newer scenarios as well as in the conventional sense, watch they do, in numbers that continue to somewhat amaze the social scientist charged with the task of tallying time spent with media. Our review of time spent with screen media includes television, vid- eotapes, DVDs, and movies, thereby encompassing “all audio-visual systems that deliver content that does not depend on directive responses from the viewer” (Roberts et al., 2005, p. 23, emphasis in original). The feature that distinguishes screen from interactive media is the content that is not open to alteration by the decisions of the user. A. Television Exposure In our earlier work (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999), we estimated chil- dren’s average amount of TV exposure to be 3 hours and 10 minutes per day and teenagers’ exposure to be just under three hours. Data collected by Roberts and colleagues (2005) six years later show that figure to be right on the mark. The 2005 survey records that children aged 8 to 18 in the United States spend an average of 3 hours and 4 minutes per day watching television. This is an enormous amount of time that dwarfs average daily exposure to the other screen media (47 minutes with vid- eos/DVDs, 25 minutes with movies) as well as all of the other media. The estimate of 3 hours and 4 minutes per day not only closely resem- bles our prior calculation, but also shows negligible change from the Roberts and Foehr (2004) estimate of 3 hours and 5 minutes per day from their 1999 data. With such consensus, we can be abundantly con- fident in concluding that young people in the United States on average spend just over three hours with television each day. Eighty-one percent reported that they watched television the day before, 42 percent watched videos/DVDs, and 13 percent watched a movie (Roberts et al., 2005). Daily television use is commonplace. Video/DVD use is decidedly more occasional. Attending movies, always more special than television viewing, could be described as occurring seldomly. A substantial minority of young people are heavy viewers, allocating substantially more time than the average. Indeed, a full one in five (20%) of the young people reported that they watched TV for five hours or longer the previous day. In light of the continuing diffusion of digital video recording technol- ogy—devices that allow for digital time shifting and storing of televi- sion programs—comparisons were drawn between time spent with TV shows recorded by oneself and “commercially originated” programs and DVDs (Roberts et al., 2005). The figures show that despite the growing
popularity of DVRs and digital time shifting, commercially produced video content is still more popular. Just over one-third (39%) of 8- to 18-year-olds watched a commercially originated program the day before and they spent an average of 32 minutes on them. A decidedly smaller 21 percent watched a self-recorded program and spent a more modest 14 minutes. When looking specifically at the young people who reported owning a DVR (34% of the total sample did), twice as much time was spent with self-recorded content by DVR owners than by nonowners. DVR-owning young people also watch more TV in real time than non- DVR-owning young people, suggesting that this new technology has been adopted in households in which the occupants, including the kids, are particular fans of television (Roberts et al., 2005). B. Demographic Differences in Television Use The most recent data confirm a long-standing finding (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999) that television use, after rising during infancy and early childhood, decreases over time during childhood and adolescence (see Table 1.1). Roberts and colleagues (2005) summarize the specifics of this dimin- ished screen media use with age: In general, older kids report less exposure than younger kids. For example, adolescents age 15–18 watch almost 3/4 of an hour less than either of the two younger groups, a difference approach- ing statistical significance (p < .08 in both cases). Older kids are significantly less likely to watch any TV on a given day, and less likely to spend more than one hour viewing TV. They are also less likely than 8- to 10-year-olds to spend time watching any kind of video recording. When all screen media are combined, the oldest adolescents report an hour less daily exposure than 8- to 10-year- olds and 3/4 of an hour less than 11- to 14-year-olds (both statisti- cally significant differences). (pp. 23–24) Another persisting demographic pattern—that the race or ethnicity of the child is associated with significant differences in screen media use—is also again confirmed. As we have observed elsewhere (Com- stock & Scharrer, 1999; Comstock, 1991), prior analyses have con- cluded that African American youth tend to spend more time watching television than Latino children who, in turn, tend to watch more than White non-Latino children (Robinson & Godbey, 1997). The data of Roberts and colleagues (2005) not only continue to find this pattern but also extend it to other forms of screen media and rule out parental education or income as the underlying explanation. III. Media Exposure: Screen 13
14 Demograpics and Preferences African Americans reported spending an average of 4 hours and 5 minutes watching TV compared to 3 hours 23 minutes for Latinos and 2 hours 45 minutes for White non-Latinos, each comparison resulting in a statistically significant difference. Roughly the same pattern holds for the other forms of screen media. Total use was just under six hours daily for African Americans (5:53) compared to about four-and-a-half for Latinos (4:37) and just under four hours for Whites (3:47). The propor- tion of youth from each racial/ethnic group reporting some screen media use the day before does not differ. Thus, children of color are not more likely to use screen media on any given day but are more apt to spend longer periods of time with screen media. This testifies to the ubiqui- tous use of screen media by the young as well as to its greater attractive- ness to African Americans and Latinos. Roberts and colleagues (2005) conducted additional analyses to ensure that the racial/ethnic differ- ences were not explained by the potentially confounding factor of socio- economic status. They found,“...at each level of parent education and at each level of income,...the pattern of African American kids report- ing the highest amount of TV exposure, Hispanic kids the second high- est, and White kids the least, continued to hold” (p. 24). We conclude, therefore, that cultural norms (or perhaps some unmeasured factor) rather than socioeconomic status explain the tendency for children of color to spend longer periods of time per day watching TV. In a major surprise, the most recent data of Roberts and colleagues (2005) record absolutely no relationship between either the income of the household or the level of parental education and the amount of time young people spend with television. These findings are quite unexpected. The vast majority of past media use studies have found that higher socioeconomic status—typically measured by income and/ or education—is associated with lower television use, and this has been particularly so for education (Brown et al., 1990; Comstock et al., 1978; Comstock, 1991; Medrich et al., 1982; Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Schramm et al., 1961; Tangney & Feshbach, 1988). Perhaps the time that we predicted (when in a very speculative mode) in our last review of this issue (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999) has arrived—television use has become so ubiquitous as to overshadow any previously distinguish- ing socioeconomic differences.1 1 However, because this outcome conflicts with the survey five years earlier by Roberts and Foehr (2004) as well as many other sets of earlier data, we reserve judgment until we have confirmation from additional samples. It is always possible that this is the kind of statistical anomaly that inevitably sometimes occurs in survey data. We are always skeptical when a long-standing pattern seems to be overturned in new data. We are hesitant to offer a conclusion until we have confirmation (or disconfirmation) from a similar, large, nationally representative sample or from a series of smaller scale endeav- ors that are in agreement.
The only exception to the lack of association with either income or parental education is a curvilinear relationship that appears between level of parental education and total screen media exposure (but not exposure to television). Roberts and colleagues (2005) data demonstrate that young people in households where parents have moderate amounts of education (some college) generally spend less time overall with screen media (3:46) than either those in households with lower (high school; 4:23) or higher (college or more; 4:20) levels of parental education. C. Viewing Preferences among Children and Teenagers Lists of television programs drawn from local schedules were employed by Roberts and colleagues (2005) to record preferences among the 8- to 18-year-olds expressed by actual viewing. Programs were categorized by the authors as belonging to one of 18 different genres. The results display the perennial appeal of situation comedies in this age group (Lyle & Hoffman, 1972a). Just over one-third (37%) watched a sitcom on the previous day, a proportion outdistancing the next most popular choice by 12 percentage points. In fact, situation comedies appear to carry appeal across age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status, as it was the only genre listed by a third or more of respondents in every demographic category. The next most popular genre was children’s programming, divided by the authors into educational programming (for which previous day viewing occurred among 25%) and entertainment programming (among a nearly equal 24%). The former included programs with a central edu- cational mission, whereas the latter consisted of cartoons often featur- ing superheroes or other action-adventure themes. As might be expected, the popularity of these genres declines with age. They were cited by slightly fewer than half of the 8- to 10-year-olds, about 20 per- cent of the 11- to 14-year-olds, and fewer than 10 percent of the 15- to 18-year-olds. Next came movies (22%). Remaining genres were cited by fewer than 20 percent. Nonetheless, substantial numbers watched reality shows (17%), entertainment/variety shows (16%), dramas (15%), sports (12%), and documentaries (11%). There were two significant gender differences. Girls were more likely to report watching sitcoms, whereas boys were more likely to report watching sports. We conclude that tastes for particular program types have changed little over the years from when the first author summarized the research data in 1991 drawing on data from the early 1970s,“... First graders mostly named situation comedies and cartoons. Sixth graders largely III. Media Exposure: Screen 15
16 Demograpics and Preferences replaced the cartoons with action-adventure programs. Tenth graders continued to name many action-adventure programs, but added music and variety ... preferences for cartoons and children’s programs declined, while those for adventure-drama and comedy increased with age” between the ages of 5 to 12 (Comstock, 1991, p. 7). Indeed, the recent data (Roberts & Foehr, 2004) also support the conclusion drawn by Comstock (1991) that the shift in childhood from preferring children’s programming to adult, mainstream programming occurs at about the age of eight. D. Television Viewing by the Very Young When examining screen media use among young children, four distin- guishing features are striking. First, television viewing begins extremely early in the lifespan and quickly accounts for substantial amounts of time per day. Second, programming produced especially for children is by far the most popular choice among the very young. Third, programs viewed on videotape or DVD are also exceptionally appealing at this age. Finally, although television use is clearly and uniformly a part of their daily lives, very few spend what could be characterized as an extensive amount of time watching television per day. The data collected in 1999 puts daily exposure to screen media among children aged two to seven at just over two-and-a-half hours per day (2:33) (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). The lion’s share of this figure, as in the older age groups, is explained by time spent with television. A scant two to three minutes are spent daily with videotapes of time- shifted television shows or with movies. Two- to seven-year-olds spend an estimated two hours and two minutes daily watching TV, and 84 percent report some exposure to television on the previous day. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics established guide- lines that recommend no television viewing for children less than two years of age. The Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) data suggest that following that advice would constitute a pretty dramatic change in the patterns of media use in many families. Their numbers show that 59 percent of all children aged two and under watch TV on any given day, and 43 percent watch everyday. Rideout and Hamel (2006) found 81 percent of 2- to 3-year-olds watch television on a typical day, a much higher percentage than the 56 percent of six-month- to one- year-olds (although the latter is a substantial figure). Nearly three-quar- ters (72%) of the parents in the sample reported their 2- to 3-year-old watched television every day, compared to 43 percent of the parents reporting on their six-month- to one-year-olds. Accounting not only for television but for all forms of screen media, children two and under
spend an estimated two hours and five minutes “in front of a screen” (Rideout et al., 2003, p. 5) a day, 1 hour and 22 minutes of which is time spent watching television. The data lead convincingly to the conclu- sion that television use becomes integrated into each day very early in a child’s life, significant amounts of exposure to television occurs before the age of two, and adherence to the American Academy of Pedi- atrics counsel would require a near-revolution—or at least a novel display of resolve—in parenting practices in many households.. Programming created expressly for child viewers by far is the most favored television genre. Educational programming, specifically, draws the largest percentage of preschoolers as well as the majority of kin- dergarten to second graders. For just over three-fourths of all 2- to 4- year-olds (77%) and 60 percent of 5- to 7-year-olds, children’s educa- tional programming was named as a preference among television genres (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Children’s entertainment program- ming was a distant second, selected by one-third of those aged two to four and 43 percent of those aged five to seven. The only other genre drawing substantial amounts of interest from young children was comedy. It was chosen by 19 percent of the 2- to 4-year-olds and 33 percent of the 5- to 7-year-olds. Although a large majority of television viewing time is spent with programs created especially for this age group, the interest in comedy that characterizes later childhood begins early. A plurality, 48 percent, of the parents of the six-month- to six-year-olds report that their child watches mostly children’s shows in approximately equal proportions of educational programs and entertainment programs (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). The next largest percentage, 24 percent, report their young child watches mostly children’s educational programs. Smaller percentages report exposure equally divided between children’s shows and adult shows or concentrated among kids’ shows that are mostly entertainment, 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively. We con- clude that television content specifically created for the very young is, indeed, most popular among that group, with educational programming particularly frequently chosen. Yet, the purely educational television diet is relatively rare, even among the youngest of the young. Many parents have concerns over the suitability of mainstream tele- vision programming for very young children. Objections include vio- lence, sexual references, and profanity. For that reason (and others), par- ents of very young children report substantial use of commercially produced videotapes or DVDs in the home. The typical preschooler in the United States is likely to have ready access to a library of television programs and movies on VHS or DVD that are targeted to child audi- ences and not recorded by a family member but rather purchased in pre- III. Media Exposure: Screen 17
18 Demograpics and Preferences recorded form. DVDs and videotapes containing a number of episodes of educational programs such as Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, or Ses- ame Street, for instance, are likely elements of this library, as are Disney films or other children’s movies such as Winnie the Pooh’s Tigger, Beauty and the Beast, or Toy Story. The advantages of screen media in this form are that they can be played at the convenience of the parent (to entertain a child while preparing dinner, or as transition to bedtime), repeated viewing of a show is extremely appealing to a child, and the parent is typically both familiar with and comfortable with the content (no surprising violence or unwelcome language). Roberts and Foehr (2004) place daily exposure to what they call “commercial videos” (the purchased programs and movies) at approxi- mately 30 minutes per day among very young children. Two- to four- year-olds spend an estimated 33 minutes and 5- to 7-year-olds spend 21 minutes with this form of screen media daily. Commercial video use nevertheless is less ingrained into the fabric of daily life than ordinary television viewing. Despite the substantial average amounts of use, Roberts and Foehr record that 54 percent of those aged two to four and 70 percent of those five to seven had no commercial video exposure the previous day—much higher proportions of nonusers than for ordinary television. Despite the fairly high figure for average exposure to television (2:02) and notwithstanding the fact that most in this age group have not yet entered school and therefore have few demands on their time, only a fraction of 2- to 7-year-olds could be described as very heavy viewers. The latest estimates (Roberts & Foehr, 2004) indicate only 7 percent watched television for five hours or more the previous day. Such a minute proportion for extensive viewing is unique to the very young. The percentage of 8- to 18-year olds reporting five hours or more of television consumption, by contrast, is three times greater (22%). We conclude that parents and caregivers view extensive daily television use as excessive for their very young children, and most avoid it. IV. MEDIA EXPOSURE: INTERACTIVE MEDIA Computer-based technologies have significantly changed the media landscape. Interactive media, in which the decisions and actions of the user—the click of the mouse, the turn of the joystick, the operation of the keyboard—change the content of what is seen, have a large and growing presence at school and in the home. The navigation of these media demands active participation on the part of the user and there- fore in many ways interactive media differ from more traditional media not only in how they are used but why.
The young are able to embrace such innovations, without the appre- hension or indifference that pose obstacles for older adults. Young people are notoriously often more savvy about new technologies than their par- ents, and many seem to grow up with a mouse in their hand and a seem- ingly natural ease with computers, video games, and other devices. Young people’s use of the Internet occurs within the context of and is dependent on the level of diffusion of Internet technology across the country. Robinson and Alvarez (2005) provide the most recent thorough account of this diffusion by collating the large-scale surveys of Internet use in the United States. As of August, 2003, the most recent figure available was that approximately 60 percent of the population was online. Despite a trend of fairly steady growth since 1995, the diffusion rate has showed little increase in the year or two preceding this (August 2003) figure. They conclude, contrary to hoopla in the media, that diffu- sion has occurred more slowly than for VCR technology. The gap between Internet access of males and females present in earlier data has narrowed in recent years, but considerable distance remains between adoption rates associated with race, income, and education. Whites, those with higher incomes, and those with greater degrees of education are more likely to have Internet connections. Robinson, Neustadtl, and Kestnbaum (2002) have also documented a pattern that they have dubbed a “diversity divide.” Internet users differ from nonusers not just in terms of demographics but also in their more liberal stances regarding race, gays and lesbians, religion, and women’s rights, and these differences were not explained by income or education levels. A readier welcoming of technological innovation apparently is joined by more favorable dis- positions toward social innovations. In our present analysis of use of the computer and other interactive media technologies, the changing—and according to the analyses of Robinson and Alvarez, uncertain—status of Internet diffusion must be taken into account. Unlike more established media (such as television, radio, and print) the introductory diffusion process for interactive media has not clearly ended. A. Use of Interactive Media by Young People Young people in the United States are spending more and more time with interactive media. Limiting their questions to leisure and exclud- ing school- or work-related tasks, Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005) measured time spent with the computer as well as with video games. They gathered data for six separate computer-based activities: playing games, visiting web sites, spending time in chat rooms, communicat- ing via e-mail, instant messaging (a popular application that allows users to correspond on the computer in real time), and the use of graphics (programs such as Photoshop or PowerPoint). The data of IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 19
20 Demograpics and Preferences Roberts and colleagues (2005) set daily leisure time use of the com- puter among 8- to 18-year-olds at approximately one hour per day (1 hour and 2 minutes, to be precise). Playing games and instant messag- ing are close competitors for the largest proportion of time at 19 min- utes and 17 minutes per day, respectively. Visiting web sites contrib- utes an additional 14 minutes. The remaining activities—graphics programs, chat rooms, and e-mail—account for just four to five min- utes of total daily use. Instant messaging, then, is much preferred over e-mail and web sites are frequently visited without the desire to par- ticipate in affiliated chats. Roberts and colleagues (2005) describe the differences that occurred in the five years between the 1999 and 2004 surveys: A combination of increased access to computers and the emer- gence of new, highly popular computer activities has resulted in more than a doubling of the amount of time U.S. kids spent with computers.... (I)n 1999, 73% of 8- to 18-year-olds reported a per- sonal computer in their home; today, 86% report in-home access to a PC.... Five years ago we did not ask about time spent playing games online, about various graphics programs or about time spent instant messaging. Since then, each of these activities has begun to claim substantial computer time from kids. The result is that the average amount of time young people devote to various computer activities has climbed from 0:27 daily to 1:02 daily (the proportion of kids using a computer at all has grown from 47% to 54%, and the proportion using a computer for more than an hour has climbed from 15% to 28%).... (O)nly two computer activi- ties, visiting chat rooms and sending e-mail, have remained fairly constant in terms of the time devoted to them. Time spent using Web sites has doubled (from seven to 14 minutes daily). Time spent with computer games has increased from 0:12 in 1999 to 0:19 in 2004, a change that we believe is at least partly a result of increased availability of online, multiplayer games. And perhaps most striking, a computer activity that did not warrant a question five years ago now claims as much time as visiting chat rooms (working with graphics programs = 0:04), and an activity that barely existed among kids five years ago now ranks as the second most time-consuming computer activity (instant messaging = 0:17). p. 30 The data document that computer use has changed in complexion and in the amount of time it consumes among the nation’s youth. In the relatively short span between 1999 and 2004, game playing and Web “surfing” have attracted significantly more daily use, and sending
and receiving an instant message (or “IM-ing” as it is frequently referred to) has taken off in jet-propelled fashion. We agree with the conclusion of Roberts and colleagues (2005) that the doubling of overall amount of time spent with computers in the five-year period can be attributed both to more and more families (and young people themselves) owning computers as well as the additional attraction of newer computer appli- cations such as these. The second major component of interactive media is video games. This category includes video games played on console systems that hook up to the television set such as those created by Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, or Xbox, and handheld playing systems, such as the Game- Boy, but not games played on the computer, which were categorized as computer use. It is impossible to dispute the popularity of video game consoles and games. The industry is booming, with the financial press prominently charting technical developments, marketing strategies, and the various entrepreneurial maneuvers of the major firms. Systems offer realistic-looking graphics, extensive memory, and an ever-increas- ing list of titles to choose from with elaborate plots and special effects. Most games cost about $50. Video games are a popular form of entertainment for the typical American child. Roberts and colleagues (2005) discovered that some 52 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds play a video game on an average day, with 41 percent reporting console use and another 35 percent handheld game play. The average amount of time dedicated to video game use is an impressive 49 minutes per day (32 minutes on the console systems and another 17 using handheld devices). The complexity of the games themselves (as well as their notorious “addictiveness”) is likely a fac- tor in the finding that about one in five (22%) play for an hour or longer on any given day. B. Interactive Media Use and Demographics Amount of time spent with the computer increases with the age of the child (see Table 1.1). In fact, moving from the 8- to 10-year-old to the 11- to 14-year-old results in a near doubling of daily computer use, from 37 minutes to just over one hour (1:02). The jump is significant from the middle age group to the oldest as well, with 15- to 18-year- olds spending one hour and 22 minutes per day at the keyboard. Instant messaging, examining web sites, and e-mailing all begin to increase substantially in time use at the age of 11. The growth in popularity of two of these computer applications, IM-ing and e-mailing, is most likely attributable to the increase in the desire to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances that marks adolescence. The increased IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 21
22 Demograpics and Preferences attraction of the third application, visiting web sites, probably repre- sents the emerging interest among preteen and teenagers in sports, musical performers, and other aspects of popular culture. Although computer use increases with age, video game use decreases (see Table 1.1). The 8- to 10-year-olds are the heaviest users of video game technology, spending an average of one hour and five minutes daily. The estimate declines (but not significantly) to 52 minutes among the 11- to 14-year-olds and then takes a nosedive to 33 minutes per day among the 15- to 18-year-olds. As with television use, perhaps with more demands on the time of older teenagers (including extracur- ricular activities at school, socializing with friends, and romantic interests), video game playing begins to lose some of its allure. Gender differences appear. Boys and girls do not differ substantially in the amount of time they spend with computers, but they are distinct in terms of how they allocate that time. Boys spend significantly more time playing games on the computer than girls (22 minutes per day compared to 15). On the other hand, girls spend more time instant messaging (20 minutes per day vs. 14), visiting web sites (16 minutes vs. 12), and e-mailing (6 minutes vs. 4). We concur with the speculation of Roberts and colleagues (2005) that the differences likely stem from gender socialization in which girls learn to be more social and com- municative. Boys are more likely to play and to spend longer periods of time with video games. Almost two-thirds (63%) of all of the boys in the Roberts and colleagues (2005) sample were likely to have played video games on any given day, compared to 40 percent of girls. Aston- ishingly, boys spend three times longer playing video games than girls—one hour and 12 minutes versus 25 minutes. This is the result of the symbiosis between video game marketing and male interests. The video game industry has come to market its product primarily to males (Scharrer, 2004) because video games lend themselves to action, retri- bution, and violent conflict (Thompson & Haninger, 2001) that are more appealing to males than females. Computer use is related to race and ethnicity of the child as well as to socioeconomic status. No significant differences emerge in the amount of time spent once on the computer. However, White non- Latino young people are more likely to use a computer each day com- pared to African Americans or Latinos. There is a 10 to 13 percentage point difference in likelihood of use, with 57 percent of the Whites using the computer on any given day versus 44 percent of African Americans and 47 percent of Latinos. There are also differences in com- puter applications, with African Americans less likely to play games and to engage in instant messaging. Despite increased adoption of com- puters in the home, parental education and income continue to predict
likelihood of use. On any given day, almost two-thirds (62%) of chil- dren whose parents have completed college use the computer, com- pared to 47 percent of children whose parents have a high school educa- tion and 51 percent of children whose parents have some college education. The figures for family income parallel those for parental education. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of those children whose families fall into the high income category used a computer the day before com- pared to 47 percent of low income and 50 percent of middle income families. A “digital divide” continues to characterize computer access and use in the United States. Surprisingly, despite the high cost of console systems and games, household income does not predict differences in video game use in the most recent data of Roberts and colleagues (2005). Other demographic variables do. The relationship between video game use and parental education is curvilinear. The middle parental education category records the lowest amount of time; in both the low and the high cate- gories, use is higher. There are also significant differences associated with race or ethnicity. African Americans spend longer periods of time playing either console-based or handheld games than White, non-Lati- nos (who played for the shortest periods) and Latinos (whose playing time was in between). C. Preferences in Interactive Media by Children and Teens With the immense and uncharted domain that constitutes the Internet, it is a daunting task to attempt to ascertain preferences. Similarly, the vast stores of games available to the young consumer make the specifica- tions of preferences difficult. We nevertheless find some answers in the surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation (Rideout et al., 2003; Roberts et al., 2005; Roberts & Foehr, 2004) as well as in several other sources. The youngest children spend nearly all their time on the computer playing games. The Roberts and Foehr (2004) figures indicate that for 2- to 7-year-olds this activity is almost wholly made up of “educational games, children’s games, or arts and crafts games” (p. 129). Playing games with content that is violent or otherwise arguably inappropriate is very rare among this younger set, with just 6 percent of 5- to 7-year- olds and absolutely no 2- to 4-year-olds exposed to action or combat games. Action and combat games quickly gain a foothold among preferences of preteens and teenagers. They are favorites of 22 percent of those aged eight to 10, 20 percent of those 11 to 14, and 25 percent of those 15 to 18 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Classic or gambling games are popular in the older age groups, too, as are sports games, adventure games, and simulation games. IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 23
24 Demograpics and Preferences Computer applications other than gaming also display wide variation in preferences (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). The most popular web sites to visit for the 11- to 18-year-olds include entertainment sites (51% of 11- to 14-year-olds chose this option, as did 62% of 15- to 18-year-olds), sports sites (chosen by 31% and 17%, respectively), and sites chosen for research or to obtain information (13% and 21%, respectively). For the 8- to 10-year-olds, entertainment web sites again were chosen by many (46%), followed by gaming sites (43%), sports sites (18%), and shopping venues (15%). Specific chatrooms included the same topics as the web sites. However, hobbies/groups and relationships/lifestyles also gained adherents, demonstrating the desire of a number of young people to “talk” to others about their hobbies, interests, and relationships. In the case of video games, gender differences in preferences are striking. In fact, differences between boys and girls are so pronounced that in one study, a national, randomly drawn survey of 1- to 12-year- olds, they occur within all three major racial/ethnic groups (in the authors’ categorization, European Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans) (Bickham, Vandewater, Huston, Lee, Caplo- vitz & Wright, 2003). Thus, we focus on differences between boys and girls. Boys find games that contain violence more appealing than girls do (Funk & Buchman, 1996). Recent research has not only supported that finding but also offers a number of potential explanations. Sherry and Lucas (2003) and Lucas and Sherry (2004) located important gender dif- ferences in reports of uses and gratifications of video game use, includ- ing levels of desire for competition, to challenge oneself, to engage in fantasy, and to become aroused through exciting game play, all lower for female respondents compared to males. Lucas and Sherry (2004) similarly found distinct genre preferences for young men compared to young women. Although their sample consists of 593 college-aged respondents, we argue that, because of the stability of gender orienta- tions across age as well as the robustness of their findings, their results are likely to extrapolate to teenagers and quite probably to those some- what younger. The young women were more likely to prefer traditional games such as those based on cards or dice, “old-fashioned” arcade games like PacMan or Frogger, puzzle games like Tetris, classic board games like Monopoly that had been converted into video games, and trivia games. Conversely, the young men were more likely to like sports games, fighter and shooter games, fantasy/role-playing games, and action adventure games. The authors observe that because games usually are typed as the domain of men and boys, an additional deter- rent to girls playing video games is the assumption that to do so requires crossing traditional gender role behavior.
The Roberts and Foehr (2004) data certainly support the extension of the Lucas and Sherry’s (2004) results to children and teens. In games played on the computer, they find “boys dominate the action/combat, adventure, sports, and strategic and simulation categories” (p. 130) whereas girls were likely to prefer just one type of game more than boys, the classic and gambling category. This latter category is similar to the cards/dice, and traditional board game groups preferred by girls in the Lucas and Sherry (2004) data. In games played using video game consoles or handheld devices, Roberts and Foehr (2004) found boys again prefer the “action-oriented games,” including the action/combat, sports, and simulation/strategic genres. The allure of the fast-paced, often aggressive action gaming genre begins early in middle childhood (around the age of 8) and continues into the early teens. D. Interactive Media Use by the Very Young Children are using interactive media at early stages of life. Experience with the computer grows exponentially between the ages of two and four to six. Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) found that while only 11 percent of children under the age of two had used a computer, by the time a child enters the 4- to 6-year-old age range, 70 percent had done so. On any given day, just over one-fourth (27%) of all 4- to 6-year- olds used computers, and amount of time spent daily among those who have used the computer averages over one hour (1:04). In the most recent data encompassing six-month to six-year-olds, 16 percent were reported to use a computer on a typical day, for 50 minutes, on average (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). The favorite web sites listed by parents clearly demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between television and computer, and they included Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Noggin, Disney, PBS Kids, and Sesame Street (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Computer- related knowledge develops quickly in this age group, as apparent in the Rideout and colleagues (2003) data: More than half of all children in this age group (56%) have used a computer by themselves (without sitting in their parent’s lap); 64% know how to use a mouse to point and click; 40% can load a CD- ROM by themselves; 37% have turned the computer on by them- selves; and 17% have sent e-mail with help from a parent. (p. 5) By the year 2001, computer and Internet use among children and adolescents was greater than among adults (DeBell & Chapman, 2003). Recent highly reliable figures released by the U.S. Department of Edu- cation were gathered using the Current Population Survey conducted in 2003 with an astoundingly large national probability sample of IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 25
26 Demograpics and Preferences households—29,000 children ranging from nursery-school (preschool) age to twelfth grade. Two-thirds (67%) of preschoolers aged two to five had used a computer before, and 23 percent had used the Internet (see Table 1.2). Kindergartners in the sample, typically five or six years of age, are even more likely to have used both forms of technology (80% for computers, 32% for the Internet). As children progress through the grades, the gap between general computer use and Internet use closes. Table 1.2 Percentage of Nursery/Preschool Through Twelfth Grade Students Who Use Computers and the Internet at Home, at School, or at Work. Computer use Internet use TOTAL 91% 59% Age Nursery school 67% 23% Kindergarten 80 32 1st–5th grade 91 50 6th–8th grade 95 70 9th–12th grade 97 80 Gender Female 91% 61% Male 91 58 Race/ethnicity White/Non-Hispanic 93% 67% Hispanic 85 44 Black/Non-Hispanic 86 47 Asian or Pacific Islander 91 58 American Indian, Aleut or Eskimo 88 50 More than one race 92 65 Parental education Less than high school 82% 37% High school credential 89 54 Some college 93 63 Bachelor’s degree 92 67 Some graduate educ. 95 73 Household income Under $20,000 85% 41% $20,000–34,999 87 50 $35,000–49,999 93 62 $50,000–74,999 93 66 $75,000 or more 95 74 Adapted from U.S. Department of Education. (2005). Rates of computer and internet use by children in nursery school and students in kindergarten through twelfth grade: 2003. Accessed 6/27/05 at http://nces.ed.gov/ pubs2005/2005111.pdf.
By the time they are in high school, 97 percent have used a computer and 80 percent the Internet. These high levels are facilitated by the availability of computers and access to the Internet in schools. The U.S. Department of Education (2003) claims virtually all public schools in the United States have Internet connections and the overall ratio is one computer for every five children. In contrast, video game use is modest and sporadic among the very young. Thirty percent of the parents of all the six-month to six-year- olds in the Rideout and colleagues (2003) sample reported that their children had played video games sometime in the past. However, only 9 percent reported use on a typical day (spending an average of just five minutes). The comparable figure in the most recent data was 11 per- cent who reported an average of six minutes spent with video games on a typical day (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Amount of time spent playing video games varied considerably when analyses were run with non- video game users removed. Among only those that did engage in video game use, the daily exposure time jumped to 55 minutes (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). As the child grows up, however, video game use increases, presum- ably as a function of increased ability to manipulate the controls and to maintain attention. Among 4- to 6-year-olds, video game use on any given day occurs among 16 percent and amount of time spent playing swells to just over an hour (1:04) (Rideout et al., 2003). Nonetheless, among very young children levels of daily exposure to video games are dwarfed by exposure to television. V. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER We turn now to overall amount of media exposure and use (which are not the same thing), simultaneous attention to more than one medium at a time, and the distribution of time across various media. We then address the issue of access to media in the bedrooms of children and teenagers, as well as other indications of the degree of centrality of media in the home. Finally, we invoke the typology of young media users intro- duced by Roberts and Foehr (2004) to capture particular orientations among children and teens toward the various forms of media. A. Total Time Spent with Each Type of Media It is both tempting and informative to simply add up the amount of time spent with each of the media reported by Roberts and colleagues (Rob- erts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) to arrive at an estimate of over- all exposure. Yet these authors point out that such a technique loses a degree of accuracy in time allocation to media because it does not take V. Putting It All Together 27
28 Demograpics and Preferences into account use of more than one medium at a time. Thus, it neglects a phenomenon that is quite common, attending at least passingly to more than one medium at a time—a teenager watching TV while also communicating with friends on the computer, a child leafing through a magazine or book while a DVD of a favorite program plays in the back- ground. In fact, the ability to “multitask” is commonly thought of as a newly developed skill of today’s youngsters who have grown up with a number of sights and sounds continually demanding their attention (Christenson & Roberts, 1998; Lenhart, Rainie & Lewis, 2001). For this reason, Roberts and colleagues (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Rob- erts et al., 2005) employ a two-part strategy. They report both “media exposure,” the sum of time spent with each medium, and “media use,” the amount of time devoted to media overall after accounting for simultaneous use of two or more media. They provide an instructive example: ... imagine a teenager who spends two hours watching just TV, one hour reading and listening to music simultaneously, and another hour playing a video game while streaming music on her computer. Her total media exposure would be six hours (TV = 2; music = 2; reading = 1; video gaming = 1). However, her media use (i.e., the number of actual hours of the day that she devotes to media) would be four hours (TV = 2; music + print = 1; video games + music = 1). (2005, p. 35, emphasis in original) Roberts and colleagues (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) use diary data collected from a subsample of their total number of respondents to measure media use, adjusting for overlapping media time. Estimates of media use obviously are typically lower than total media exposure estimates, because the former does not “double- count ... overlapping use” (2005, p. 36). Among all the 8- to 18-year-olds in the latest data collected in 2003 (Roberts et al., 2005), the grand total for overall media exposure per day is an extraordinary eight hours and 33 minutes. The grand total for over- all media use per day is an only slightly less dramatic six hours and 21 minutes. (Remember that these data do not include media exposure in school, and so therefore the “true” total of time spent with media daily has the potential to be even larger.) About one-fourth of all time spent with media thus can be described as multitasking, and that proportion is uniform across most (but not all) subgroups. These figures testify that the daily lives of today’s children and teenagers are saturated with media. Young people today are immersed in media for the better part of their waking hours, and will spend more time with media than with any other activity besides sleeping (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999).
Gender differences in total amounts of exposure or use are negligible (see Table 1.3). So, too, are differences associated with parental educa- tion. However, two intriguing demographic patterns surface. First, total media exposure is significantly higher among African Americans compared to White non-Latinos and Latinos (see Table 1.3). However, total media use shows only modest differences among the three groups, thereby identifying simultaneous media use as largely responsible for the differences. Indeed, the African American kids in the sample reported 36 percent of their time spent with media is multitasking, whereas the two other racial or ethnic groups reported 21 to 27 percent. V. Putting It All Together 29 Table 1.3 Total Media Exposure and Total Media Use for 8- to 18-Year-Olds, by Age, Gender, Race, Parent Education, and Income* Total exposure Total use Overall 8:33 6:21 Age 8 to 10 8:05 5:52 11 to 14 8:41 6:33 15 to 18 8:44 6:31 Gender Boys 8:38 6:21 Girls 8:27 6:19 Race White (non-Latino) 7:58 6:15 Black (non-Latino) 10:10 6:30 Latino 8:52 6:30 Parent education High school or less 8:30 5:54 Some college 8:02 6:26 College graduate 8:55 6:42 Income Under $35,000 8:40 5:02 $35,000–50,000 8:28 6:25 Over $50,000 8:34 6:44 *The only statistically significant differences in the table are for total exposure for Black young people compared to both White and Latino young people, and total exposure for some college education of parents compared to the other two parental education groups. All other differences are not statistically significant. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Fam- ily Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Accessed 6/30/05 at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/ 7250.cfm.
30 Demograpics and Preferences Roberts and colleagues observe,“... the more than 2 1/2 hour difference between White and Black kids in media exposure is reduced to just 15 minutes when we look at media use” (2005, p. 36). Second, income levels predict proportion of time spent multitasking. Kids from fami- lies in the lowest income brackets have the highest levels of exposure but lowest levels of media use (due to their high rate of multitasking, 42 percent of all their media time). The middle and upper income chil- dren multitask at a much lower rate of 24 and 22 percent, respectively, and therefore the discrepancies between their media exposure and media use totals are less severe. Diary data on media exposure and use were also collected in 1999 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Exposure to some form of media (television, print, and audio) has remained remarkably stable across the five-year period between 1999 and 2004, and exposure to other screen media (videotapes, DVDs, movies) has seen only a minor increase (see Table 1.4). On the other hand, the “new” media forms of computers and video games have shown significant growth in amount of exposure. (As we previously noted, computer exposure doubled over the five years, and video game use increased from an average of 26 minutes to 49 min- utes per day.) Increases in amount of exposure to interactive media thus largely account for an overall increase in media exposure from about seven-and-a-half hours in 1999 to eight-and-a-half hours in 2004. When taking into account simultaneous exposure to more than one Table 1.4 Comparisons of the Total Media Exposure and Total Media Use Figures for 8- to 18-Year-Olds over a Five-Year Span Medium 1999 2004 TV 3:05 3:04 Videos/DVDs/movies 0:59 1:11 Print media 0:43 0:43 Audio media 1:48 1:44 Computers 0:27* 1:02* Video games 0:26* 0:49* TOTAL EXPOSURE 7:29* 8:33* TOTAL USE 6:19 6:21 *These are the only statistically significant changes over time. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.Accessed6/30/05athttp://www.kff.org/entmedia/7250. cfm.
medium, estimates of use have barely changed at all. Increased amounts of time spent with interactive media occur largely within the parame- ters of simultaneous media use and have not expanded time allocated to media. With other demands on their time, including such obligatory or valued activities as school, sports, band practice, clubs, hobbies, and, of course, socializing, young people apparently cannot allocate greater amounts of time to media than they do at present. Roberts and colleagues (2005) speculate that the stability in total media use between 1999 and 2004 (despite substantial increases in media exposure) “may represent a ceiling in the amount of time young people can or will devote to using media” (p. 37). B. How Time Spent Using Media Is Divided Roberts and colleagues (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) compellingly record that television, perhaps surprisingly to some, con- tinues to dominate time spent by young people with media. Much has been made of the power of interactive media to transform daily life, and interactive media do play an integral and growing part in the daily lives of children and adolescents in the United States. Nonetheless, television unambiguously ranks as Number One. It accounts for 35 percent of all the leisure time young people spend with media. The dominance of screen media in general is also evident in the data. When time spent with television is combined with time spent with other screen media (movies, DVDs, videotapes), the percentage of the total media budget climbs to 48 percent. Thus, nearly half of all time spent with media is dedicated to screen media. The dominance of television in particular and screen media in general holds across time and across subgroups. There is little reason to believe that the percentage of media time allocated to screen media has eroded dramatically over recent years in the face of continued adoption of inter- active media technologies. In the five-year span measured, percentage of time devoted to screen media dropped just three percentage points (a difference well within the range of sampling error), having registered at 51 percent of total media time in 1999 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005). There is also no indication that such dominance appears only in some subgroups and not others. Proportion of total media time allotted to television is stable across gender, race, parent education, and income. Only age of the child moderates the size of the television por- tion of the media budget, with a significant decline occurring in the teenage years, at the same time that the audio portion of the budget increases significantly. Television accounts for approximately 38 percent of total media time at 8 to 10 and 11 to 14 years of age and declines to 28 percent of total media time at 15 to 18 years of age. V. Putting It All Together 31
32 Demograpics and Preferences With screen media taking up the major share of total time spent with media, smaller shares remain to be divided among other media. Audio media enjoys the largest share, accounting for 22 percent of the overall media budget, followed by print media and computers with each con- tributing 11 percent (Roberts et al., 2005). Video games earn the smallest proportion of time spent with media at 9 percent. Audio media enjoy ever-increasing amounts of media time throughout childhood and ado- lescence, growing from only 14 percent of total media time among the 8- to 10-year-olds to 30 percent of the total media time of 15- to 18-year- olds (when it catches up with television). Computer use also increases with age from a low of 7 percent of total media time in the youngest group to 15 percent in the oldest. Conversely, time within the media budget allocated to video game play decreases as the child grows up, from 12 percent of total media time among the youngest to 6 percent among the oldest. Computer use is the only major medium to have shown a statisti- cally significant change in the five-year period covered by the data. Media time budgeted in favor of computer use increased significantly from a mere 6 percent of overall media time in 1999 to 11 percent in 2004 (Roberts et al., 2005). The rise in percentage of media time spent with the computer was accompanied by a minor decrease in percentage of media time spent with television—TV accounted for 40 percent of total media time in 1999 and 35 percent in 2004—but the change is not statistically significant (again, it is well within the range of sampling error). Furthermore, the dip in percentage of time devoted to television is offset by a slight (nonsignificant) increase in percentage of time devoted to other screen media (from 11% to 13%). At this time, fore- casts predicting the abandonment of television and other screen media in favor of the computer among the nation’s youth are clearly prema- ture and quite possibly misguided. In fact, although a study by the NPD group garnered news headlines in May, 2006 with claims that desktop computers and video games were more commonly owned than television sets by children under 14, we believe the nature of the meth- odology—over 3,000 parents were surveyed on the Internet—renders the results less generalizable and the claims more dubious than the data that we have focused on here (NPD, 2006). C. Prevalence of Media in the Home With the immense amount of time young people spend with the media, it will be of no surprise to learn that most media are readily available within the typical American household. Today’s child grows up in an environment adorned with media. It’s a far distance from the single
radio receiver, record player, and/or television set often used to enter- tain and inform members of the household both young and old in the increasingly distant past. Typically, several media are available in the home but there is also considerable variation in the media environ- ment of households. One distinguishing feature is the degree of cen- trality of television in the family’s daily life (How frequently is the set turned on? Are there any rules or norms limiting its use?)—a factor that has surprising implications for the presence and use of other media within the home. 1. The Media Environment Most households are equipped with a large number of devices that bring media content to the consumer (Roberts et al., 2005). Nearly every household containing a person aged eight to 18 has a television (99%), a VCR (97%), a radio (97%), and a CD and/or tape player (98%). Only slightly fewer contain a computer (86%), a video game system (83%), and the capacity to go on the Inter- net (74%). More than half (60%) of homes with young people boast instant messaging potential, thereby making possible the substantial amount of time allocated to this form of communication. In fact, the norm for in-home media availability is not just to have one of each medium but, in many cases, to have more than one. The average number of television sets in households with children and teen- agers is 3.5 (up from 3.1 in 1999), and the average number of VCRs is 2.9 (up from 2.0). Audio media abound, as well, with an average of 3.6 CD/ tape players and 3.3 radios in the home. Even video game systems are found in multiples, with an average of 2.1 per household (up from 1.7). The average number of computers in the household has grown from 1.1 in 1999 to 1.5, an increase that is statistically significant. The number of media available to children and teens in the home has led to a change in semantics among those collecting these data, who note that the phrase “media rich” no longer adequately captures the scene (Roberts et al., 2005). They suggest that “media saturation” is now the best descrip- tor, and we would certainly not dispute such a characterization. The diffusion of technological developments have continually made television more attractive (Roberts et al., 2005). Cable or satellite trans- mission is present in 82 percent of households with children to bring a multitude of channel choices. Just over half (55%) subscribe to pre- mium cable (a popular choice for families with young children, many of whom would like to tune in Disney or Nick Jr. programs at any time of the day). A full one-third of all children in the United States live in a home with a DVR unit that provides enormous flexibility in search- ing out desired programs (digital video recording—the most popular brand is called TiVo but many cable companies are offering these V. Putting It All Together 33
34 Demograpics and Preferences services as well). Flat-screen, plasma, giant size, and high definition television (HDTV) all make viewing more visually pleasurable. 2. Media Use in the Bedroom Not only are many and varied media located within the homes of children and teenagers, but most have con- siderable access to media within their own bedrooms. Many media these days are “personal media” for the express use of the young people. In the bedroom, the individual child or teenager usually has control over a tele- vision, and often a VCR, CD or DVD player, a video game system, or a computer, without the need to negotiate choices with other members of the family or to respond to the concerns of parents or caregivers regarding violence, sex, or other potentially objectionable content. The extensiveness of media available to the typical youngster in the United States within their very own personal space, is astonishing (see Table 1.5). In the 2003 Roberts and colleagues (2005) data, there was a television set in the bedroom of 68 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds. Fifty- four percent had a VCR or DVD. Thirty-seven percent of those Table 1.5 Percent of Children and Teens with Bedrooms Containing Each Type of Media Age % 0–6 8–10 11–14 15–18 TV 36% 69% 68% 68% Cable TV —* 32 38 40 Premium cable — 16 21 20 DVR — 8 13 9 VCR/DVD 27 47 56 56 Radio 46 74 85 91 CD/Tape player 42 75 89 92 Computer 7 23 31 37 Internet 3 10 21 27 Video game player 10 52 52 41 *Not measured. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Fam- ily Foundation. Also from Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A. & War- tella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
with a TV set had a cable or satellite connection. Just under half (49%) had a video game system in their rooms. Almost one third (30%) had a computer, and 20 percent of the time that computer had an Internet connection. Several of these personal media showed substantial growth in their presence in the bedrooms of youngsters between the years 1999 and 2004 (Roberts et al., 2005). Televisions, almost universal in 1999, were no more likely to be present, but the accompaniment of a VCR or DVD became more likely, as did the likelihood that the television set receives cable/satellite or premium cable services. The existence of a computer in the bedroom increased 10 percentage points, and the likelihood of a supplemental Internet connection doubled. There is compelling evi- dence, therefore, that the entertainment and information options per- sonally available to the children or teenagers within the home, already considerable, continue to expand. Sizeable numbers of children and teenagers in the United States have personal access to a number of additional communication technologies. In the 2004 survey (Roberts et al., 2005), 61 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds had a portable CD or tape player and 55 percent owned a handheld video game player. Forty percent had a telephone in their bedroom, and 39 percent owned a cell phone. Computer-based and digital technologies are becoming more widespread, as well. For example, 18 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds had the ability to engage in instant messaging in their bed- rooms and the same number (18%) owned an MP3 player (used to down- load, store, and playback music digitally). Thirteen percent had a hand- held Internet device (such as a cell phone that connects to the Internet), 12 percent a laptop computer of their own, and 11 percent a personal digital assistant such as a Palm Pilot. Today’s young person is increas- ingly wired to the Internet, has the ability to reach friends through a cell phone or instant messenger, and may even have handy, high-tech, por- table devices to bring along in the car, at the beach, or elsewhere. A fair number of even the youngest children have personal media within easy reach in the bedroom (see Table 1.5). Rideout and col- leagues (2003) record that 43 percent of 4- to 6-year-olds and 30 percent of six-month to three-year-olds had a television in their bedroom. In addition to the one-third of six-month to six-year-olds that had their own television, 27 percent had their own VCR or DVD player and 10 percent had their own video game playing system in their room. Audio media are frequently present in the rooms of the very young. Forty-six percent had their own radio and 41 percent their own CD or tape player. As would be expected, on the other hand, computers were rare. Just 7 percent of six-month-olds to six-year-olds has a computer in the bedroom. The figures changed very little in the most recent data V. Putting It All Together 35
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They then proceeded to discuss the question of the other persons to be invited. Madame Droguet named her own particular friends, and Thélénie asked with an indifferent air: “Haven’t you a certain Madame Dalmont here—a so-called widow, who has a young woman living with her?” “Yes, we have,” replied Madame Droguet with a sneering smile. “But, between us, dear Madame de Belleville, I don’t think that they are people worthy to be received at your house. In the first place, they are not polite. When they came here to live they did not call upon us as is customary.” “That indicates at once a lack of savoir-vivre.” “Does it not, madame? Then they have struck up a friendship with a very low-lived person, a sort of wolf, whom nobody in the neighborhood cared to know, and who seems to be on the best of terms with them already. He walks home with them at night. And then——” “What! isn’t that all?” “A young man from Paris, named Edmond Didier, hired a house here in Chelles, soon after those strangers came here. And since he’s been here, he passes almost all his time at their house, until it’s got to be a perfect scandal. I am not evil-minded certainly, but there are things one can’t help seeing.—Let your waistcoat alone, Droguet, and button yourself up!” “What you tell me on the subject of these women, madame, does not surprise me in the least,” cried Thélénie, delighted by what she had heard. “We have known Monsieur Edmond Didier a long while; my husband was once very intimate with him——” At this point, Chamoureau, who had not been able as yet to put in a word and had confined himself to watching Monsieur Droguet as he felt for the missing buttons or wrenched off the others,—Chamoureau thought that he saw an opportunity to speak. “Yes,” he said, “I used to know Monsieur Edmond Didier—that is to say, through Freluchon, who used—at the time when——” Thélénie made haste to cut him short: “In fact, madame, we heard in Paris that Monsieur Edmond had formed a liaison unworthy of him, which distressed his family; for what you have told me of this Dalmont woman corresponds perfectly with what people think of her in Paris, where she is looked upon as a scheming adventuress;
and doubtless her young friend is little better; birds of a feather flock together.” Madame de Belleville, who was doing her best to play the grande dame, forgot that it was not good form to quote proverbs; but it was as right as possible in the eyes of Madame Droguet, who was radiant with delight and exclaimed: “You hear, Droguet; they’re adventuresses, nobodies! I was sure of it, myself; I am never mistaken in my conjectures; didn’t I say so, only last night, to Doctor Antoine, who undertook to stand up for them!—Just be sick, Droguet, be sick, my dear man; I tell you beforehand that I won’t send for the doctor.” Monsieur Droguet, who had finally found one button of his waistcoat firmly attached, had just buttoned it with an air of proud satisfaction, and seemed to pay little heed to what his wife said. At that moment Chamoureau was seized with a paroxysm of sneezing, which ended in a shower and spattered his neighbors; he hurriedly drew his handkerchief, to make his nose presentable; but in his haste to unfold it, he threw into Madame Droguet’s face an object which slid down that lady’s cheek into her bosom, where it disappeared. She uttered a shriek, her husband jumped backward, and Thélénie glared sternly at Chamoureau, as she demanded: “What was that you threw at madame?” “I, threw something at madame! why I had nothing to throw.” Meanwhile Madame Droguet had thrown herself back in her chair, shrieking frantically: “Oh! take it away! oh! the horrid beast! what kind of a creature is it? It’s still there; it’s slipped down inside my corsets! Take it away! take it away! or I’ll scratch someone!” Chamoureau stared at her with a terrified expression, but he did not move. Monsieur Droguet let his wife shriek, while he tried obstinately to put another button through its buttonhole. “Well! does neither of you propose to assist madame?” Thélénie asked them. “It seems to me,” muttered Chamoureau, “that it isn’t for me to go fumbling in that lady’s corsets; that’s her husband’s business.”
Madame Droguet, seeing that no one came to her assistance, concluded to put her right hand inside her dress. She brought to light a small goldfish which its enforced sojourn in a warm pocket had deprived of a great part of its activity. “A goldfish!” murmured Madame Droguet in amazement. “What! monsieur,” she added, somewhat reassured when she found that it was not a frog which she had been warming in her bosom, “do you carry goldfish in your handkerchief?” Chamoureau, as the explanation of the incident began to dawn upon him, turned as red as his fish, and did not know what to say. But Thélénie at once spoke up and told the story of the accident which had happened to her husband, and which explained the presence of an inhabitant of the pond in his coat pocket, unsuspected by him. Thereupon they ended by laughing at the episode, and to obtain full forgiveness for the fish, Thélénie invited the Droguet family to dinner on the Thursday following. The invitation was accepted with profuse thanks and compliments, and Monsieur and Madame de Belleville took their leave; the Droguets escorted them to their calèche, and they parted well pleased with one another. “Please examine your pockets, monsieur,” said Thélénie, “and make sure that there are no more goldfish in them, for I have no desire that you should throw any more of them in the faces of the people we are going to call upon.” “I have no more in my pockets, madame.” “I am not surprised that you have such a horrible smell of fish about you; why didn’t you change your coat?” “Because I haven’t any other black one that fits me, madame.” “Then you must have another one made, monsieur; I believe that you are rich enough to have more than one coat.” On leaving Madame Droguet’s, Thélénie drove to the Remplumés, then to the Jarnouillards, then to the mayor’s, and to all the leading people of the place, who were extremely flattered by the courtesies and the invitations they received from Monsieur and Madame de Belleville. Thélénie overlooked neither Monsieur Luminot nor the doctor; she left at their houses invitations to dine with her on the Thursday following. Then they returned to Goldfish Villa, and Chamoureau said to himself:
“I propose to stay quietly in my room, for fear some other unpleasant accident may happen to me.” Thélénie, for her part, was well content with her day. She had begun a campaign of calumny against the persons whom Edmond visited, and she was persuaded that her spiteful words would soon be repeated and exaggerated, for calumny is the most agreeable pastime of fools. They would be of so little account in the world, if they did not speak ill of their neighbors.
X AMI BRINGS CERTAIN PERSONS TOGETHER When the lovelorn Edmond returned from Paris, his first thought always was to go to Madame Dalmont’s to pay his respects to the two friends and to indulge himself in the pleasure of reading Agathe’s thoughts in her eyes. They did not fail to tell him the story of the sale, although Honorine attempted to pass over in silence the circumstances that redounded to her credit; but Agathe told everything. “Why shouldn’t you tell of your own good deeds?” she said; “as they say so much ill of us in the neighborhood, that will be some little compensation.” “Say ill of you! who has the presumption to do anything of the sort, when you deserve nothing but praise?” exclaimed Edmond with great heat. “I have known you only a short time, mesdames, but, thank heaven! I soon learned to appreciate you! You are not of those persons whose hearts are a mystery; yours are so kind, so humane!—What Madame Dalmont did for those people doesn’t surprise me in the least; if she were wealthy, I am sure that there would be no unfortunates in her neighborhood! I confess, too, that I feel strongly drawn toward that strange man, the owner of the Tower, concerning whom the people hereabout spread such absurd reports. When calumny is rife concerning a person whom I do not know, it always serves to commend that person to me. What he did for the farmer’s family was grand, noble, touching! it was like a gust of wind which swept away in an instant all the petty slanders that were current concerning him!—But I beg you to answer my question: who has spoken ill of you?” The two friends were silent for some time; Agathe blushed and looked at the floor. At last Honorine decided to speak. “Agathe thinks that we ought to tell you everything, bad as well as good; so we will speak frankly, once and for all; I believe, in truth, that that is the best course to follow.
“First of all, Monsieur Edmond, I must begin by reassuring you, by begging you to believe that the remarks which are made about us do not affect us in the least. You have heard of a certain Madame Droguet——” “That inquisitive woman, who hid a whole day in the bushes, watching for Monsieur Paul to pass,” added Agathe. “And who received Freluchon so ill because he called at her house to ask for me?” “That is the woman; the specimens of her social circle who came to see us gave us no desire to know it in its entirety, so we have not called on Madame Droguet, or her friends Mesdames Jarnouillard and Remplumé. That was our first offence, but it was a very grave one! to fail to show to those ladies the consideration that was their due, and thereby to announce that we did not care for their society—that was an insult which they could not forgive. They began thereupon to discover that we were suspicious characters. Then, as you know, chance willed that we should, on two occasions, accept the escort of the proprietor of the Tower; he walked home with us one evening when a cow had frightened me almost to death, and another time when we were surprised by a violent storm in the country. In a small place like this, it rarely happens that one returns home without being seen by someone. We were noticed in the company of that gentleman, who has shown no desire for their company,—indeed, I believe that I was leaning on his arm, which necessarily intensified the wrath of those ladies, —and he who, during the nine years, more or less, that he has lived in this part of the country, has steadfastly refused all relations with the local notabilities, actually offers his arm to us—the newest of newcomers! That incident was the source of a thousand and one absurd remarks. I come now to another fact which has furnished a subject of calumny to all these people: you hired a house at Chelles shortly after we came here to live; you hired a whole house for your single self.” “What business is that of theirs? I paid six months’ rent in advance.” “What business is it of theirs? why, monsieur, everything is the business of those who have nothing to do but to try to find out what is going on among their neighbors. Well, you come to see us—often; you call upon no one else in the place; therefore people are bound to think that you—that you take pleasure in our society.”
“Ah! madame, do you tell me this to make me come less often? Would you forbid my coming to see you?” “I do not say that; but——” Honorine seemed embarrassed; Agathe was trembling from head to foot; and Edmond hesitated no longer. “Madame!” he said, “I like to believe that, seeing me come to your house so persistently, you have never supposed that I was led to come by a blameworthy desire, a frivolous sentiment. But I realize, nevertheless, that it is better that I should explain myself, that I should speak to you frankly, that I should follow your example in everything. I must not leave any basis for hateful suspicions. Madame, if I tell you that I love, that I adore Mademoiselle Agathe, I shall tell you nothing that you do not know; for you must have divined that love, which it would have been very difficult for me to conceal! But, when I avow my passion for her, is not that equivalent to saying that my sole desire is to call her my wife, and that that will be my greatest joy? If I have not told you earlier, it was because I wanted to know —I wanted to be sure if Mademoiselle——” “He wanted to be sure that I loved him, you see, my dear!” cried Agathe, unable longer to restrain her joy. “And now he is very sure of it; that is what he was waiting for before speaking.” “Why, Agathe! what are you saying?” exclaimed Honorine; while the girl, confused by what had escaped her lips, relapsed into speechless agitation. But Edmond impetuously threw himself at Honorine’s feet, saying: “In pity’s name, madame, do not reprove her, and do not force her to unsay those words which have made me so happy!” Honorine gazed at the lovers for a few moments, then smiled and took a hand of each. “Be calm, my children!” said she; “I do not look very stern, I imagine. Come, sit here beside me, and let us talk.—You love Agathe—yes, I do not doubt it; I had guessed as much; and it is because I have faith in your honor that I have allowed your visits. She loves you, too; why should I blame her for it, if this exchange of sentiments is to result in your happiness? You wish to be her husband, but first of all it is essential that you should know the whole story of her to whom you wish to give your name.
“Agathe bears only her mother’s name—Montoni. Julia, her unfortunate mother, was loved by a young man of noble birth, Comte Adhémar de Hautmont. He did not abandon the woman who had given herself to him; he loved her dearly and intended to make her his wife; but, in order to avoid a rupture with his family, he was waiting until circumstances should favor his projected marriage. Alas! the young man suddenly disappeared; Julia never saw him again, never heard from him in any way; and when he left her, it was with a promise to see her soon, and he covered his daughter, then six years old, with kisses.” “Why, that is most extraordinary! Did he not return to his family?” “No; Julia caused inquiries to be made; she was unable to learn anything concerning her child’s father, and six years later the poor mother placed her daughter in my care, saying: “‘I am dying; take care of my Agathe, who has no one but you to love her.’ “That, monsieur, is all that there is to tell concerning her whom you desire to call your wife; and that it was absolutely necessary to tell you.” “Oh! madame, you do not think, I trust, that that can in any degree lessen my love for her or my desire to make her the companion of my life.” “You see, my dear, it doesn’t change his sentiments at all; I was sure that it would not!” “Dear Agathe, your mother’s misfortunes can but make you the more interesting in my eyes. But your father’s sudden disappearance seems to me most extraordinary; it must be connected with some mysterious occurrence —with some crime, perhaps; who knows?” “Ah! we have very often thought that.” “And there has never been any clue, any circumstance to put you on the track of what happened to him?” “Nothing; so long as my poor mother lived, she never ceased to seek information and make inquiries; but she could never discover a trace of the man who had sworn to love her forever! When she died, I was twelve years old; I could do nothing but weep for my dear mother, and love her who consented to take charge of the unfortunate orphan.” Agathe threw herself into Honorine’s arms; the latter hastily wiped away the tears that were gathering in her eyes and said:
“Now, my young fiancés, for from this day I regard you as such, let us talk of serious matters. Let us for a moment forget love, which is a very pleasant thing, but insufficient to keep house upon. I am talking now like an aged guardian, am I not? But the old people are almost always right, for they have experience on their side—experience, that unexcelled source of knowledge for which one pays so dear that it ought to be of some use. My young friend Agathe has nothing—no dowry! Alas! I can give her none! And you, Monsieur Edmond—what is your position?—Remember that we have been entirely frank with you.” “Oh! I do not propose to lie to you, madame, or to make myself out any better than I am. I received sixty thousand francs from an uncle; I invested the money and for some time I was content to live on the income. But soon, acquaintances—circumstances—follies——” “Enough! we can guess the rest. You have spent the whole?” “No, madame; I still have about twenty thousand francs. But I have hopes, I will obtain employment, a lucrative place—it has been promised me.” “Well, Monsieur Edmond, don’t you think that it would be more sensible to wait until you have this place, before marrying? In the first place, you are very young, and Agathe will not be seventeen for two months! It seems to me that you can afford to wait a little while.” “You are always right, madame. When I take mademoiselle for my wife, I wish to assure her a comfortable position in life, at least; I do not wish to have to tremble for the future. Now that I know that you consent to our union, now that we are engaged, I shall have the courage to wait; but I shall so arrange matters that the time will soon come when I shall be able to offer her a husband worthy of her.” “Oh! I am not ambitious!” cried Agathe; “I don’t care about wealth!” “Hush, mademoiselle!” said Honorine; “I really believe that you have less sense than Monsieur Edmond. Luckily, I have enough for you. Here you are engaged! you are to be pitied, are you not? And now the slanderous tongues of the neighborhood can wag all they choose! Poucette will be justified in saying to them: “‘If Monsieur Edmond Didier does come to my mistress’s house often, it’s because he’s engaged to Mademoiselle Agathe.’”
The young lovers were beside themselves with joy, and Edmond left the house with the assurance that he was beloved, and that his dearest wish would be fulfilled some day. Honorine left Agathe to enjoy that delicious reverie which always follows the certainty of being united to the object of one’s choice, and went down alone to the garden. It was a superb day, and it was a joy to breathe the pure air of the country. Honorine was pensive too, and sighed without asking herself why. When she reached the end of the garden, she opened the little gate which gave access to an unfrequented road from which one had an extensive view of the surrounding country. Honorine glanced instinctively in the direction of the Tower. She walked, unconsciously, a few steps along the road and seated herself at the foot of a huge walnut tree, on another uprooted tree which formed a natural bench. She had been sitting there for some time, happy in Agathe’s happiness, and thinking that it must be very sweet to inspire love in a person to whom one is attracted, when she felt, all of a sudden, something rub against her hand; her first feeling was one of alarm, but it speedily vanished when she saw beside her Ami, the beautiful dog belonging to the owner of the Tower. Ami was not backward in manifesting his pleasure at the meeting; he licked her hands and played about her; he even carried his familiarity so far as to put his paws on the young woman’s lap now and then. But she received these tokens of affection with pleasure, and while she patted Ami’s head and neck, she glanced about her, for the dog’s presence always announced his master’s. But she looked in vain—she could see no one. Ami left her for a moment; he too seemed to be looking in all directions; then he returned to Honorine, and barked as if he wished to ask a question. “I see plainly what you are looking for, good dog; you are asking me where Agathe is—Agathe, whom you are used to seeing with me always. I am alone to-day; you must be content with my company. But you too are alone, Ami; how is it that you come here without your master? You are far from home. Did you leave the Tower to come to see us? Did your master send you here? Have you some message? Are you going back soon?”
The dog, after listening a moment, lay down at Honorine’s feet and stretched himself out there with that unrestraint, that unfeigned laziness which dogs exhibit when they have found a spot which they like. “He doesn’t act as if he intended to go away,” thought Honorine; “it’s singular; I wonder if his master is anywhere about?” At that moment Ami turned his head quickly, but did not leave his place. The young woman looked in the direction to which the dog seemed to call her attention, and she saw the owner of the Tower climbing a little path which led from the village to the road by which she was then sitting. Paul had not seen her, but he could not fail to pass her in a moment. Honorine lowered her eyes, but she let her arm rest on the dog, as if to ask him not to leave her. A few seconds later Paul had halted in front of the young woman; and his dog gazed at him earnestly, without moving from his place, as if to say: “I am very comfortable here!” “Really, madame, I am afraid that Ami presumes too far upon your kindness to him,” said Paul, as he bowed to Honorine; “he is altogether too unceremonious; you should send him away.” “Oh! monsieur, why should I send the good dog away, when he shows such a friendly feeling for me? it is not such a common thing; and one can depend upon it in his case, I fancy?” “Oh! yes, yes! and in no other!” “Do you really mean that you make no other exception, monsieur? It must be very melancholy to think that no one can ever have a friendly feeling for one!” Paul made no reply; he remained standing in front of the young woman; but he gazed fixedly at his dog and seemed to be studying the contented expression that he read in his eyes. “Monsieur,” said Honorine after a moment, “if you care to rest a while, this tree trunk on which I am sitting is quite large enough for two. I do not ask you to come into the house, although it is within a few steps; for, as you have never deigned to accept our invitations, I am bound to presume that they do not please you.” Ami’s master made no reply, but he seated himself on the tree trunk, beside the young woman; and his dog, who had followed him with his eyes,
stretched out one of his paws and rested it on his master, looking at him with an expression of the greatest satisfaction. Honorine waited expecting that her neighbor would speak to her, but he maintained silence and seemed absorbed in his reflections. The young woman, who was very desirous to talk, decided to begin. “Have you lived in this part of the country long, monsieur?” “A little more than nine years, madame.” “And you live alone on your estate?” “Practically alone.” “You abandoned the world very young.” “One finds it easy to leave what one despises!” “Oh! pray let me believe, monsieur, that that contempt does not include the whole world.” “Doubtless there are exceptions, madame; but I have been so cruelly tried, that I am quite justified in entertaining a bad opinion of men.” “And of women too, perhaps?” “Of women even more!” “Really? And because one woman deceived you, you despise them all! Allow me to tell you, monsieur, that all women are not alike!” “They have all been alike to me, however!” “Ah! you have been deceived by several?” “So long as it is only a matter of pleasure—of follies, if you will—one can always make excuses, forgive; but there is a kind of treachery that reaches the heart, that has deplorable, heartrending consequences, and that leads to irreparable disasters! Ah! that sort of treachery one never forgives!” “No; but one pours out his grief upon the bosom of a friend, who comforts one, who strives to make one forget one’s suffering, or at least to alleviate it.” “I have never met one of those friends!” “How could you have met them, since you shun all society, all companionship?” “I have the companionship of my dog. He loves me; he won’t betray me, will you, Ami?”
In reply to this question, Ami, whose left paw was still resting on his master, pricked up his ears, lifted his right paw and laid it on Honorine’s lap. “On my word, Ami, you are getting to be too familiar,” said Paul, putting out his hand to remove the paw; but Honorine stopped him. “Do let the dog alone. He loves me too, you see. Does that displease you?” “No—no—madame; but——” “Does it surprise you?” “I confess that—knowing you such a short time——” “You do not understand the friendship that your dog displays for me. But the very first time that he saw Agathe, he fawned upon her and caressed her; that was much more singular!” “It was indeed; and I have often wondered, but in vain, what could be the source of Ami’s affection for a person he had never seen.” “I should suppose, monsieur, that you would divine more readily this honest and faithful servant’s instincts; at least, after what I have heard.” “What have you heard, madame?” “That your dog had the gift of divining at once the sentiments with which a person regarded his master; and that, as a result of that instinct, he greeted your enemies far from cordially, that he growled and barked at people whom you had reason to distrust; while, on the contrary, he showed much affection for those who were disposed to feel a—a sincere affection for you.” Honorine almost stammered in her utterance of these last words. Paul fixed his eyes on the young woman’s sweet and sympathetic features, and his brow, ordinarily clouded, seemed to clear; one would have said that for the first time during a long period his heart beat fast under the impulse of a pleasurable sensation. “It is true, madame,” he said after a moment’s silence, “that my dog has often afforded proofs of that peculiar instinct; but had I not the right to doubt the accuracy of his second sight in this instance? How could I suppose that you could entertain the slightest affection for me? I have done nothing to deserve it.”
“You forget, monsieur, that you have twice established a claim to our gratitude—on the two evenings of the cow and the storm. What would have become of us but for you?” “Anyone would have done as much as I did.” “I see, monsieur, that you have made up your mind that you will see only evil-minded, false, treacherous people in all who surround you.” “Oh! madame!” “But your efforts are vain; your dog, who knows what to believe, will always look upon us as his friends. Look; see how he gazes at me; he seems to express approval of my words; if he continues to show such friendliness to me, you will distrust him too, will you not, monsieur?” “Ah! madame, far from it; on the contrary, I shall think that I have at last found what I believed it to be impossible to find—a true friend!” At that moment Agathe appeared at the little gate. “Honorine!” she called; “Honorine! are you there?” “Here I am,” said the young woman, rising; “I was not far away.” “I have been looking for you everywhere; I was worried about you. Ah! here’s Ami; good-day, brave dog!” Ami had left his place to run to meet Agathe, who then spied the owner of the Tower. She bowed affably to him, saying: “Had I known that monsieur was with you, I shouldn’t have been alarmed, as he is always our protector.” “I have done nothing yet to earn that title,” said Paul, returning Agathe’s bow. “But I should esteem myself very fortunate, mademoiselle, if I could ever be of any real service to you.” As he finished speaking, he bowed to the two friends and left them, motioning to his dog to follow him, which he did not make up his mind to do until he had trotted back several times to the young women, to fawn upon them and wag his tail.
XI AN AMAZON Two days later, Père Ledrux was working in Madame Dalmont’s little garden. Humming as usual, he approached the two friends, who were sitting amid a clump of trees. “Well!” he said, “here’s more fine folks in the place; ah! but these are regular bigwigs, so it seems; even bigger than Madame Droguet!” “Whom are you talking about, Père Ledrux?” asked Honorine. “The folks who’ve bought the house with the goldfish.” “What!” cried Agathe, “is there a house with goldfish in this village— and we didn’t know it?” “Bless me! mamzelle, when it was for sale, nobody thought much about it; it was too dear for the natives here. It’s a splendid place, with a park and an English garden and a kitchen garden.” “And goldfish apparently?” “Yes, mamzelle; a big pond full of ‘em.” “And you know who has bought the place?” “Pardi! everybody in Chelles knows.” “You see that that isn’t so, Père Ledrux, for we don’t know a word about it.” “The buyers are Monsieur and Madame de Belleville—man and wife; both young. The lady’s a fine woman, and she’s always dressed up—my word!—as if she was going to a wedding.” “Really? then they are living here?” “Oh, yes! they’ve been here for the last ten or twelve days——” “Oh! I’ve seen the lady, I have,” said Poucette, coming forward; “I’ve seen her several times—for the last three days you don’t see anything but her riding by here on horseback. Anyone would think it was our house she wanted to see; she rides in front of it and behind it, and she looks over the garden wall; that’s easy, on horseback!—She’s got a fine blue cloth habit,
with a long skirt that hides her horse’s tail, and a man’s round hat. You ought to see how well she sits on her horse! Oh! she ain’t afraid, that lady ain’t! you can see that right off.” “Is she pretty?” “Faith, mamzelle, you can’t say that she ain’t good-looking; but with her great black eyes, when she looks at you, you’d think she wanted to frighten everybody. She’s got a bold, haughty way! for my part, I don’t like such ways.” “When you see this beautiful amazon again, Poucette, call me; I am curious to see her.” “All right, mamzelle; I’ll bet she’ll ride by again to-day; for I tell you she always rides round the house and then comes back this way.” “That’s rather strange, don’t you think so, Honorine?” “For my part, I see nothing extraordinary about it, my dear girl; this lady comes to live in a part of the country that she isn’t familiar with, and she goes out in the saddle; that’s the best way of becoming acquainted with the neighborhood. If she looks at the houses, it’s because she wants to know the people who live in them.” “But why does she pass our house so often? why does she ride round it?” “She passes it, no doubt, because it’s on her road when she goes out to ride. Poucette thinks that she rides round it; probably that is because it’s her shortest way home.” “You always think that everything’s all right. Still, I am very curious to see this beautiful equestrian.” “And I am not in the least, I assure you.—By the way, you don’t mention the husband; doesn’t he ride too?” “Oh, no!” said the gardener; “the husband don’t know how to sit a horse very well, it seems; the first day Madame de Belleville went out to ride, her husband thought he’d go with her. So he took a horse, but he didn’t look as if he was very comfortable on him. ‘My dear love,’ he sings out to his wife, ‘please don’t go so fast! I’ve got out of the habit of galloping.’—But whether his wife didn’t hear him, or whether her horse wouldn’t stop, she was off like a flash in an instant. Monsieur de Belleville tried to overtake her, but patatras!—off he went, head over heels. He got up and went home,
limping a little and swearing he’d never get on a horse again; but that don’t prevent madame’s going every day.” “She has a servant follow her, of course?” “No, she always goes alone. As Poucette says, she ain’t afraid. It seems there’s to be a dinner-party to-morrow, given by the owner of Goldfish Villa; all the bigwigs of the place are invited—the Droguets and Remplumés and Jarnouillards; you don’t hear anybody talking about anything else. Perhaps it’s to invite you that Madame de Belleville rides round your house the way she does.” “Oh! no, Père Ledrux; it can’t be for that. In the first place, one doesn’t go on horseback to pay a ceremonious visit; and in the second place, we are not bigwigs, and as this lady chooses to make friends of all the people who talk ill of us, it is probable that we shall never make friends with her. But if you hear any more gossip, Père Ledrux, about Monsieur Edmond Didier’s frequent visits to us, I authorize you to say that there is nothing surprising in the fact of a young man’s paying court to the person he is to marry; for Monsieur Edmond and Agathe are engaged.” “Well, well! I had a suspicion of that!” cried the gardener; “I says to myself: ‘That young man and that girl—hum! it might well be—they’re both very good-looking!’—But, you understand, I just said that to myself, by way of reflection; for it don’t concern me, it’s none of my business.—I’ll just go and take a look at your hens; it’s as sure as can be that the black one fights with the others; if you don’t eat her, I’ll have to take her away; she makes the others too miserable.” “We don’t eat the hens whose eggs we have eaten; take her away, Père Ledrux.” “Well! you understand, it’s in your interest; she’d spoil all the others.” Père Ledrux went off to the hencoop, and Honorine had returned to the house, when Poucette came running to Agathe, crying out: “Mamzelle, here she is, she’s coming this way.” “Who? the amazon?” “Yes, she’s on the narrow road, at the end of the garden; you can see her nicely from the summer-house.” “Let us go there then!”
Agathe was soon at the window of the summer-house, and Poucette, who had followed her, pointed to a lady on horseback, coming from Gournay, and riding her horse at a gallop, with a poise and boldness worthy of a circus rider. Thélénie was dressed in a beautiful habit of light blue broadcloth; on her head was a man’s hat, with a very broad brim, set a little on one side, and adorned with a waving mass of black ribbons. Her lovely black hair fell in corkscrew curls on each side of her face, and her great gleaming eyes shone with wonderful brilliancy beneath her hat-brim. She held in her right hand a dainty riding-crop, with which she lashed her horse vigorously when he showed signs of relaxing his pace. Agathe gazed with unwearying admiration at the beautiful equestrian; she leaned from the window in order to see her better, saying to Poucette: “Oh! how splendidly she rides! what grace! what fearlessness! She is a very pretty woman too!” “Yes, at a distance! but wait till you see her near to.” As Thélénie drew near Honorine’s house, she saw that there was someone at the window of the summer-house; instantly she changed her horse’s gait and brought him down to a walk. “I can see her much better now,” said Agathe; “she has stopped galloping and is coming very slowly.” “I guess she’s walking her horse so that she can see you better. Just see how she stares at you, mamzelle! wouldn’t you think she wanted to bury her eyes in your face?” “That is true; she is looking at me so attentively!—I don’t think her so pretty now.” “There! I knew it! She has a very wicked look, that fine lady has!” “See; she is turning round to look at me.” “If I was you, mamzelle, I’d stick out my tongue at her.” “She is going on at last; I’m glad of that!” “Never mind; she’ll know you another time!” “Really, I can’t understand how a person can stare at one in that way!” “And with such a look! anyone would think she’d have liked to beat you! I say, mamzelle, I’m sure that if Monsieur Edmond had seen that
woman stare at you like that, he’d have gone out and said to her: ‘What business have you to look at my intended like that? Do you know her? Do you want anything of her?’” “That is very likely; but I shan’t mention that woman to Edmond! After all, if she doesn’t find me to her taste, so much the worse for her! it’s all the same to me.” “She must be pretty hard to suit! For my part, I think she finds you too good-looking, and that’s what vexed her.” “How foolish you are, Poucette! what difference can it make to her whether I am good-looking or not?” “Look you, mamzelle! that handsome amazon probably says to herself when she comes here to live: ‘I shall be the prettiest woman in the place; everybody will admire me!’ Especially as she’s mighty particular about her dress.—Well, you understand, so long as she don’t see anybody but the Droguets and Remplumés and Jarnouillards, she might well think herself the handsomest woman in the place; but now that she’s seen you, it’s another story.” Agathe went to Honorine and told her what had happened, and described the impertinent way in which the new owner of Goldfish Villa had stared at her. Whereat Madame Dalmont began to laugh, saying: “That serves you right! You were so curious to see this woman and now you are well paid for your curiosity.” “Never mind, my dear; if I meet this Madame de Belleville again, and she stares at me as she did just now, I shall ask her what she wants of me.” “You will be very foolish, Agathe; when people behave impertinently, the best way to mortify them is to pay no attention.” Since her conversation with the owner of the Tower, Honorine had gone out quite frequently to sit on the tree trunk under the walnut. She declared that from there the view was very extensive, while Agathe maintained that it was quite as fine from the window of the summer-house. So that Madame Dalmont almost always selected the hours when her young friend was practising on the piano, to open the little gate and go out into the road. Did she hope to meet there again the excellent dog, who had shown her so much affection? or was it his master whom she hoped to see? But there was no sign of Paul or of his dog.
By way of compensation, the one engrossing subject of conversation in the neighborhood was the dinner given at Goldfish Villa. Père Ledrux and Poucette repeated to the two friends what was said in Chelles on that subject. “It was a magnificent affair.” “Besides the notable people from this region, there were lots of people from Paris, men especially, all of the best tone and of the most perfect refinement! Some smoked at dessert, but it was only to change the air.” “They had things to eat that no one knew the names of, and wines to drink that looked like liqueurs.” “There was a most beautiful porcelain service. A servant broke a plate on Monsieur Jarnouillard’s head; but it did nothing but spoil his coat, which was spoiled already.” “The master of the house nearly strangled eating fish.” “Monsieur Luminot got a little tipsy.” “Madame de Belleville changed her dress after the second course.” “Madame Remplumé was sick.” “Monsieur Jarnouillard counted the different dishes of dessert—there were thirty-three.” “They played cards and danced in the evening.” “Monsieur Droguet fell while waltzing.” “They played for infernally high stakes. Madame Droguet lost four francs at lansquenet. But Monsieur Antoine Beaubichon won three at écarté.” “Everybody went away overflowing with admiration for Monsieur and Madame de Belleville.” Such were the remarks which circulated through the village after the grand banquet. The names of the new owners of the villa were mentioned in Chelles only with the most profound respect. Monsieur Remplumé even went so far as to remove his hat when he passed their house. And when Thélénie pranced through the village on horseback, people ran to their doors and windows to see her pass, crying: “There she goes! there she goes! she rides like a dragoon!”
To be sure, there were some urchins who yelled: “A la chienlit!” But those unseemly words were drowned by the applause and cheers. Thélénie continued to gallop by Madame Dalmont’s house; but Agathe, instead of watching her, left the window if she were sitting at it, determined that that lady should not have the satisfaction of scrutinizing her as she did before. One afternoon, when Honorine was sitting alone under the great walnut tree by the roadside, she suddenly heard piercing shrieks not far away. They evidently proceeded from a child’s lips, and the young woman, thinking that someone might be in need of assistance, hastened down the hill, and saw, some two hundred yards away, a woman on horseback striking with her crop a small boy in whom Honorine instantly recognized the one who had stolen her cherries. The appearance of a lady on the scene did not calm Thélénie’s wrath; she continued to belabor the lost child, exclaiming: “Ah! you won’t stand aside when I tell you to look out, won’t you? You make signs to show that you aren’t afraid of me, and you make faces at me! You little blackguard, I’ll teach you to know me and respect me!” When he caught sight of Madame Dalmont, little Emile ran to her for protection, still making a great outcry, in which there was at least as much anger as pain. The amazon would have ridden after him, but Honorine barred her way. “Mon Dieu!” she said, “what has this child done to you, madame, that you should punish him so severely?” Thélénie eyed Honorine insolently as she retorted: “What has he done to me? what business is it of yours? If I horsewhip him, it’s because I choose to do it, and because he deserves it. What are you meddling for?” “Meddling—when I defend a child who is being beaten! Evidently, madame, you would see a child overwhelmed with blows without thinking of defending him!” “What does this mean? that madame is pleased to give me a lesson, perhaps?” “I might well give you a lesson in politeness, I fancy; for you adopt a tone which is very little in harmony with your costume.”
Thélénie bit her lips angrily; then she cried abruptly: “Ah! you are Madame Dalmont, no doubt?” “I am Madame Dalmont.” “I might have guessed as much. Ha! ha! ha! I have frequently heard of madame and her little friend, Mademoiselle Agathe! Ha! ha! You ladies are very well known in Chelles.” “I think not, madame, as we see very few people.” “But you are much talked about all the same!” “It is quite possible, madame; there are people whose sole occupation is gossip, slander, calumny. But what comes from the mouths of those people is not worth thinking about, really!” “Do you mean that for me, madame?” “How could I mean it for you? I do not know you!” “I am Madame de Belleville, and I am not in the habit of putting up with an insult from anybody, no matter who it may be.” “And I am Madame Dalmont, and I am not in the habit of fighting because I am not a man.” Thélénie was irritated beyond measure by the young widow’s imperturbable calmness. But while this dialogue was taking place between the two ladies, little Emile, thirsting for revenge for the blows he had received, picked up a large lump of earth and threw it with all his strength at the person who had beaten him. The clod did not reach her, but it struck one of the ears of her horse, and as it broke, spattered and soiled the beautiful blue skirt. The horse, not expecting the assault, made a leap side-wise which might well have unseated his rider; but Thélénie, unshaken in her saddle, simply cried out in rage: “Ah! you little villain!” she shrieked; “this time you shall feel my crop, and you’ll keep the marks of it!” The lost child hid behind Honorine; but that obstacle did not seem to deter Thélénie. “Stand aside, madame,” she cried; “move from in front of that rascal, or I won’t be answerable for my horse.” “For heaven’s sake, madame, forgive the child!”
“No! no! and if you don’t move—So much the worse for you, if you get a taste of the crop too!” With that the amazon urged her horse upon Honorine and the little boy; but, like the great majority of those noble-hearted creatures, the horse hesitated, stopped and tried to make a détour in order to avoid running down a woman and a child. The amazon persisted in her attempts to ride him upon them, when suddenly an unexpected defender changed the whole aspect of affairs. Ami rushed down the hill, and without pause or hesitation jumped at the rider, barking in a tone which indicated that he was not in a good humor. At sight of that magnificent beast, who was doing his utmost to jump upon her, Thélénie, forced to defend herself, tried to strike Ami with her crop. But he cleverly avoided the blows, springing from side to side, but biting the horse at the same time. “Madame! madame! call off your dog!” shouted the amazon; “he is biting my horse! you will be responsible for what may happen!” “The dog is not mine, madame; but I am thankful for his arrival at this moment, for it has prevented you from doing a cowardly thing.” “Oh! you haven’t heard the last of this, madame! The cursed dog! And I shall find this little wretch again, too. We shall see! we shall see! I will find that dog’s master!” But harassed by Ami, who tried to bite her legs, and obliged to attend to her horse, whom the constant attacks of the dog were driving to frenzy, Thélénie had no choice but to abandon the field of battle. She plunged her spurs into the beast’s sides, and gave him the rein; he instantly galloped away at the top of his speed, and horse and rider soon disappeared altogether. Ami started to pursue them, but Honorine called him back so vehemently that he returned to her side at last, still excited by the battle he had fought. The young woman looked about in every direction, but to no purpose; the dog’s master did not appear. She was about to return to the house, when she noticed that little Emile was still by her side. “Why did you throw a stone at that horse just now?” she asked. “It wasn’t a stone, it was a lump of dirt.”
“No matter; you hoped to hit that lady, I suppose?” “Yes, I aimed it at her.” “That was a very naughty thing for you to do. Just think of all that might have happened: the lady galloped her horse at you——” “And at you too.” “And if it had not been for this good dog that arrived just in time, you might be badly hurt.” “And you too.” “None of those things would have happened if you had not thrown that lump of dirt.” “What made that dragoon strike me with her whip?” “Why didn’t you stand aside to let her pass?” “She could pass well enough; there was plenty of room. Does she need the whole road for her and her horse?” “My child, do you mean always to be naughty? You have already forgotten what I told you the other day; make people love you instead of making them fear you, and you will be much happier.” The boy looked at the ground and muttered in a low voice: “No one wants to love me!” Honorine took a small coin from her purse and gave it to Emile. “See, I will give you this,” she said, “but only on condition that you won’t throw any more stones or dirt at anybody. If I learn that you have done it again, I will never give you anything more.” “Not cherries?” “Neither cherries nor anything else; now go.” Ami listened to this conversation, seated on his haunches, with the gravity of an examining magistrate. Then he followed Honorine to the garden gate, where she turned and said to him: “Are you coming in with me, good dog? No; you won’t. Your master isn’t with you, so you came all by yourself to pay me a visit; that was very nice of you. When you choose to come again, just scratch at this gate, and you will always be welcome.” Ami, who seemed to understand her words perfectly, yelped once or twice, then bounded away toward the Tower, barking loudly and joyously.
XII THE BARON VON SCHTAPELMERG Thélénie galloped to her house, without once drawing rein. As she rode into the courtyard, she almost over-turned her husband, who was just starting out for a walk, and had barely time to jump into the stable. Then she dropped the reins, jumped to the ground, tossed her crop in the face of the servant who stepped forward, and, still in a rage at having been forced to retreat, cried: “Where is monsieur? where is he hiding? tell him to come to me instantly.” Chamoureau made bold to put his head out of the stable. “Here I am, my love,” he said; “I am here. Your infernal horse came near upsetting me! Is it possible you didn’t see that? Your horses are too restive, they’ll play you some bad trick one of these days. You look annoyed; have you had a fall?” “Hold your tongue, monsieur! It’s natural for you to fall; you know nothing about bodily exercise!” “What’s that? I know nothing about bodily exercise! Why, it seems to me that there are some kinds in which I——” “I am furious, monsieur; I am exasperated!” “The deuce!” “Yes; for I have been insulted, outraged, laughed at! But it shall not pass off so! I must have reparation; and I look to you for that!” Chamoureau, scenting a duel in what his wife had said, and feeling no vocation for that sort of amusement, was strongly tempted to return to the stable. He walked about the courtyard, muttering: “I had something in hand; what in the devil did I have in hand?” “Be kind enough to listen to me, monsieur. I tell you that your wife has been insulted!”
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    GEORGE COMSTOCK and ERICA SCHARRER MEDIA ANDTHE AMERICAN CHILD AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Academic press is an imprint of Elsevier
  • 9.
    Academic Press isan imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495, USA 84 Theobald’s Road, London WCIX 8RR, UK This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2007, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, E-mail: [email protected]. You may also complete “Support & Contact” then “Copyright and Permission” and then “Obtaining Permissions.” Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Application submitted British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 13: 978-0-12-369425-6 ISBN 10: 0-12-369425-6 For information on all Academic Press publications visit our Web site at www.books.elsevier.com Printed in the United States of America 07 08 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
  • 10.
    v CONTENTS Preface xiii Acknowledgments xiv CHAPTERI: Demographics and Preferences in Media Use, with Special Attention to the Very Young 1 I. MEDIA EXPOSURE: PRINT 3 A. Use of Print Media 4 B. Demographic Variables That Impact Use of Print Media 5 C. Print Preferences among Children and Teenagers 6 D. Print Use and Preferences of the Very Young 6 II. MEDIA EXPOSURE: AUDIO 8 A. Use of Audio Media 8 B. Demographic Differences in Audio Use 9 C. Audio Preferences of Children and Teenagers 10 D. Audio Use and Preferences of the Very Young 10 III. MEDIA EXPOSURE: SCREEN 11 A. Television Exposure 12 B. Demographic Differences in Television Use 13 C. Viewing Preferences among Children and Teenagers 15 D. Television Viewing by the Very Young 16 IV. MEDIA EXPOSURE: INTERACTIVE MEDIA 18 A. Use of Interactive Media by Young People 19 B. Interactive Media Use and Demographics 21 C. Preferences in Interactive Media by Children and Teens 23 D. Interactive Media Use by the Very Young 25
  • 11.
    V. PUTTING ITALL TOGETHER 27 A. Total Time Spent with Each Type of Media 27 B. How Time Spent Using Media Is Divided 31 C. Prevalence of Media in the Home 32 1. The Media Environment 33 2. Media Use in the Bedroom 34 D. Orientations toward Media 36 1. Rules and Norms of Media Use in the Home 37 2. Typology of Media Behavior among Young People 38 CHAPTER II: The Extraordinary Appeal of Screen Media 42 I. PURPOSES AND MOTIVES OF TELEVISION VIEWING 43 A. Ritualistic versus Instrumental Viewing 43 B. Gratifications for Viewing 44 II. MODES OF RESPONSE 45 A. Content Indifference 46 B. Low Involvement 48 C. Monitoring less versus Viewing 48 D. Equilibrium: Understanding versus Inattention 50 III. DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE VIEWING 50 A. Viewing Preferences of Children and Teenagers 51 1. Three-phase Model 51 2. Cognitive Stages and Media Use 52 3. Gender, Race, and Socioeconomic Status 59 4. Perceptual Filters 61 B. Reactions to the Screen 61 1. Fright 61 2. Maturity of the Viewer 62 IV. THE INFLUENCE OF VIEWING ON OTHER ACTIVITIES 65 A. Introduction of Television 65 B. Contemporary Use of Television Viewing 72 1. Realities of Television Viewing 72 2. The Effect of Viewing on Leisure Activities 73 3. Suppression of Viewing 73 4. Recent Data Regarding Viewing Trends 74 V. SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF TELEVISION VIEWING 76 vi Contents
  • 12.
    CHAPTER III: TheWorld as Portrayed by Media 79 I. MEDIA CONTENT 79 II. STUDYING THE ATTRIBUTES OF TELEVISION CHARACTERS 81 A. Gender Representation 82 1. Gender Disparity in Television and Film 82 2. Gender Bias in Video and Computer Games 86 B. Race and Ethnicity in Media 88 C. Age Distribution in Primetime Programming 91 D. Characters with Disabilities 94 E. Depiction of Sexual Orientation 94 F. Beauty and Body Images in Media 95 III. BEHAVIOR OF MEDIA CHARACTERS 97 A. Violence and Aggression 98 1. Presence of Violence in General Audience Television 98 2. Violence in Commercials 101 3. Violence in Children’s Television 103 4. Violence in Children’s Films 103 5. Violence in Video and Computer Games 105 B. Prosocial Behavior in Media 106 C. Prevalence of Alcohol and Tobacco in Media 107 D. Influence of Food and Beverages in Media 109 E. Exposure to Sex and Profane Language in Media 112 IV. TWO WORLDS OF CONTENT: FOR THE VERY YOUNG VERSUS THE GENERAL AUDIENCE 117 CHAPTER IV: Effects of Media on Scholastic Performance and the Developing Intellect 120 I. EFFECTS OF TELEVISION VIEWING ON SCHOLASTIC PERFORMANCE 120 A. The Studies 121 B. Explanations of Television’s Impact on Academic 125 Performance 1. The Effects of Television on Homework 127 2. The Effects of Television on Reading and Mental Effort 128 3. The Effects of Television on Attention and Arousal 129 4. The Learning Hypothesis 131 Contents vii
  • 13.
    C. Caveats andCorollaries 132 1. Caveats 132 2. Corollaries 136 II. EXPOSURE TO EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION 137 A. Setting the Stage 137 B. Sesame Street—A Pioneer in Children’s Programming 139 1. Academic Effects of Sesame Street 139 2. Prosocial Effects of Sesame Street 141 C. Other Educational Television Programs 143 1. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood 143 2. Blue’s Clues 144 3. Barney and Friends 145 D. Concepts, Models, and Theory of Television Viewing 146 1. Attention and Comprehension 146 2. Properties of Attention 147 3. Very Young Children and the Impact of Television 149 4. The Capacity Model 151 5. Our Interpretation of the Studies 153 III. TELEVISION’S INFLUENCE ON THE DEVELOPING INTELLECT OF THE CHILD 154 A. Fantasy Play and Daydreaming 154 1. Fantasy Play 154 2. Daydreaming 156 B. Television’s Effect on Creativity and Imaginative Thinking 157 C. Television’s Effect on Language Acquisition 160 IV. THE EFFECT OF MEDIA ON COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 161 CHAPTER V: Young Customers—Creating the Modern Consumer through Advertising and Marketing 164 I. EVOLUTION OF THE ISSUE OF TELEVISION ADVERTISING 164 A. Public Displeasure of Advertising in Primetime Programming 165 B. NSF and FTC 166 II. THE EVIDENTIARY RECORD 168 A. Points of Contention 168 1. Recognition and Comprehension of Advertising 168 2. Harmfulness of Advertising to Young Viewers 169 viii Contents
  • 14.
    3. The Effectof Advertising on Parent–Child Relations 169 4. Should Advertising Drive Programming? 169 5. Does Advertising Take Advantage of Program Content? 169 B. Evidence of the Effects of Television Advertising 170 1. Recognizing, Comprehending, and Evaluating Commercials 170 2. Accepting the Message of a Commercial 176 3. Exchanges between Parent and Child 186 III. THE BUYING MACHINE 189 A. The Influence of Other Media 189 B. The Latent Role of Children as Consumers 190 C. The Nag Factor 191 IV. CONSIDERATION OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN ADVERTISING 193 A. The Boundary of Comprehension 193 B. The Child and Teenage Marketplace 195 C. The Scholarly View of the Influence of Advertising 199 CHAPTER VI: Television Violence, Aggression, and Other Behavioral Effects 203 I. EVIDENCE OF INCREASED AGGRESSIVENESS CAUSED BY TELEVISION VIOLENCE 204 A. Experiments with Young Children 204 B. Experiments with Teenagers and Young Adults 207 C. Using Surveys for Causal Inference 210 D. Meta-analyses 217 E. The Role of Mediating Factors 220 1. Developmental Pattern 220 2. Predisposition to Aggressive or Violent Behavior 221 3. Does Gender Play a Role? 222 4. Seriousness of Aggressive or Violent Acts 223 5. Effect Size 224 II. REVERSE HYPOTHESIS: DO AGGRESSIVE PERSONALITIES SEEK OUT VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT? 227 III. EXPLANATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF VIOLENCE IN TELEVISION AND FILM 228 A. Social Cognition 228 B. Neoassociationism and Neural Circuitry 229 C. Excitation Transfer 230 D. General Aggression Model 230 Contents ix
  • 15.
    IV. THE EFFECTSOF VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES 234 V. OTHER HYPOTHESES REGARDING MEDIA INFLUENCE 238 A. Fear 238 B. Desensitization 239 C. Cultivation 241 D. Sexual Activity 243 VI. GENERALIZABILITY FROM EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS 245 CHAPTER VII: Learning Rules and Norms—Further Evidence of Media Effects 250 I. ROLES AND NORMS AS INFLUENCED BY MEDIA 251 A. Politics 251 1. Autonomy in the Development of Political Dispositions 253 2. School 253 3. Participation in the Political Process 254 B. The Impact of Gender Differences 256 1. Gender Differences in Politics 257 2. Gender-biased Roles 258 3. Gender Bias in Occupational Roles 265 C. Media’s Influence on Physical Presence 267 1. The Importance of Appearance in Early and Middle Childhood 268 2. The Importance of Appearance in Adolescence 270 II. THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS FOR HOW AND WHY MEDIA CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIALIZATION 276 A. The Role of Social Comparison 276 1. Case Study 277 B. The Role of Social Identity 280 1. Case Study 281 C. The Role of Social Cognition 282 1. Case Study 285 D. The Role of Cultivation 288 1. Case Study 290 CHAPTER VIII: Knowledge for What? 292 I. USING THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES 292 II. THE ACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ROLE OF MEDIA 294 A. The Role of Federal Regulation 295 x Contents
  • 16.
    B. The Roleof Industries 295 C. The Role of Parents 296 III. WHERE THE DATA POINT 296 A. Media Use 296 1. Early Media Use 297 2. Media Use in Isolation 297 3. Media Use Apart from Family 297 4. Preference for Screen Media 298 B. Data on Television Viewing 298 C. Messages Disseminated by Media 298 D. Converting Young People to Customers 300 E. The Effect of Viewing on Academic Achievement 300 F. Influence of Screen Media on Behavior 301 G. Socialization 303 IV. THE THREE M’S—STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE A CRITICAL STANCE 304 References 307 Author Index 351 Subject Index 365 Contents xi
  • 17.
    PREFACE When we begana revised edition of the first author’s Television and the American Child (Academic Press, 1991), we had four goals: expand the coverage to include other media; extend the age range to give greater attention to the very young and to teenagers; and emphasize the central role of cognitive stages, particularly in regard to tastes and preferences in media use and responses to advertising, brand names, and products; and, as before, to base interpretations and conclusions on evidence with valid claims to scientific credibility. We leave it to our readers to judge our success. xii
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    xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We owe amajor debt to the many dozens of individuals who conducted the studies upon which we have drawn. We hope they will find our treatment of their work of interest. We are grateful to David Rubin, Dean, S.I. Newhouse School, and Michael Morgan, Chair, University of Massachusetts Amherst Depart- ment of Communication, for providing scholarly settings; and to the S.I. Newhouse chair for financial support. We thank Marcia Wisehoon for a painstaking and thoroughly professional preparation of the manu- script. We also thank graduate assistant Jack Powers, whose stalwart mastery of the Internet was invaluable. Finally, the second author thanks her husband, Jody Barker, for being an unwavering source of solace and support. We found several analyses to be particularly helpful. These key studies include: Acuff, D. S. (1997). What kids buy and why: The psychology of mar- keting to kids. New York, NY: Free Press. Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D., Malamuth, N. M. & Wartella, E. (2003). The influence of media violence on youth. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(3), 81–110. The Kaiser Family Foundation-sponsored media use studies: Rideout, V. J., Foehr, U. G., Roberts, D. F. & Brodie, M. (1999). Kids & media at the new millennium. A Kaiser Family Foundation Report. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Accessed 6/30/05 at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/loader. cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=13265. Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A. & Wartella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
  • 19.
    Roberts, D. F.& Foehr, U. G. (2004). Kids & media in America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Founda- tion Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Accessed 6/30/05 at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/7250.cfm. McNeal, J. (1999). The kids market: Myths and realities. Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. A Journal of The Associa- tion for Psychological Science. Schor, J. B. (2004). Born to buy. New York: Scribner. Singer, D. G. & Singer, J. L. (2005). Imagination and play in the elec- tronic age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services; and National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. xiv Acknowledgments
  • 20.
    1 Childhood and adolescencein the United States (and well beyond) is marked by the centrality of the media. Growing up in the contempo- rary world means immersion in the sights and sounds supplied by tele- vision and computer. Later childhood and adolescence extends these daily experiences to include music accessed through the airwaves, pur- chased on CD, or acquired through download or streaming audio; a smorgasbord of games to be played on the computer or through high- tech console systems; and, of course, an abundance of glossy magazines that appeal to every whim, hobby, and pursuit. The prominence of media is astonishing—for the degree of gratification they provide, as testified to by the amount of time allocated to them, and the myriad of content-specific uses they serve. Young people’s use of the media raises significant questions. Spending time with media is one of the pleasures afforded by modern life, and anal- ysis of media use patterns constitutes a window into the ways that young people are entertained, informed, persuaded, and educated. Another set of reasons for studying media use is more troubling. There is ample evidence that either the amount of time spent with particular media or the content viewed, read, or heard can have adverse effects (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999). A great deal of research has convincingly linked either DEMOGRAPHICS and PREFERENCES in MEDIA USE, WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION to the VERY YOUNG I
  • 21.
    amount of mediaexposure or exposure to particular types of content with a range of important outcomes, including but not limited to performing poorly in school; learning aggression; behaving antisocially; developing unhealthy attitudes and behavior regarding such disparate topics as nutri- tion, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and sexual behavior; and increasing the odds that a child will be overweight. We eventually take up all of these troubling (and often controversial) issues, but we begin with a review of media use. We assess preferences within major media categories—genres, programs, and types favored. We focus on aggregates defined by demographics—age, gender, race or ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (usually operationalized by paren- tal education or income)—and orientations toward the media. When possible, we record the uses young people make of media, such as entertainment, information, or communication with others. We give preference to data that are current and drawn from national, representative samples in order to ensure comprehensive, valid conclu- sions. We adopt the four-part conceptualization of media offered by Roberts and Foehr (2004): • Print • Audio • Screen • Interactive media treating each separately before integrating the data into estimates and characterizations of total media use. The data on media exposure are striking for their cohesion around two major themes: (1) young people allocate a staggering amount of time to media, and (2) despite the obvious attraction of new media technologies (and with the sole exception of the attention to music that is a hallmark of adolescence), in terms of time use television still reigns supreme. The most reliable source of data on the media use of young people in the United States comes from a nationally representative sample of just over two thousand (2,032, to be precise) 8- to 18-year-olds, surveyed in 2004 by Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005), under the auspices of the Kaiser Fam- ily Foundation. In the dataset, young people of color were over-sampled to allow for comparisons based on race or ethnicity; the respondents were accessed in schools; and questions pertaining to amount of media expo- sure asked about the number of minutes and hours spent using each form of media on the previous day. The timing of data collection varied, so that each day of the week was represented in “time spent yesterday.” Some of the questions posed to the children and teenagers were duplicated from previous data collected in 1999 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004), so that, occasionally, comparisons between 1999 and 2004 are permitted. 2 Demographics and Preferences
  • 22.
    A somewhat similarstudy, also commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation, widens the lens to include children younger than 8-years old. These data, collected in 1999, combine in-home responses of par- ents reporting on behalf of 1,090 very young children (aged 2 to 7) and in-school responses of an additional 2,014 8- to 18-year-olds, employ- ing nationally representative probability samples (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts & Brodie, 1999; Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Addressing still unanswered questions regarding media use patterns among the youngest of the young, the Kaiser Family Foundation in partnership with the Children’s Digital Media Center (CDMC) funded a nationwide study, this time among those six and younger (Rideout, Vandewater & Wartella, 2003). These data were collected in 2003 via a nationally representative telephone survey using random-digit dialing procedures to elicit responses from 1,065 parents of children who ranged from six months to six years old. Finally, the Kaiser Family Foundation sponsored an update to the six-month to six-year-old data, drawing responses from 1,051 nationally representative parents in September through November 2005 (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). We will also draw from a number of key contributions in the area of young people’s use of computer-based media. These include recent data from Robinson and Alvarez (2005) and the U.S. Department of Educa- tion (2003). These sources make possible a comprehensive view of the role of the media in the daily lives of children and adolescents in the United States. For each category of media, we begin with estimates of use. We turn then to differences that demographic variables make. Next, we review content preferences. Finally, we isolate the media use of children seven years of age or younger because of (recent) increased interest in and concern over media use among very young children by parents, caregivers, and acad- emics (child psychologists, pediatricians, teachers, and social research- ers). Throughout, we trace media patterns of young people during childhood and adolescence, from six months to eighteen years of age. I. MEDIA EXPOSURE: PRINT In many ways, print media—newspapers, magazines, and books—are the granddaddies among the current media choices available to young people. They have been around for so long that one cannot picture a time when they would have been called “new media.” Parents and crit- ics alike have expressed concern over the vulnerability of print media to displacement by the newer, flashier, and occasionally even mesmer- izing possibilities accessed through screen and interactive media. The fear is that kids will no longer benefit from the imagination-evoking and vocabulary-producing effects of reading. I. Media Exposure: Print 3
  • 23.
    4 Demograpics andPreferences A. Use of Print Media The data, in fact, document that print media occupy a consistent, albeit modest, presence in the daily lives of young people. Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005) confine themselves to time spent with print media out- side of school or work. They place daily leisure-time exposure to all print media at an average of 43 minutes per day for 8- to 18-year-olds. Parents and caregivers may be comforted to know that reading books accounts for the bulk of the print media time, averaging 23 minutes per day. Magazine reading occurs for an average of 14 minutes per day, and newspaper reading for a scant six minutes. When the sample of respondents is divided by age, estimates of print media use are surprisingly uniform across the board (see Table 1.1). The exception is newspaper reading, an activity engaged in signifi- cantly more among the oldest age group (15- to 18-year-olds) compared to the youngest (8- to 10-year-olds)—but even so, the oldest group spent just seven minutes a day with newspapers compared to four minutes for the youngest group. The Roberts and colleagues (2005) data also show that nearly three- quarters of 8- to 18-year-olds spend at least five minutes with print media on any given day (73%) whereas slightly less than half (47%) Table 1.1 Average Exposure to Various Media, Ages Six Months to 18 Years Age 0–3* 4–6* 8–10 11–14 15–18 Screen media 1:47 2:10 4:41 4:25 3:40 TV 1:01 1:10 3:17 3:16 2:36 Audio 1:03 0:49 0:59 1:42 2:24 Print 0:37 0:41 0:44 0:41 0:45 Computers 0:05 0:16 0:37 1:02 1:22 Video games 0:01 0:10 1:05 0:52 0:33 *For these age groups, audio media means listening to music, and print media means reading or being read to. Screen media includes TV, videotapes, DVDs, and movies. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Founda- tion. Also from Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A. & Wartella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
  • 24.
    spend 30 minutesor more. Although most young people access print media every day, many tend to spend modest amounts of time with such media. Books, far lengthier than what magazines and newspapers offer (and sometimes more demanding of thought and attention), inspire the dedication of 30 minutes or more a day among just 30 per- cent of the nation’s 8- to 18-year-olds. Many have expressed concern that young people today are no longer reading newspapers, and there is no doubt that the amount of time adults spend reading newspapers has declined (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999; Rob- inson & Godbey, 1997). Nevertheless, the data reported by Roberts and colleagues (2005) show about one in every three children and adolescents (34%) takes at least a glance through the paper for five minutes or more on any given day. Roberts and Foehr (2004) point out that although time spent reading newspapers is low for young people in the United States, the proportion of young people accessing newspapers each day has not changed dramatically. Comparing their estimates with those collected in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Schramm, Lyle & Parker, 1961), in the early 1970s (Lyle & Hoffman, 1972a), and in the late 1970s (Newspaper Advertising Bureau, 1978), they find sufficient similarity to conclude, “if ‘newspaper reading’ is taken to mean at least glancing at some part of the paper for a few minutes, the proportion of U.S. children and adolescents who do so has remained fairly constant over the past 50 years” (Roberts & Foehr, 2004, p. 99). Thus, any increased vulnerability of newspapers to displacement by other media rests not on changes in the use by and famil- iarity of children and teenagers with newspapers but with attractiveness of other media when decisions about use are made later in life. B. Demographic Variables That Impact Use of Print Media Spending leisure time reading books decreases as children grow up (see Table 1.1). In the data of Roberts and colleagues (2005), 63 percent of 8- to 10-year-olds devoted at least five minutes “yesterday” to this activity compared to 44 percent of 11- to 14-year-olds and 34 percent of 15- to 18-year-olds. We concur with the interpretation of the investiga- tors that this shift is likely explained by the increased required reading for schoolwork among those older that would leave less time for read- ing for pleasure and might make such an activity less appealing. The youngest kids, although more likely to have spent some time reading a book, were less likely than the two older groups to have spent five minutes or more with a newspaper or a magazine (see Table 1.1). Thus, the desire to keep up with news, sports, and features in the paper as well as an interest in magazines that cover fashion, sports, popular culture, or various hobbies, as we would expect, increases with age. I. Media Exposure: Print 5
  • 25.
    6 Demograpics andPreferences Additional demographic variables reveal interesting patterns. Rob- erts and colleagues (2005) found no differences in amount or likelihood of reading print media for children of color compared to White children, or for children from households with varying levels of income (one of two indices of socioeconomic status employed). Gender did not matter much, with one significant exception: girls spent more time with books than boys—28 minutes compared to 19 minutes. However, one particu- lar demographic variable, level of education of the child’s parent(s) (the other index of socioeconomic status), had a substantial role. The more educated the parent, the greater the amount of time the child spent with all forms of print media—books, magazines, and newspapers. In total, 8- to 18-year-olds with parents whose education consisted of high school or less spent an average of 32 minutes with all forms of print media, compared to 43 minutes for those with parents with some college education and 50 minutes for those with parents with college diplomas or more. Level of parental education significantly predicted the likelihood that the child spent 30 minutes or more with books or magazines the day before, but not the likelihood that the child spent at least five minutes. Young people with better educated parents read for longer periods of time than those whose parents have less education. C. Print Preferences among Children and Teenagers Roberts and Foehr (2004) in 1999 asked the older children and teenag- ers what they read. The results convey tremendous variability. Look- ing at newspapers first, the data show the sports section is attended to most often among the 12- to 18-year-olds (52% indicated it), followed by local news (42%), comics (39%), entertainment news (32%), national news (29%), and horoscope or advice sections (28%). Interestingly, fashion was cited by a mere 7 percent. Book preferences also run the gamut among the teens in the sample. Mysteries (listed by 25%) and adventures (22%) appear to be the most popular, but an additional five genres also garnered double-digit scores including science fiction/fantasy, history/current events, humor, romance, and sports. A smaller number of highly popular magazine genres emerged, the most frequently selected being teen magazines (38%), followed by sports (26%), entertainment/popular culture (21%), and hobby/travel (19%). There was very low interest in health, home, news, and general-interest magazines. D. Print Use and Preferences of the Very Young Roberts and Foehr (2004) in their 1999 data extend the analysis of print media use to children below the age of eight. Parents of 2- to 7-year-
  • 26.
    olds were askedto estimate the amount of time their child spent read- ing the day before, as well as the amount of time their child was read to by an adult. In doing so, the data capture exposure to books, maga- zines, and newspapers even among children too young to know how to read. We can safely conclude that most young children are reading books or being read to everyday. Eighty-four percent of 2- to 4-year-olds and 74 percent of 5- to 7-year-olds were said by their parents to have spent at least five minutes with books the day before. Given the brevity of children’s books and the short attention span of the very young, rela- tively few parents reported 30 minutes or more time spent with books (just 30% of 2- to 4-year-olds and 15% of 5- to 7-year-olds). Even maga- zines hold some appeal for these young children. Slightly more than half (56% of 2- to 4-year-olds and 51% of 5- to 7-year-olds) spent at least five minutes with a magazine the previous day. As with the 8- to 18-year-olds, the likelihood of 2- to 7-year-olds spending time reading is dependent on the education levels of their parents, although the association is less pronounced at the younger age. Among the 2- to 7-year-olds, only 6 percent of parents who com- pleted college reported no reading had occurred the day before com- pared to 18 percent for parents with a high school education or less. College educated parents also reported that their young children devote longer periods of time to reading than parents with high school or less. The difference is largely explained by book reading rather than maga- zine or newspaper reading. Race or ethnicity had only a small role. No differences occurred for average amount of time exposed to print media and only a slight difference emerged for whether any reading at all occurred the previous day: • White children, 91% • Black children, 81% • Latino children, 80% Reading to babies and toddlers is common practice. In the Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) data reflecting media use among the very young, about three-fourths (76%) of zero- to three-year-olds were read to on a typical day; the figure for zero- to six-year-olds was 79 per- cent. The most recent data place the figure for zero- to six-year-olds at 83 percent who read or are read to on a “typical” day (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Daily reading with zero- to three-year-old children occurred in 63 percent of households, and reading several times a week occurred in an additional 24 percent (Rideout et al., 2003). (Only 12% of parents of these very young children selected the “several times a month,” “less than several times a month” and “never” categories.) The average I. Media Exposure: Print 7
  • 27.
    8 Demograpics andPreferences amount of time parents reported reading to or with the six-month-olds to six-year-olds in the sample was 39 minutes per day among all respon- dents (including those who reported 0 minutes the previous day) and 49 minutes per day among those with some reported use the previous day (see Table 1.1). The typical residence of a very young child in the United States contains quite a few books from which to choose, with 59 percent of parents of children aged six and younger reporting 50 or more books present in the house and 24 percent estimating between 20 and 49 books. Reading with and to the very young is a highly valued activity for which most parents reserve a substantial amount of time every day. II. MEDIA EXPOSURE: AUDIO Whether accessed at home or in cars, through the airwaves, on a CD or MP3 player, or by the Internet, audio media occupy an important and even cherished role in childhood and adolescence. What is listened to has not changed nearly as dramatically over the years as how it is lis- tened to. The means of transmission of audio media for personal use has evolved from records to eight-tracks to cassettes to CDs and now to various forms of digital media that include very small and highly portable devices able to store thousands of songs (like the popular iPod). They still include radio stations whose signals are picked up in the traditional manner but have also expanded to encompass “streaming audio” through the Internet and satellite radio. Regardless of the means of transmission, however, the single most noteworthy aspect of audio media to children and teenagers nationwide is that it provides music. News and sports and other forms of information continue to be avail- able through audio media, but they are not nearly as vitally important to young people as the various types of music for which audio media provide platforms. The result, as noted by Roberts and colleagues (2005), is that one can interpret time spent with audio media as almost synonymous with time spent with music. A. Use of Audio Media The most recent data from 8- to 18-year-olds (Roberts et al., 2005) point unequivocally to the large role that audio media play in daily life. The average amount of time these young people spend each day with audio media is 1 hour and 44 minutes, a figure nearly equally divided between the radio (55 minutes a day) and personal media such as CDs, tapes, and MP3 players (49 minutes). The proportion of 8- to 18-year-olds spending at least five minutes with audio media the day before the survey was a very high 85 percent, and almost half (44%) spent an hour or more.
  • 28.
    The patterns apparentin the data regarding young people’s use of audio media are remarkable for two reasons. First, Roberts and Foehr (2004) observe that audio media—which, again, include both radio and personal music playback devices such as CD, tape, and MP3 players— are the only major media form that increase in frequency of use in a neat, linear fashion between the ages of 8 and 18. Second, audio media have the distinction of being the sole type of media that at any time in the life cycle surpasses television in amount of daily exposure among young people in the United States. In the Roberts and Foehr (2004) data, late adolescence, from age 15 through 18, is the only time in the life of the typical young person in the United States when television is not the medium with which they spend the greatest amount of time. The importance of music in the lives of teenagers allows audio media to surpass television during these years. This rise in the comparative prominence of music in the most recent time use data (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) counters earlier findings (Brown, Childers, Bauman & Koch, 1990; Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Larson & Kubey, 1983) and either is attributable to the greater ease of access made possible by new technologies or meticulousness of the more recent collection of data. B. Demographic Differences in Audio Use The emerging popularity of rock-and-roll among the nation’s teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s is one example of the ability of the tastes and preferences of young people to fuel the billion-dollar music industry. The expression of the many moods of adolescence, from exuberance to angst, seems to find an outlet through immersion in the lyrics and the rhythms of songs and identification with the artists who provide them. The time use data verify the growing importance of music from child- hood through adolescence (see Table 1.1). The average amount of time spent with audio media increases linearly from 8 to 10 years of age (59 minutes), to 11 to 14 (1 hour, 42 minutes), to 15 to 18 (2 hours, 24 minutes) (Roberts et al., 2005). The proportion spending at least five minutes the previous day rises from 74 percent of 8- to 10-year-olds to 90 percent of 15- to 18-year-olds, and the proportion spending an hour or more grows from 26 to 60 percent. The data of Roberts and colleagues (2005) also reveal some interesting gender differences. Girls are both more likely to listen and more likely to listen longer than boys. They spend about a half-hour more per day with audio media. Larger proportions of girls spent both five minutes or lon- ger (80% vs. 69%) and one hour or more the previous day (27% vs. 15%), a difference that is largely attributable to a greater number of girls listen- ing to the radio rather than a greater use of personal playback devices. II. Media Exposure: Audio 9
  • 29.
    10 Demograpics andPreferences C. Audio Preferences of Children and Teenagers A remarkable array of musical choices is offered by modern media. In the 2005 survey, Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005) provided a list of 17 musical genre options, as well as an eighteenth “Other” category. They asked the seventh through twelfth graders to indicate the genres they listened to through CD, tapes, and MP3s the previous day (because they wanted to focus on actively selected music, they ignored radio listening). Tastes differed somewhat, but a few genres stood out as the most popular. Chief among these was rap/hip hop. About two-thirds (65%) selected rap/hip hop as a genre they listened to the previous day, a figure about double that for the next most popular option. Second was alternative rock, specified by 32 percent. Hard rock/heavy metal was chosen by 27 percent and ska/punk by 23 percent. No other musi- cal genre was cited by 20 percent or more. Tastes of young people show some variability when taking into account race or ethnicity. Rap/hip hop was universal in its position as the number one choice (by far) of White (non-Latino), African Ameri- can, and Latino young people, but it was listed significantly more often by African American youth. Eighty-one percent of African Americans cited rap/hip hop compared to 70 percent of Latinos and 60 percent of White, non-Latinos. Rhythm and blues (R&B) music was cited by 33 percent and reggae by 24 percent of the African Americans, and Latin/ salsa music had comparable appeal among Latinos, with 33 percent cit- ing that genre. Country/Western was more popular among White, non- Latino youth (26%) compared to African Americans or Latinos, as was classic rock (21%). Race or ethnicity clearly partially shapes musical preferences among the young. D. Audio Use and Preferences of the Very Young Music boxes and mobiles above the crib play lullabies to dozing babies. Portable cassette or CD players are carried by toddlers around the house. Music often seems to take center stage. The data that include children from ages two to seven (Roberts & Foehr, 2004) confirm this centrality. Two- to seven-year-olds averaged 46 minutes per day with audio media (see Table 1.1), divided about equally between radio, CDs, and tapes (use of MP3s was not measured in this study). Even among the youngest, the two- to four-year-olds, 75 percent had listened to audio media for at least five minutes the previous day. Recordings cre- ated specifically for children—such as stories, nursery rhymes, and children’s music—were the most popular choice for those two to seven. The gender differences that appear later in childhood are not present among those seven and under.
  • 30.
    In the Rideout,Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) data obtained from parents, 81 percent of zero- to three-year-olds were recorded as listen- ing to music on a typical day. In the more recent data, 88 percent of parents of six-month to one-year-olds reported music use on a “typi- cal” day, as did 84 percent of parents of 2- to 3-year-olds and 78 percent of four- to six-year-olds (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). The average amount of time zero- to three-year-olds spent was just under one hour (54 minutes) (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Thus, the very young spend a sub- stantial amount of time with music. Rideout and colleagues (2003) describe the array of audio media available to young children and the quickly developed ability to negotiate these devices: “The typical child six or under lives in a home with an average of four to five radios and CD/tape players, and four in ten (42%) even have their own CD or cas- sette player in their bedroom. One-third of all youngsters this age (36%) know how to use CD or cassette players themselves” (p. 9). We draw three conclusions: Children are exposed to music virtually from infancy; they develop the skills to play their favorite songs by themselves at an early age; and preschool-aged children enjoy the audio content that is made expressly for their age group. III. MEDIA EXPOSURE: SCREEN Even with all of the attractive new options at the fingertips of most American children, television remains the dominant medium. It com- mands more daily attention with the single exception of audio media for 15- to 18-year-olds. In many ways, new technologies have helped to cement television’s position as the leading medium. VCRs and then DVDs, digital video recorders (DVRs) like TiVo, computer links and iPods, flat screens and bigger and better sets with higher definition offer- ing satellite or cable services have served to increase the allure of this already universally appealing medium. Young people as well as adults certainly no longer watch television the way they used to—as a mass audience divided primarily into large segments attending to the broad- casts of ABC, CBS, and NBC. Instead, the “mass” audience is much more divided (primetime shares of the three original networks that once approximated 95% have dwindled to less than 40%), more than three- fourths of households receive their signals from cable or satellite rather than by broadcast, and scheduled signals are extensively supplemented by more selective playback and on-demand sources (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999). The audience now is scattered across dozens of chan- nels, many of which are so specialized that the term “niche” is apt. Other options include a DVD of a favorite show, playback of a recorded program, or renting a movie from a video store, ordering instantaneously III. Media Exposure: Screen 11
  • 31.
    12 Demograpics andPreferences through the cable provider, subscribing to a DVD mail service, or access- ing a show on an iPod. Yet, in each of these newer scenarios as well as in the conventional sense, watch they do, in numbers that continue to somewhat amaze the social scientist charged with the task of tallying time spent with media. Our review of time spent with screen media includes television, vid- eotapes, DVDs, and movies, thereby encompassing “all audio-visual systems that deliver content that does not depend on directive responses from the viewer” (Roberts et al., 2005, p. 23, emphasis in original). The feature that distinguishes screen from interactive media is the content that is not open to alteration by the decisions of the user. A. Television Exposure In our earlier work (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999), we estimated chil- dren’s average amount of TV exposure to be 3 hours and 10 minutes per day and teenagers’ exposure to be just under three hours. Data collected by Roberts and colleagues (2005) six years later show that figure to be right on the mark. The 2005 survey records that children aged 8 to 18 in the United States spend an average of 3 hours and 4 minutes per day watching television. This is an enormous amount of time that dwarfs average daily exposure to the other screen media (47 minutes with vid- eos/DVDs, 25 minutes with movies) as well as all of the other media. The estimate of 3 hours and 4 minutes per day not only closely resem- bles our prior calculation, but also shows negligible change from the Roberts and Foehr (2004) estimate of 3 hours and 5 minutes per day from their 1999 data. With such consensus, we can be abundantly con- fident in concluding that young people in the United States on average spend just over three hours with television each day. Eighty-one percent reported that they watched television the day before, 42 percent watched videos/DVDs, and 13 percent watched a movie (Roberts et al., 2005). Daily television use is commonplace. Video/DVD use is decidedly more occasional. Attending movies, always more special than television viewing, could be described as occurring seldomly. A substantial minority of young people are heavy viewers, allocating substantially more time than the average. Indeed, a full one in five (20%) of the young people reported that they watched TV for five hours or longer the previous day. In light of the continuing diffusion of digital video recording technol- ogy—devices that allow for digital time shifting and storing of televi- sion programs—comparisons were drawn between time spent with TV shows recorded by oneself and “commercially originated” programs and DVDs (Roberts et al., 2005). The figures show that despite the growing
  • 32.
    popularity of DVRsand digital time shifting, commercially produced video content is still more popular. Just over one-third (39%) of 8- to 18-year-olds watched a commercially originated program the day before and they spent an average of 32 minutes on them. A decidedly smaller 21 percent watched a self-recorded program and spent a more modest 14 minutes. When looking specifically at the young people who reported owning a DVR (34% of the total sample did), twice as much time was spent with self-recorded content by DVR owners than by nonowners. DVR-owning young people also watch more TV in real time than non- DVR-owning young people, suggesting that this new technology has been adopted in households in which the occupants, including the kids, are particular fans of television (Roberts et al., 2005). B. Demographic Differences in Television Use The most recent data confirm a long-standing finding (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999) that television use, after rising during infancy and early childhood, decreases over time during childhood and adolescence (see Table 1.1). Roberts and colleagues (2005) summarize the specifics of this dimin- ished screen media use with age: In general, older kids report less exposure than younger kids. For example, adolescents age 15–18 watch almost 3/4 of an hour less than either of the two younger groups, a difference approach- ing statistical significance (p < .08 in both cases). Older kids are significantly less likely to watch any TV on a given day, and less likely to spend more than one hour viewing TV. They are also less likely than 8- to 10-year-olds to spend time watching any kind of video recording. When all screen media are combined, the oldest adolescents report an hour less daily exposure than 8- to 10-year- olds and 3/4 of an hour less than 11- to 14-year-olds (both statisti- cally significant differences). (pp. 23–24) Another persisting demographic pattern—that the race or ethnicity of the child is associated with significant differences in screen media use—is also again confirmed. As we have observed elsewhere (Com- stock & Scharrer, 1999; Comstock, 1991), prior analyses have con- cluded that African American youth tend to spend more time watching television than Latino children who, in turn, tend to watch more than White non-Latino children (Robinson & Godbey, 1997). The data of Roberts and colleagues (2005) not only continue to find this pattern but also extend it to other forms of screen media and rule out parental education or income as the underlying explanation. III. Media Exposure: Screen 13
  • 33.
    14 Demograpics andPreferences African Americans reported spending an average of 4 hours and 5 minutes watching TV compared to 3 hours 23 minutes for Latinos and 2 hours 45 minutes for White non-Latinos, each comparison resulting in a statistically significant difference. Roughly the same pattern holds for the other forms of screen media. Total use was just under six hours daily for African Americans (5:53) compared to about four-and-a-half for Latinos (4:37) and just under four hours for Whites (3:47). The propor- tion of youth from each racial/ethnic group reporting some screen media use the day before does not differ. Thus, children of color are not more likely to use screen media on any given day but are more apt to spend longer periods of time with screen media. This testifies to the ubiqui- tous use of screen media by the young as well as to its greater attractive- ness to African Americans and Latinos. Roberts and colleagues (2005) conducted additional analyses to ensure that the racial/ethnic differ- ences were not explained by the potentially confounding factor of socio- economic status. They found,“...at each level of parent education and at each level of income,...the pattern of African American kids report- ing the highest amount of TV exposure, Hispanic kids the second high- est, and White kids the least, continued to hold” (p. 24). We conclude, therefore, that cultural norms (or perhaps some unmeasured factor) rather than socioeconomic status explain the tendency for children of color to spend longer periods of time per day watching TV. In a major surprise, the most recent data of Roberts and colleagues (2005) record absolutely no relationship between either the income of the household or the level of parental education and the amount of time young people spend with television. These findings are quite unexpected. The vast majority of past media use studies have found that higher socioeconomic status—typically measured by income and/ or education—is associated with lower television use, and this has been particularly so for education (Brown et al., 1990; Comstock et al., 1978; Comstock, 1991; Medrich et al., 1982; Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Schramm et al., 1961; Tangney & Feshbach, 1988). Perhaps the time that we predicted (when in a very speculative mode) in our last review of this issue (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999) has arrived—television use has become so ubiquitous as to overshadow any previously distinguish- ing socioeconomic differences.1 1 However, because this outcome conflicts with the survey five years earlier by Roberts and Foehr (2004) as well as many other sets of earlier data, we reserve judgment until we have confirmation from additional samples. It is always possible that this is the kind of statistical anomaly that inevitably sometimes occurs in survey data. We are always skeptical when a long-standing pattern seems to be overturned in new data. We are hesitant to offer a conclusion until we have confirmation (or disconfirmation) from a similar, large, nationally representative sample or from a series of smaller scale endeav- ors that are in agreement.
  • 34.
    The only exceptionto the lack of association with either income or parental education is a curvilinear relationship that appears between level of parental education and total screen media exposure (but not exposure to television). Roberts and colleagues (2005) data demonstrate that young people in households where parents have moderate amounts of education (some college) generally spend less time overall with screen media (3:46) than either those in households with lower (high school; 4:23) or higher (college or more; 4:20) levels of parental education. C. Viewing Preferences among Children and Teenagers Lists of television programs drawn from local schedules were employed by Roberts and colleagues (2005) to record preferences among the 8- to 18-year-olds expressed by actual viewing. Programs were categorized by the authors as belonging to one of 18 different genres. The results display the perennial appeal of situation comedies in this age group (Lyle & Hoffman, 1972a). Just over one-third (37%) watched a sitcom on the previous day, a proportion outdistancing the next most popular choice by 12 percentage points. In fact, situation comedies appear to carry appeal across age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status, as it was the only genre listed by a third or more of respondents in every demographic category. The next most popular genre was children’s programming, divided by the authors into educational programming (for which previous day viewing occurred among 25%) and entertainment programming (among a nearly equal 24%). The former included programs with a central edu- cational mission, whereas the latter consisted of cartoons often featur- ing superheroes or other action-adventure themes. As might be expected, the popularity of these genres declines with age. They were cited by slightly fewer than half of the 8- to 10-year-olds, about 20 per- cent of the 11- to 14-year-olds, and fewer than 10 percent of the 15- to 18-year-olds. Next came movies (22%). Remaining genres were cited by fewer than 20 percent. Nonetheless, substantial numbers watched reality shows (17%), entertainment/variety shows (16%), dramas (15%), sports (12%), and documentaries (11%). There were two significant gender differences. Girls were more likely to report watching sitcoms, whereas boys were more likely to report watching sports. We conclude that tastes for particular program types have changed little over the years from when the first author summarized the research data in 1991 drawing on data from the early 1970s,“... First graders mostly named situation comedies and cartoons. Sixth graders largely III. Media Exposure: Screen 15
  • 35.
    16 Demograpics andPreferences replaced the cartoons with action-adventure programs. Tenth graders continued to name many action-adventure programs, but added music and variety ... preferences for cartoons and children’s programs declined, while those for adventure-drama and comedy increased with age” between the ages of 5 to 12 (Comstock, 1991, p. 7). Indeed, the recent data (Roberts & Foehr, 2004) also support the conclusion drawn by Comstock (1991) that the shift in childhood from preferring children’s programming to adult, mainstream programming occurs at about the age of eight. D. Television Viewing by the Very Young When examining screen media use among young children, four distin- guishing features are striking. First, television viewing begins extremely early in the lifespan and quickly accounts for substantial amounts of time per day. Second, programming produced especially for children is by far the most popular choice among the very young. Third, programs viewed on videotape or DVD are also exceptionally appealing at this age. Finally, although television use is clearly and uniformly a part of their daily lives, very few spend what could be characterized as an extensive amount of time watching television per day. The data collected in 1999 puts daily exposure to screen media among children aged two to seven at just over two-and-a-half hours per day (2:33) (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). The lion’s share of this figure, as in the older age groups, is explained by time spent with television. A scant two to three minutes are spent daily with videotapes of time- shifted television shows or with movies. Two- to seven-year-olds spend an estimated two hours and two minutes daily watching TV, and 84 percent report some exposure to television on the previous day. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics established guide- lines that recommend no television viewing for children less than two years of age. The Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) data suggest that following that advice would constitute a pretty dramatic change in the patterns of media use in many families. Their numbers show that 59 percent of all children aged two and under watch TV on any given day, and 43 percent watch everyday. Rideout and Hamel (2006) found 81 percent of 2- to 3-year-olds watch television on a typical day, a much higher percentage than the 56 percent of six-month- to one- year-olds (although the latter is a substantial figure). Nearly three-quar- ters (72%) of the parents in the sample reported their 2- to 3-year-old watched television every day, compared to 43 percent of the parents reporting on their six-month- to one-year-olds. Accounting not only for television but for all forms of screen media, children two and under
  • 36.
    spend an estimatedtwo hours and five minutes “in front of a screen” (Rideout et al., 2003, p. 5) a day, 1 hour and 22 minutes of which is time spent watching television. The data lead convincingly to the conclu- sion that television use becomes integrated into each day very early in a child’s life, significant amounts of exposure to television occurs before the age of two, and adherence to the American Academy of Pedi- atrics counsel would require a near-revolution—or at least a novel display of resolve—in parenting practices in many households.. Programming created expressly for child viewers by far is the most favored television genre. Educational programming, specifically, draws the largest percentage of preschoolers as well as the majority of kin- dergarten to second graders. For just over three-fourths of all 2- to 4- year-olds (77%) and 60 percent of 5- to 7-year-olds, children’s educa- tional programming was named as a preference among television genres (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Children’s entertainment program- ming was a distant second, selected by one-third of those aged two to four and 43 percent of those aged five to seven. The only other genre drawing substantial amounts of interest from young children was comedy. It was chosen by 19 percent of the 2- to 4-year-olds and 33 percent of the 5- to 7-year-olds. Although a large majority of television viewing time is spent with programs created especially for this age group, the interest in comedy that characterizes later childhood begins early. A plurality, 48 percent, of the parents of the six-month- to six-year-olds report that their child watches mostly children’s shows in approximately equal proportions of educational programs and entertainment programs (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). The next largest percentage, 24 percent, report their young child watches mostly children’s educational programs. Smaller percentages report exposure equally divided between children’s shows and adult shows or concentrated among kids’ shows that are mostly entertainment, 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively. We con- clude that television content specifically created for the very young is, indeed, most popular among that group, with educational programming particularly frequently chosen. Yet, the purely educational television diet is relatively rare, even among the youngest of the young. Many parents have concerns over the suitability of mainstream tele- vision programming for very young children. Objections include vio- lence, sexual references, and profanity. For that reason (and others), par- ents of very young children report substantial use of commercially produced videotapes or DVDs in the home. The typical preschooler in the United States is likely to have ready access to a library of television programs and movies on VHS or DVD that are targeted to child audi- ences and not recorded by a family member but rather purchased in pre- III. Media Exposure: Screen 17
  • 37.
    18 Demograpics andPreferences recorded form. DVDs and videotapes containing a number of episodes of educational programs such as Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, or Ses- ame Street, for instance, are likely elements of this library, as are Disney films or other children’s movies such as Winnie the Pooh’s Tigger, Beauty and the Beast, or Toy Story. The advantages of screen media in this form are that they can be played at the convenience of the parent (to entertain a child while preparing dinner, or as transition to bedtime), repeated viewing of a show is extremely appealing to a child, and the parent is typically both familiar with and comfortable with the content (no surprising violence or unwelcome language). Roberts and Foehr (2004) place daily exposure to what they call “commercial videos” (the purchased programs and movies) at approxi- mately 30 minutes per day among very young children. Two- to four- year-olds spend an estimated 33 minutes and 5- to 7-year-olds spend 21 minutes with this form of screen media daily. Commercial video use nevertheless is less ingrained into the fabric of daily life than ordinary television viewing. Despite the substantial average amounts of use, Roberts and Foehr record that 54 percent of those aged two to four and 70 percent of those five to seven had no commercial video exposure the previous day—much higher proportions of nonusers than for ordinary television. Despite the fairly high figure for average exposure to television (2:02) and notwithstanding the fact that most in this age group have not yet entered school and therefore have few demands on their time, only a fraction of 2- to 7-year-olds could be described as very heavy viewers. The latest estimates (Roberts & Foehr, 2004) indicate only 7 percent watched television for five hours or more the previous day. Such a minute proportion for extensive viewing is unique to the very young. The percentage of 8- to 18-year olds reporting five hours or more of television consumption, by contrast, is three times greater (22%). We conclude that parents and caregivers view extensive daily television use as excessive for their very young children, and most avoid it. IV. MEDIA EXPOSURE: INTERACTIVE MEDIA Computer-based technologies have significantly changed the media landscape. Interactive media, in which the decisions and actions of the user—the click of the mouse, the turn of the joystick, the operation of the keyboard—change the content of what is seen, have a large and growing presence at school and in the home. The navigation of these media demands active participation on the part of the user and there- fore in many ways interactive media differ from more traditional media not only in how they are used but why.
  • 38.
    The young areable to embrace such innovations, without the appre- hension or indifference that pose obstacles for older adults. Young people are notoriously often more savvy about new technologies than their par- ents, and many seem to grow up with a mouse in their hand and a seem- ingly natural ease with computers, video games, and other devices. Young people’s use of the Internet occurs within the context of and is dependent on the level of diffusion of Internet technology across the country. Robinson and Alvarez (2005) provide the most recent thorough account of this diffusion by collating the large-scale surveys of Internet use in the United States. As of August, 2003, the most recent figure available was that approximately 60 percent of the population was online. Despite a trend of fairly steady growth since 1995, the diffusion rate has showed little increase in the year or two preceding this (August 2003) figure. They conclude, contrary to hoopla in the media, that diffu- sion has occurred more slowly than for VCR technology. The gap between Internet access of males and females present in earlier data has narrowed in recent years, but considerable distance remains between adoption rates associated with race, income, and education. Whites, those with higher incomes, and those with greater degrees of education are more likely to have Internet connections. Robinson, Neustadtl, and Kestnbaum (2002) have also documented a pattern that they have dubbed a “diversity divide.” Internet users differ from nonusers not just in terms of demographics but also in their more liberal stances regarding race, gays and lesbians, religion, and women’s rights, and these differences were not explained by income or education levels. A readier welcoming of technological innovation apparently is joined by more favorable dis- positions toward social innovations. In our present analysis of use of the computer and other interactive media technologies, the changing—and according to the analyses of Robinson and Alvarez, uncertain—status of Internet diffusion must be taken into account. Unlike more established media (such as television, radio, and print) the introductory diffusion process for interactive media has not clearly ended. A. Use of Interactive Media by Young People Young people in the United States are spending more and more time with interactive media. Limiting their questions to leisure and exclud- ing school- or work-related tasks, Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout (2005) measured time spent with the computer as well as with video games. They gathered data for six separate computer-based activities: playing games, visiting web sites, spending time in chat rooms, communicat- ing via e-mail, instant messaging (a popular application that allows users to correspond on the computer in real time), and the use of graphics (programs such as Photoshop or PowerPoint). The data of IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 19
  • 39.
    20 Demograpics andPreferences Roberts and colleagues (2005) set daily leisure time use of the com- puter among 8- to 18-year-olds at approximately one hour per day (1 hour and 2 minutes, to be precise). Playing games and instant messag- ing are close competitors for the largest proportion of time at 19 min- utes and 17 minutes per day, respectively. Visiting web sites contrib- utes an additional 14 minutes. The remaining activities—graphics programs, chat rooms, and e-mail—account for just four to five min- utes of total daily use. Instant messaging, then, is much preferred over e-mail and web sites are frequently visited without the desire to par- ticipate in affiliated chats. Roberts and colleagues (2005) describe the differences that occurred in the five years between the 1999 and 2004 surveys: A combination of increased access to computers and the emer- gence of new, highly popular computer activities has resulted in more than a doubling of the amount of time U.S. kids spent with computers.... (I)n 1999, 73% of 8- to 18-year-olds reported a per- sonal computer in their home; today, 86% report in-home access to a PC.... Five years ago we did not ask about time spent playing games online, about various graphics programs or about time spent instant messaging. Since then, each of these activities has begun to claim substantial computer time from kids. The result is that the average amount of time young people devote to various computer activities has climbed from 0:27 daily to 1:02 daily (the proportion of kids using a computer at all has grown from 47% to 54%, and the proportion using a computer for more than an hour has climbed from 15% to 28%).... (O)nly two computer activi- ties, visiting chat rooms and sending e-mail, have remained fairly constant in terms of the time devoted to them. Time spent using Web sites has doubled (from seven to 14 minutes daily). Time spent with computer games has increased from 0:12 in 1999 to 0:19 in 2004, a change that we believe is at least partly a result of increased availability of online, multiplayer games. And perhaps most striking, a computer activity that did not warrant a question five years ago now claims as much time as visiting chat rooms (working with graphics programs = 0:04), and an activity that barely existed among kids five years ago now ranks as the second most time-consuming computer activity (instant messaging = 0:17). p. 30 The data document that computer use has changed in complexion and in the amount of time it consumes among the nation’s youth. In the relatively short span between 1999 and 2004, game playing and Web “surfing” have attracted significantly more daily use, and sending
  • 40.
    and receiving aninstant message (or “IM-ing” as it is frequently referred to) has taken off in jet-propelled fashion. We agree with the conclusion of Roberts and colleagues (2005) that the doubling of overall amount of time spent with computers in the five-year period can be attributed both to more and more families (and young people themselves) owning computers as well as the additional attraction of newer computer appli- cations such as these. The second major component of interactive media is video games. This category includes video games played on console systems that hook up to the television set such as those created by Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, or Xbox, and handheld playing systems, such as the Game- Boy, but not games played on the computer, which were categorized as computer use. It is impossible to dispute the popularity of video game consoles and games. The industry is booming, with the financial press prominently charting technical developments, marketing strategies, and the various entrepreneurial maneuvers of the major firms. Systems offer realistic-looking graphics, extensive memory, and an ever-increas- ing list of titles to choose from with elaborate plots and special effects. Most games cost about $50. Video games are a popular form of entertainment for the typical American child. Roberts and colleagues (2005) discovered that some 52 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds play a video game on an average day, with 41 percent reporting console use and another 35 percent handheld game play. The average amount of time dedicated to video game use is an impressive 49 minutes per day (32 minutes on the console systems and another 17 using handheld devices). The complexity of the games themselves (as well as their notorious “addictiveness”) is likely a fac- tor in the finding that about one in five (22%) play for an hour or longer on any given day. B. Interactive Media Use and Demographics Amount of time spent with the computer increases with the age of the child (see Table 1.1). In fact, moving from the 8- to 10-year-old to the 11- to 14-year-old results in a near doubling of daily computer use, from 37 minutes to just over one hour (1:02). The jump is significant from the middle age group to the oldest as well, with 15- to 18-year- olds spending one hour and 22 minutes per day at the keyboard. Instant messaging, examining web sites, and e-mailing all begin to increase substantially in time use at the age of 11. The growth in popularity of two of these computer applications, IM-ing and e-mailing, is most likely attributable to the increase in the desire to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances that marks adolescence. The increased IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 21
  • 41.
    22 Demograpics andPreferences attraction of the third application, visiting web sites, probably repre- sents the emerging interest among preteen and teenagers in sports, musical performers, and other aspects of popular culture. Although computer use increases with age, video game use decreases (see Table 1.1). The 8- to 10-year-olds are the heaviest users of video game technology, spending an average of one hour and five minutes daily. The estimate declines (but not significantly) to 52 minutes among the 11- to 14-year-olds and then takes a nosedive to 33 minutes per day among the 15- to 18-year-olds. As with television use, perhaps with more demands on the time of older teenagers (including extracur- ricular activities at school, socializing with friends, and romantic interests), video game playing begins to lose some of its allure. Gender differences appear. Boys and girls do not differ substantially in the amount of time they spend with computers, but they are distinct in terms of how they allocate that time. Boys spend significantly more time playing games on the computer than girls (22 minutes per day compared to 15). On the other hand, girls spend more time instant messaging (20 minutes per day vs. 14), visiting web sites (16 minutes vs. 12), and e-mailing (6 minutes vs. 4). We concur with the speculation of Roberts and colleagues (2005) that the differences likely stem from gender socialization in which girls learn to be more social and com- municative. Boys are more likely to play and to spend longer periods of time with video games. Almost two-thirds (63%) of all of the boys in the Roberts and colleagues (2005) sample were likely to have played video games on any given day, compared to 40 percent of girls. Aston- ishingly, boys spend three times longer playing video games than girls—one hour and 12 minutes versus 25 minutes. This is the result of the symbiosis between video game marketing and male interests. The video game industry has come to market its product primarily to males (Scharrer, 2004) because video games lend themselves to action, retri- bution, and violent conflict (Thompson & Haninger, 2001) that are more appealing to males than females. Computer use is related to race and ethnicity of the child as well as to socioeconomic status. No significant differences emerge in the amount of time spent once on the computer. However, White non- Latino young people are more likely to use a computer each day com- pared to African Americans or Latinos. There is a 10 to 13 percentage point difference in likelihood of use, with 57 percent of the Whites using the computer on any given day versus 44 percent of African Americans and 47 percent of Latinos. There are also differences in com- puter applications, with African Americans less likely to play games and to engage in instant messaging. Despite increased adoption of com- puters in the home, parental education and income continue to predict
  • 42.
    likelihood of use.On any given day, almost two-thirds (62%) of chil- dren whose parents have completed college use the computer, com- pared to 47 percent of children whose parents have a high school educa- tion and 51 percent of children whose parents have some college education. The figures for family income parallel those for parental education. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of those children whose families fall into the high income category used a computer the day before com- pared to 47 percent of low income and 50 percent of middle income families. A “digital divide” continues to characterize computer access and use in the United States. Surprisingly, despite the high cost of console systems and games, household income does not predict differences in video game use in the most recent data of Roberts and colleagues (2005). Other demographic variables do. The relationship between video game use and parental education is curvilinear. The middle parental education category records the lowest amount of time; in both the low and the high cate- gories, use is higher. There are also significant differences associated with race or ethnicity. African Americans spend longer periods of time playing either console-based or handheld games than White, non-Lati- nos (who played for the shortest periods) and Latinos (whose playing time was in between). C. Preferences in Interactive Media by Children and Teens With the immense and uncharted domain that constitutes the Internet, it is a daunting task to attempt to ascertain preferences. Similarly, the vast stores of games available to the young consumer make the specifica- tions of preferences difficult. We nevertheless find some answers in the surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation (Rideout et al., 2003; Roberts et al., 2005; Roberts & Foehr, 2004) as well as in several other sources. The youngest children spend nearly all their time on the computer playing games. The Roberts and Foehr (2004) figures indicate that for 2- to 7-year-olds this activity is almost wholly made up of “educational games, children’s games, or arts and crafts games” (p. 129). Playing games with content that is violent or otherwise arguably inappropriate is very rare among this younger set, with just 6 percent of 5- to 7-year- olds and absolutely no 2- to 4-year-olds exposed to action or combat games. Action and combat games quickly gain a foothold among preferences of preteens and teenagers. They are favorites of 22 percent of those aged eight to 10, 20 percent of those 11 to 14, and 25 percent of those 15 to 18 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Classic or gambling games are popular in the older age groups, too, as are sports games, adventure games, and simulation games. IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 23
  • 43.
    24 Demograpics andPreferences Computer applications other than gaming also display wide variation in preferences (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). The most popular web sites to visit for the 11- to 18-year-olds include entertainment sites (51% of 11- to 14-year-olds chose this option, as did 62% of 15- to 18-year-olds), sports sites (chosen by 31% and 17%, respectively), and sites chosen for research or to obtain information (13% and 21%, respectively). For the 8- to 10-year-olds, entertainment web sites again were chosen by many (46%), followed by gaming sites (43%), sports sites (18%), and shopping venues (15%). Specific chatrooms included the same topics as the web sites. However, hobbies/groups and relationships/lifestyles also gained adherents, demonstrating the desire of a number of young people to “talk” to others about their hobbies, interests, and relationships. In the case of video games, gender differences in preferences are striking. In fact, differences between boys and girls are so pronounced that in one study, a national, randomly drawn survey of 1- to 12-year- olds, they occur within all three major racial/ethnic groups (in the authors’ categorization, European Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans) (Bickham, Vandewater, Huston, Lee, Caplo- vitz & Wright, 2003). Thus, we focus on differences between boys and girls. Boys find games that contain violence more appealing than girls do (Funk & Buchman, 1996). Recent research has not only supported that finding but also offers a number of potential explanations. Sherry and Lucas (2003) and Lucas and Sherry (2004) located important gender dif- ferences in reports of uses and gratifications of video game use, includ- ing levels of desire for competition, to challenge oneself, to engage in fantasy, and to become aroused through exciting game play, all lower for female respondents compared to males. Lucas and Sherry (2004) similarly found distinct genre preferences for young men compared to young women. Although their sample consists of 593 college-aged respondents, we argue that, because of the stability of gender orienta- tions across age as well as the robustness of their findings, their results are likely to extrapolate to teenagers and quite probably to those some- what younger. The young women were more likely to prefer traditional games such as those based on cards or dice, “old-fashioned” arcade games like PacMan or Frogger, puzzle games like Tetris, classic board games like Monopoly that had been converted into video games, and trivia games. Conversely, the young men were more likely to like sports games, fighter and shooter games, fantasy/role-playing games, and action adventure games. The authors observe that because games usually are typed as the domain of men and boys, an additional deter- rent to girls playing video games is the assumption that to do so requires crossing traditional gender role behavior.
  • 44.
    The Roberts andFoehr (2004) data certainly support the extension of the Lucas and Sherry’s (2004) results to children and teens. In games played on the computer, they find “boys dominate the action/combat, adventure, sports, and strategic and simulation categories” (p. 130) whereas girls were likely to prefer just one type of game more than boys, the classic and gambling category. This latter category is similar to the cards/dice, and traditional board game groups preferred by girls in the Lucas and Sherry (2004) data. In games played using video game consoles or handheld devices, Roberts and Foehr (2004) found boys again prefer the “action-oriented games,” including the action/combat, sports, and simulation/strategic genres. The allure of the fast-paced, often aggressive action gaming genre begins early in middle childhood (around the age of 8) and continues into the early teens. D. Interactive Media Use by the Very Young Children are using interactive media at early stages of life. Experience with the computer grows exponentially between the ages of two and four to six. Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) found that while only 11 percent of children under the age of two had used a computer, by the time a child enters the 4- to 6-year-old age range, 70 percent had done so. On any given day, just over one-fourth (27%) of all 4- to 6-year- olds used computers, and amount of time spent daily among those who have used the computer averages over one hour (1:04). In the most recent data encompassing six-month to six-year-olds, 16 percent were reported to use a computer on a typical day, for 50 minutes, on average (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). The favorite web sites listed by parents clearly demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between television and computer, and they included Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Noggin, Disney, PBS Kids, and Sesame Street (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Computer- related knowledge develops quickly in this age group, as apparent in the Rideout and colleagues (2003) data: More than half of all children in this age group (56%) have used a computer by themselves (without sitting in their parent’s lap); 64% know how to use a mouse to point and click; 40% can load a CD- ROM by themselves; 37% have turned the computer on by them- selves; and 17% have sent e-mail with help from a parent. (p. 5) By the year 2001, computer and Internet use among children and adolescents was greater than among adults (DeBell & Chapman, 2003). Recent highly reliable figures released by the U.S. Department of Edu- cation were gathered using the Current Population Survey conducted in 2003 with an astoundingly large national probability sample of IV. Media Exposure: Interactive Media 25
  • 45.
    26 Demograpics andPreferences households—29,000 children ranging from nursery-school (preschool) age to twelfth grade. Two-thirds (67%) of preschoolers aged two to five had used a computer before, and 23 percent had used the Internet (see Table 1.2). Kindergartners in the sample, typically five or six years of age, are even more likely to have used both forms of technology (80% for computers, 32% for the Internet). As children progress through the grades, the gap between general computer use and Internet use closes. Table 1.2 Percentage of Nursery/Preschool Through Twelfth Grade Students Who Use Computers and the Internet at Home, at School, or at Work. Computer use Internet use TOTAL 91% 59% Age Nursery school 67% 23% Kindergarten 80 32 1st–5th grade 91 50 6th–8th grade 95 70 9th–12th grade 97 80 Gender Female 91% 61% Male 91 58 Race/ethnicity White/Non-Hispanic 93% 67% Hispanic 85 44 Black/Non-Hispanic 86 47 Asian or Pacific Islander 91 58 American Indian, Aleut or Eskimo 88 50 More than one race 92 65 Parental education Less than high school 82% 37% High school credential 89 54 Some college 93 63 Bachelor’s degree 92 67 Some graduate educ. 95 73 Household income Under $20,000 85% 41% $20,000–34,999 87 50 $35,000–49,999 93 62 $50,000–74,999 93 66 $75,000 or more 95 74 Adapted from U.S. Department of Education. (2005). Rates of computer and internet use by children in nursery school and students in kindergarten through twelfth grade: 2003. Accessed 6/27/05 at http://nces.ed.gov/ pubs2005/2005111.pdf.
  • 46.
    By the timethey are in high school, 97 percent have used a computer and 80 percent the Internet. These high levels are facilitated by the availability of computers and access to the Internet in schools. The U.S. Department of Education (2003) claims virtually all public schools in the United States have Internet connections and the overall ratio is one computer for every five children. In contrast, video game use is modest and sporadic among the very young. Thirty percent of the parents of all the six-month to six-year- olds in the Rideout and colleagues (2003) sample reported that their children had played video games sometime in the past. However, only 9 percent reported use on a typical day (spending an average of just five minutes). The comparable figure in the most recent data was 11 per- cent who reported an average of six minutes spent with video games on a typical day (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). Amount of time spent playing video games varied considerably when analyses were run with non- video game users removed. Among only those that did engage in video game use, the daily exposure time jumped to 55 minutes (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). As the child grows up, however, video game use increases, presum- ably as a function of increased ability to manipulate the controls and to maintain attention. Among 4- to 6-year-olds, video game use on any given day occurs among 16 percent and amount of time spent playing swells to just over an hour (1:04) (Rideout et al., 2003). Nonetheless, among very young children levels of daily exposure to video games are dwarfed by exposure to television. V. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER We turn now to overall amount of media exposure and use (which are not the same thing), simultaneous attention to more than one medium at a time, and the distribution of time across various media. We then address the issue of access to media in the bedrooms of children and teenagers, as well as other indications of the degree of centrality of media in the home. Finally, we invoke the typology of young media users intro- duced by Roberts and Foehr (2004) to capture particular orientations among children and teens toward the various forms of media. A. Total Time Spent with Each Type of Media It is both tempting and informative to simply add up the amount of time spent with each of the media reported by Roberts and colleagues (Rob- erts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) to arrive at an estimate of over- all exposure. Yet these authors point out that such a technique loses a degree of accuracy in time allocation to media because it does not take V. Putting It All Together 27
  • 47.
    28 Demograpics andPreferences into account use of more than one medium at a time. Thus, it neglects a phenomenon that is quite common, attending at least passingly to more than one medium at a time—a teenager watching TV while also communicating with friends on the computer, a child leafing through a magazine or book while a DVD of a favorite program plays in the back- ground. In fact, the ability to “multitask” is commonly thought of as a newly developed skill of today’s youngsters who have grown up with a number of sights and sounds continually demanding their attention (Christenson & Roberts, 1998; Lenhart, Rainie & Lewis, 2001). For this reason, Roberts and colleagues (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Rob- erts et al., 2005) employ a two-part strategy. They report both “media exposure,” the sum of time spent with each medium, and “media use,” the amount of time devoted to media overall after accounting for simultaneous use of two or more media. They provide an instructive example: ... imagine a teenager who spends two hours watching just TV, one hour reading and listening to music simultaneously, and another hour playing a video game while streaming music on her computer. Her total media exposure would be six hours (TV = 2; music = 2; reading = 1; video gaming = 1). However, her media use (i.e., the number of actual hours of the day that she devotes to media) would be four hours (TV = 2; music + print = 1; video games + music = 1). (2005, p. 35, emphasis in original) Roberts and colleagues (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) use diary data collected from a subsample of their total number of respondents to measure media use, adjusting for overlapping media time. Estimates of media use obviously are typically lower than total media exposure estimates, because the former does not “double- count ... overlapping use” (2005, p. 36). Among all the 8- to 18-year-olds in the latest data collected in 2003 (Roberts et al., 2005), the grand total for overall media exposure per day is an extraordinary eight hours and 33 minutes. The grand total for over- all media use per day is an only slightly less dramatic six hours and 21 minutes. (Remember that these data do not include media exposure in school, and so therefore the “true” total of time spent with media daily has the potential to be even larger.) About one-fourth of all time spent with media thus can be described as multitasking, and that proportion is uniform across most (but not all) subgroups. These figures testify that the daily lives of today’s children and teenagers are saturated with media. Young people today are immersed in media for the better part of their waking hours, and will spend more time with media than with any other activity besides sleeping (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999).
  • 48.
    Gender differences intotal amounts of exposure or use are negligible (see Table 1.3). So, too, are differences associated with parental educa- tion. However, two intriguing demographic patterns surface. First, total media exposure is significantly higher among African Americans compared to White non-Latinos and Latinos (see Table 1.3). However, total media use shows only modest differences among the three groups, thereby identifying simultaneous media use as largely responsible for the differences. Indeed, the African American kids in the sample reported 36 percent of their time spent with media is multitasking, whereas the two other racial or ethnic groups reported 21 to 27 percent. V. Putting It All Together 29 Table 1.3 Total Media Exposure and Total Media Use for 8- to 18-Year-Olds, by Age, Gender, Race, Parent Education, and Income* Total exposure Total use Overall 8:33 6:21 Age 8 to 10 8:05 5:52 11 to 14 8:41 6:33 15 to 18 8:44 6:31 Gender Boys 8:38 6:21 Girls 8:27 6:19 Race White (non-Latino) 7:58 6:15 Black (non-Latino) 10:10 6:30 Latino 8:52 6:30 Parent education High school or less 8:30 5:54 Some college 8:02 6:26 College graduate 8:55 6:42 Income Under $35,000 8:40 5:02 $35,000–50,000 8:28 6:25 Over $50,000 8:34 6:44 *The only statistically significant differences in the table are for total exposure for Black young people compared to both White and Latino young people, and total exposure for some college education of parents compared to the other two parental education groups. All other differences are not statistically significant. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Fam- ily Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Accessed 6/30/05 at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/ 7250.cfm.
  • 49.
    30 Demograpics andPreferences Roberts and colleagues observe,“... the more than 2 1/2 hour difference between White and Black kids in media exposure is reduced to just 15 minutes when we look at media use” (2005, p. 36). Second, income levels predict proportion of time spent multitasking. Kids from fami- lies in the lowest income brackets have the highest levels of exposure but lowest levels of media use (due to their high rate of multitasking, 42 percent of all their media time). The middle and upper income chil- dren multitask at a much lower rate of 24 and 22 percent, respectively, and therefore the discrepancies between their media exposure and media use totals are less severe. Diary data on media exposure and use were also collected in 1999 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). Exposure to some form of media (television, print, and audio) has remained remarkably stable across the five-year period between 1999 and 2004, and exposure to other screen media (videotapes, DVDs, movies) has seen only a minor increase (see Table 1.4). On the other hand, the “new” media forms of computers and video games have shown significant growth in amount of exposure. (As we previously noted, computer exposure doubled over the five years, and video game use increased from an average of 26 minutes to 49 min- utes per day.) Increases in amount of exposure to interactive media thus largely account for an overall increase in media exposure from about seven-and-a-half hours in 1999 to eight-and-a-half hours in 2004. When taking into account simultaneous exposure to more than one Table 1.4 Comparisons of the Total Media Exposure and Total Media Use Figures for 8- to 18-Year-Olds over a Five-Year Span Medium 1999 2004 TV 3:05 3:04 Videos/DVDs/movies 0:59 1:11 Print media 0:43 0:43 Audio media 1:48 1:44 Computers 0:27* 1:02* Video games 0:26* 0:49* TOTAL EXPOSURE 7:29* 8:33* TOTAL USE 6:19 6:21 *These are the only statistically significant changes over time. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.Accessed6/30/05athttp://www.kff.org/entmedia/7250. cfm.
  • 50.
    medium, estimates ofuse have barely changed at all. Increased amounts of time spent with interactive media occur largely within the parame- ters of simultaneous media use and have not expanded time allocated to media. With other demands on their time, including such obligatory or valued activities as school, sports, band practice, clubs, hobbies, and, of course, socializing, young people apparently cannot allocate greater amounts of time to media than they do at present. Roberts and colleagues (2005) speculate that the stability in total media use between 1999 and 2004 (despite substantial increases in media exposure) “may represent a ceiling in the amount of time young people can or will devote to using media” (p. 37). B. How Time Spent Using Media Is Divided Roberts and colleagues (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005) compellingly record that television, perhaps surprisingly to some, con- tinues to dominate time spent by young people with media. Much has been made of the power of interactive media to transform daily life, and interactive media do play an integral and growing part in the daily lives of children and adolescents in the United States. Nonetheless, television unambiguously ranks as Number One. It accounts for 35 percent of all the leisure time young people spend with media. The dominance of screen media in general is also evident in the data. When time spent with television is combined with time spent with other screen media (movies, DVDs, videotapes), the percentage of the total media budget climbs to 48 percent. Thus, nearly half of all time spent with media is dedicated to screen media. The dominance of television in particular and screen media in general holds across time and across subgroups. There is little reason to believe that the percentage of media time allocated to screen media has eroded dramatically over recent years in the face of continued adoption of inter- active media technologies. In the five-year span measured, percentage of time devoted to screen media dropped just three percentage points (a difference well within the range of sampling error), having registered at 51 percent of total media time in 1999 (Roberts & Foehr, 2004; Roberts et al., 2005). There is also no indication that such dominance appears only in some subgroups and not others. Proportion of total media time allotted to television is stable across gender, race, parent education, and income. Only age of the child moderates the size of the television por- tion of the media budget, with a significant decline occurring in the teenage years, at the same time that the audio portion of the budget increases significantly. Television accounts for approximately 38 percent of total media time at 8 to 10 and 11 to 14 years of age and declines to 28 percent of total media time at 15 to 18 years of age. V. Putting It All Together 31
  • 51.
    32 Demograpics andPreferences With screen media taking up the major share of total time spent with media, smaller shares remain to be divided among other media. Audio media enjoys the largest share, accounting for 22 percent of the overall media budget, followed by print media and computers with each con- tributing 11 percent (Roberts et al., 2005). Video games earn the smallest proportion of time spent with media at 9 percent. Audio media enjoy ever-increasing amounts of media time throughout childhood and ado- lescence, growing from only 14 percent of total media time among the 8- to 10-year-olds to 30 percent of the total media time of 15- to 18-year- olds (when it catches up with television). Computer use also increases with age from a low of 7 percent of total media time in the youngest group to 15 percent in the oldest. Conversely, time within the media budget allocated to video game play decreases as the child grows up, from 12 percent of total media time among the youngest to 6 percent among the oldest. Computer use is the only major medium to have shown a statisti- cally significant change in the five-year period covered by the data. Media time budgeted in favor of computer use increased significantly from a mere 6 percent of overall media time in 1999 to 11 percent in 2004 (Roberts et al., 2005). The rise in percentage of media time spent with the computer was accompanied by a minor decrease in percentage of media time spent with television—TV accounted for 40 percent of total media time in 1999 and 35 percent in 2004—but the change is not statistically significant (again, it is well within the range of sampling error). Furthermore, the dip in percentage of time devoted to television is offset by a slight (nonsignificant) increase in percentage of time devoted to other screen media (from 11% to 13%). At this time, fore- casts predicting the abandonment of television and other screen media in favor of the computer among the nation’s youth are clearly prema- ture and quite possibly misguided. In fact, although a study by the NPD group garnered news headlines in May, 2006 with claims that desktop computers and video games were more commonly owned than television sets by children under 14, we believe the nature of the meth- odology—over 3,000 parents were surveyed on the Internet—renders the results less generalizable and the claims more dubious than the data that we have focused on here (NPD, 2006). C. Prevalence of Media in the Home With the immense amount of time young people spend with the media, it will be of no surprise to learn that most media are readily available within the typical American household. Today’s child grows up in an environment adorned with media. It’s a far distance from the single
  • 52.
    radio receiver, recordplayer, and/or television set often used to enter- tain and inform members of the household both young and old in the increasingly distant past. Typically, several media are available in the home but there is also considerable variation in the media environ- ment of households. One distinguishing feature is the degree of cen- trality of television in the family’s daily life (How frequently is the set turned on? Are there any rules or norms limiting its use?)—a factor that has surprising implications for the presence and use of other media within the home. 1. The Media Environment Most households are equipped with a large number of devices that bring media content to the consumer (Roberts et al., 2005). Nearly every household containing a person aged eight to 18 has a television (99%), a VCR (97%), a radio (97%), and a CD and/or tape player (98%). Only slightly fewer contain a computer (86%), a video game system (83%), and the capacity to go on the Inter- net (74%). More than half (60%) of homes with young people boast instant messaging potential, thereby making possible the substantial amount of time allocated to this form of communication. In fact, the norm for in-home media availability is not just to have one of each medium but, in many cases, to have more than one. The average number of television sets in households with children and teen- agers is 3.5 (up from 3.1 in 1999), and the average number of VCRs is 2.9 (up from 2.0). Audio media abound, as well, with an average of 3.6 CD/ tape players and 3.3 radios in the home. Even video game systems are found in multiples, with an average of 2.1 per household (up from 1.7). The average number of computers in the household has grown from 1.1 in 1999 to 1.5, an increase that is statistically significant. The number of media available to children and teens in the home has led to a change in semantics among those collecting these data, who note that the phrase “media rich” no longer adequately captures the scene (Roberts et al., 2005). They suggest that “media saturation” is now the best descrip- tor, and we would certainly not dispute such a characterization. The diffusion of technological developments have continually made television more attractive (Roberts et al., 2005). Cable or satellite trans- mission is present in 82 percent of households with children to bring a multitude of channel choices. Just over half (55%) subscribe to pre- mium cable (a popular choice for families with young children, many of whom would like to tune in Disney or Nick Jr. programs at any time of the day). A full one-third of all children in the United States live in a home with a DVR unit that provides enormous flexibility in search- ing out desired programs (digital video recording—the most popular brand is called TiVo but many cable companies are offering these V. Putting It All Together 33
  • 53.
    34 Demograpics andPreferences services as well). Flat-screen, plasma, giant size, and high definition television (HDTV) all make viewing more visually pleasurable. 2. Media Use in the Bedroom Not only are many and varied media located within the homes of children and teenagers, but most have con- siderable access to media within their own bedrooms. Many media these days are “personal media” for the express use of the young people. In the bedroom, the individual child or teenager usually has control over a tele- vision, and often a VCR, CD or DVD player, a video game system, or a computer, without the need to negotiate choices with other members of the family or to respond to the concerns of parents or caregivers regarding violence, sex, or other potentially objectionable content. The extensiveness of media available to the typical youngster in the United States within their very own personal space, is astonishing (see Table 1.5). In the 2003 Roberts and colleagues (2005) data, there was a television set in the bedroom of 68 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds. Fifty- four percent had a VCR or DVD. Thirty-seven percent of those Table 1.5 Percent of Children and Teens with Bedrooms Containing Each Type of Media Age % 0–6 8–10 11–14 15–18 TV 36% 69% 68% 68% Cable TV —* 32 38 40 Premium cable — 16 21 20 DVR — 8 13 9 VCR/DVD 27 47 56 56 Radio 46 74 85 91 CD/Tape player 42 75 89 92 Computer 7 23 31 37 Internet 3 10 21 27 Video game player 10 52 52 41 *Not measured. Adapted from Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G. & Rideout, V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Fam- ily Foundation. Also from Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A. & War- tella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
  • 54.
    with a TVset had a cable or satellite connection. Just under half (49%) had a video game system in their rooms. Almost one third (30%) had a computer, and 20 percent of the time that computer had an Internet connection. Several of these personal media showed substantial growth in their presence in the bedrooms of youngsters between the years 1999 and 2004 (Roberts et al., 2005). Televisions, almost universal in 1999, were no more likely to be present, but the accompaniment of a VCR or DVD became more likely, as did the likelihood that the television set receives cable/satellite or premium cable services. The existence of a computer in the bedroom increased 10 percentage points, and the likelihood of a supplemental Internet connection doubled. There is compelling evi- dence, therefore, that the entertainment and information options per- sonally available to the children or teenagers within the home, already considerable, continue to expand. Sizeable numbers of children and teenagers in the United States have personal access to a number of additional communication technologies. In the 2004 survey (Roberts et al., 2005), 61 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds had a portable CD or tape player and 55 percent owned a handheld video game player. Forty percent had a telephone in their bedroom, and 39 percent owned a cell phone. Computer-based and digital technologies are becoming more widespread, as well. For example, 18 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds had the ability to engage in instant messaging in their bed- rooms and the same number (18%) owned an MP3 player (used to down- load, store, and playback music digitally). Thirteen percent had a hand- held Internet device (such as a cell phone that connects to the Internet), 12 percent a laptop computer of their own, and 11 percent a personal digital assistant such as a Palm Pilot. Today’s young person is increas- ingly wired to the Internet, has the ability to reach friends through a cell phone or instant messenger, and may even have handy, high-tech, por- table devices to bring along in the car, at the beach, or elsewhere. A fair number of even the youngest children have personal media within easy reach in the bedroom (see Table 1.5). Rideout and col- leagues (2003) record that 43 percent of 4- to 6-year-olds and 30 percent of six-month to three-year-olds had a television in their bedroom. In addition to the one-third of six-month to six-year-olds that had their own television, 27 percent had their own VCR or DVD player and 10 percent had their own video game playing system in their room. Audio media are frequently present in the rooms of the very young. Forty-six percent had their own radio and 41 percent their own CD or tape player. As would be expected, on the other hand, computers were rare. Just 7 percent of six-month-olds to six-year-olds has a computer in the bedroom. The figures changed very little in the most recent data V. Putting It All Together 35
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    Another Random ScribdDocument with Unrelated Content
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    They then proceededto discuss the question of the other persons to be invited. Madame Droguet named her own particular friends, and Thélénie asked with an indifferent air: “Haven’t you a certain Madame Dalmont here—a so-called widow, who has a young woman living with her?” “Yes, we have,” replied Madame Droguet with a sneering smile. “But, between us, dear Madame de Belleville, I don’t think that they are people worthy to be received at your house. In the first place, they are not polite. When they came here to live they did not call upon us as is customary.” “That indicates at once a lack of savoir-vivre.” “Does it not, madame? Then they have struck up a friendship with a very low-lived person, a sort of wolf, whom nobody in the neighborhood cared to know, and who seems to be on the best of terms with them already. He walks home with them at night. And then——” “What! isn’t that all?” “A young man from Paris, named Edmond Didier, hired a house here in Chelles, soon after those strangers came here. And since he’s been here, he passes almost all his time at their house, until it’s got to be a perfect scandal. I am not evil-minded certainly, but there are things one can’t help seeing.—Let your waistcoat alone, Droguet, and button yourself up!” “What you tell me on the subject of these women, madame, does not surprise me in the least,” cried Thélénie, delighted by what she had heard. “We have known Monsieur Edmond Didier a long while; my husband was once very intimate with him——” At this point, Chamoureau, who had not been able as yet to put in a word and had confined himself to watching Monsieur Droguet as he felt for the missing buttons or wrenched off the others,—Chamoureau thought that he saw an opportunity to speak. “Yes,” he said, “I used to know Monsieur Edmond Didier—that is to say, through Freluchon, who used—at the time when——” Thélénie made haste to cut him short: “In fact, madame, we heard in Paris that Monsieur Edmond had formed a liaison unworthy of him, which distressed his family; for what you have told me of this Dalmont woman corresponds perfectly with what people think of her in Paris, where she is looked upon as a scheming adventuress;
  • 57.
    and doubtless heryoung friend is little better; birds of a feather flock together.” Madame de Belleville, who was doing her best to play the grande dame, forgot that it was not good form to quote proverbs; but it was as right as possible in the eyes of Madame Droguet, who was radiant with delight and exclaimed: “You hear, Droguet; they’re adventuresses, nobodies! I was sure of it, myself; I am never mistaken in my conjectures; didn’t I say so, only last night, to Doctor Antoine, who undertook to stand up for them!—Just be sick, Droguet, be sick, my dear man; I tell you beforehand that I won’t send for the doctor.” Monsieur Droguet, who had finally found one button of his waistcoat firmly attached, had just buttoned it with an air of proud satisfaction, and seemed to pay little heed to what his wife said. At that moment Chamoureau was seized with a paroxysm of sneezing, which ended in a shower and spattered his neighbors; he hurriedly drew his handkerchief, to make his nose presentable; but in his haste to unfold it, he threw into Madame Droguet’s face an object which slid down that lady’s cheek into her bosom, where it disappeared. She uttered a shriek, her husband jumped backward, and Thélénie glared sternly at Chamoureau, as she demanded: “What was that you threw at madame?” “I, threw something at madame! why I had nothing to throw.” Meanwhile Madame Droguet had thrown herself back in her chair, shrieking frantically: “Oh! take it away! oh! the horrid beast! what kind of a creature is it? It’s still there; it’s slipped down inside my corsets! Take it away! take it away! or I’ll scratch someone!” Chamoureau stared at her with a terrified expression, but he did not move. Monsieur Droguet let his wife shriek, while he tried obstinately to put another button through its buttonhole. “Well! does neither of you propose to assist madame?” Thélénie asked them. “It seems to me,” muttered Chamoureau, “that it isn’t for me to go fumbling in that lady’s corsets; that’s her husband’s business.”
  • 58.
    Madame Droguet, seeingthat no one came to her assistance, concluded to put her right hand inside her dress. She brought to light a small goldfish which its enforced sojourn in a warm pocket had deprived of a great part of its activity. “A goldfish!” murmured Madame Droguet in amazement. “What! monsieur,” she added, somewhat reassured when she found that it was not a frog which she had been warming in her bosom, “do you carry goldfish in your handkerchief?” Chamoureau, as the explanation of the incident began to dawn upon him, turned as red as his fish, and did not know what to say. But Thélénie at once spoke up and told the story of the accident which had happened to her husband, and which explained the presence of an inhabitant of the pond in his coat pocket, unsuspected by him. Thereupon they ended by laughing at the episode, and to obtain full forgiveness for the fish, Thélénie invited the Droguet family to dinner on the Thursday following. The invitation was accepted with profuse thanks and compliments, and Monsieur and Madame de Belleville took their leave; the Droguets escorted them to their calèche, and they parted well pleased with one another. “Please examine your pockets, monsieur,” said Thélénie, “and make sure that there are no more goldfish in them, for I have no desire that you should throw any more of them in the faces of the people we are going to call upon.” “I have no more in my pockets, madame.” “I am not surprised that you have such a horrible smell of fish about you; why didn’t you change your coat?” “Because I haven’t any other black one that fits me, madame.” “Then you must have another one made, monsieur; I believe that you are rich enough to have more than one coat.” On leaving Madame Droguet’s, Thélénie drove to the Remplumés, then to the Jarnouillards, then to the mayor’s, and to all the leading people of the place, who were extremely flattered by the courtesies and the invitations they received from Monsieur and Madame de Belleville. Thélénie overlooked neither Monsieur Luminot nor the doctor; she left at their houses invitations to dine with her on the Thursday following. Then they returned to Goldfish Villa, and Chamoureau said to himself:
  • 59.
    “I propose tostay quietly in my room, for fear some other unpleasant accident may happen to me.” Thélénie, for her part, was well content with her day. She had begun a campaign of calumny against the persons whom Edmond visited, and she was persuaded that her spiteful words would soon be repeated and exaggerated, for calumny is the most agreeable pastime of fools. They would be of so little account in the world, if they did not speak ill of their neighbors.
  • 60.
    X AMI BRINGS CERTAINPERSONS TOGETHER When the lovelorn Edmond returned from Paris, his first thought always was to go to Madame Dalmont’s to pay his respects to the two friends and to indulge himself in the pleasure of reading Agathe’s thoughts in her eyes. They did not fail to tell him the story of the sale, although Honorine attempted to pass over in silence the circumstances that redounded to her credit; but Agathe told everything. “Why shouldn’t you tell of your own good deeds?” she said; “as they say so much ill of us in the neighborhood, that will be some little compensation.” “Say ill of you! who has the presumption to do anything of the sort, when you deserve nothing but praise?” exclaimed Edmond with great heat. “I have known you only a short time, mesdames, but, thank heaven! I soon learned to appreciate you! You are not of those persons whose hearts are a mystery; yours are so kind, so humane!—What Madame Dalmont did for those people doesn’t surprise me in the least; if she were wealthy, I am sure that there would be no unfortunates in her neighborhood! I confess, too, that I feel strongly drawn toward that strange man, the owner of the Tower, concerning whom the people hereabout spread such absurd reports. When calumny is rife concerning a person whom I do not know, it always serves to commend that person to me. What he did for the farmer’s family was grand, noble, touching! it was like a gust of wind which swept away in an instant all the petty slanders that were current concerning him!—But I beg you to answer my question: who has spoken ill of you?” The two friends were silent for some time; Agathe blushed and looked at the floor. At last Honorine decided to speak. “Agathe thinks that we ought to tell you everything, bad as well as good; so we will speak frankly, once and for all; I believe, in truth, that that is the best course to follow.
  • 61.
    “First of all,Monsieur Edmond, I must begin by reassuring you, by begging you to believe that the remarks which are made about us do not affect us in the least. You have heard of a certain Madame Droguet——” “That inquisitive woman, who hid a whole day in the bushes, watching for Monsieur Paul to pass,” added Agathe. “And who received Freluchon so ill because he called at her house to ask for me?” “That is the woman; the specimens of her social circle who came to see us gave us no desire to know it in its entirety, so we have not called on Madame Droguet, or her friends Mesdames Jarnouillard and Remplumé. That was our first offence, but it was a very grave one! to fail to show to those ladies the consideration that was their due, and thereby to announce that we did not care for their society—that was an insult which they could not forgive. They began thereupon to discover that we were suspicious characters. Then, as you know, chance willed that we should, on two occasions, accept the escort of the proprietor of the Tower; he walked home with us one evening when a cow had frightened me almost to death, and another time when we were surprised by a violent storm in the country. In a small place like this, it rarely happens that one returns home without being seen by someone. We were noticed in the company of that gentleman, who has shown no desire for their company,—indeed, I believe that I was leaning on his arm, which necessarily intensified the wrath of those ladies, —and he who, during the nine years, more or less, that he has lived in this part of the country, has steadfastly refused all relations with the local notabilities, actually offers his arm to us—the newest of newcomers! That incident was the source of a thousand and one absurd remarks. I come now to another fact which has furnished a subject of calumny to all these people: you hired a house at Chelles shortly after we came here to live; you hired a whole house for your single self.” “What business is that of theirs? I paid six months’ rent in advance.” “What business is it of theirs? why, monsieur, everything is the business of those who have nothing to do but to try to find out what is going on among their neighbors. Well, you come to see us—often; you call upon no one else in the place; therefore people are bound to think that you—that you take pleasure in our society.”
  • 62.
    “Ah! madame, doyou tell me this to make me come less often? Would you forbid my coming to see you?” “I do not say that; but——” Honorine seemed embarrassed; Agathe was trembling from head to foot; and Edmond hesitated no longer. “Madame!” he said, “I like to believe that, seeing me come to your house so persistently, you have never supposed that I was led to come by a blameworthy desire, a frivolous sentiment. But I realize, nevertheless, that it is better that I should explain myself, that I should speak to you frankly, that I should follow your example in everything. I must not leave any basis for hateful suspicions. Madame, if I tell you that I love, that I adore Mademoiselle Agathe, I shall tell you nothing that you do not know; for you must have divined that love, which it would have been very difficult for me to conceal! But, when I avow my passion for her, is not that equivalent to saying that my sole desire is to call her my wife, and that that will be my greatest joy? If I have not told you earlier, it was because I wanted to know —I wanted to be sure if Mademoiselle——” “He wanted to be sure that I loved him, you see, my dear!” cried Agathe, unable longer to restrain her joy. “And now he is very sure of it; that is what he was waiting for before speaking.” “Why, Agathe! what are you saying?” exclaimed Honorine; while the girl, confused by what had escaped her lips, relapsed into speechless agitation. But Edmond impetuously threw himself at Honorine’s feet, saying: “In pity’s name, madame, do not reprove her, and do not force her to unsay those words which have made me so happy!” Honorine gazed at the lovers for a few moments, then smiled and took a hand of each. “Be calm, my children!” said she; “I do not look very stern, I imagine. Come, sit here beside me, and let us talk.—You love Agathe—yes, I do not doubt it; I had guessed as much; and it is because I have faith in your honor that I have allowed your visits. She loves you, too; why should I blame her for it, if this exchange of sentiments is to result in your happiness? You wish to be her husband, but first of all it is essential that you should know the whole story of her to whom you wish to give your name.
  • 63.
    “Agathe bears onlyher mother’s name—Montoni. Julia, her unfortunate mother, was loved by a young man of noble birth, Comte Adhémar de Hautmont. He did not abandon the woman who had given herself to him; he loved her dearly and intended to make her his wife; but, in order to avoid a rupture with his family, he was waiting until circumstances should favor his projected marriage. Alas! the young man suddenly disappeared; Julia never saw him again, never heard from him in any way; and when he left her, it was with a promise to see her soon, and he covered his daughter, then six years old, with kisses.” “Why, that is most extraordinary! Did he not return to his family?” “No; Julia caused inquiries to be made; she was unable to learn anything concerning her child’s father, and six years later the poor mother placed her daughter in my care, saying: “‘I am dying; take care of my Agathe, who has no one but you to love her.’ “That, monsieur, is all that there is to tell concerning her whom you desire to call your wife; and that it was absolutely necessary to tell you.” “Oh! madame, you do not think, I trust, that that can in any degree lessen my love for her or my desire to make her the companion of my life.” “You see, my dear, it doesn’t change his sentiments at all; I was sure that it would not!” “Dear Agathe, your mother’s misfortunes can but make you the more interesting in my eyes. But your father’s sudden disappearance seems to me most extraordinary; it must be connected with some mysterious occurrence —with some crime, perhaps; who knows?” “Ah! we have very often thought that.” “And there has never been any clue, any circumstance to put you on the track of what happened to him?” “Nothing; so long as my poor mother lived, she never ceased to seek information and make inquiries; but she could never discover a trace of the man who had sworn to love her forever! When she died, I was twelve years old; I could do nothing but weep for my dear mother, and love her who consented to take charge of the unfortunate orphan.” Agathe threw herself into Honorine’s arms; the latter hastily wiped away the tears that were gathering in her eyes and said:
  • 64.
    “Now, my youngfiancés, for from this day I regard you as such, let us talk of serious matters. Let us for a moment forget love, which is a very pleasant thing, but insufficient to keep house upon. I am talking now like an aged guardian, am I not? But the old people are almost always right, for they have experience on their side—experience, that unexcelled source of knowledge for which one pays so dear that it ought to be of some use. My young friend Agathe has nothing—no dowry! Alas! I can give her none! And you, Monsieur Edmond—what is your position?—Remember that we have been entirely frank with you.” “Oh! I do not propose to lie to you, madame, or to make myself out any better than I am. I received sixty thousand francs from an uncle; I invested the money and for some time I was content to live on the income. But soon, acquaintances—circumstances—follies——” “Enough! we can guess the rest. You have spent the whole?” “No, madame; I still have about twenty thousand francs. But I have hopes, I will obtain employment, a lucrative place—it has been promised me.” “Well, Monsieur Edmond, don’t you think that it would be more sensible to wait until you have this place, before marrying? In the first place, you are very young, and Agathe will not be seventeen for two months! It seems to me that you can afford to wait a little while.” “You are always right, madame. When I take mademoiselle for my wife, I wish to assure her a comfortable position in life, at least; I do not wish to have to tremble for the future. Now that I know that you consent to our union, now that we are engaged, I shall have the courage to wait; but I shall so arrange matters that the time will soon come when I shall be able to offer her a husband worthy of her.” “Oh! I am not ambitious!” cried Agathe; “I don’t care about wealth!” “Hush, mademoiselle!” said Honorine; “I really believe that you have less sense than Monsieur Edmond. Luckily, I have enough for you. Here you are engaged! you are to be pitied, are you not? And now the slanderous tongues of the neighborhood can wag all they choose! Poucette will be justified in saying to them: “‘If Monsieur Edmond Didier does come to my mistress’s house often, it’s because he’s engaged to Mademoiselle Agathe.’”
  • 65.
    The young loverswere beside themselves with joy, and Edmond left the house with the assurance that he was beloved, and that his dearest wish would be fulfilled some day. Honorine left Agathe to enjoy that delicious reverie which always follows the certainty of being united to the object of one’s choice, and went down alone to the garden. It was a superb day, and it was a joy to breathe the pure air of the country. Honorine was pensive too, and sighed without asking herself why. When she reached the end of the garden, she opened the little gate which gave access to an unfrequented road from which one had an extensive view of the surrounding country. Honorine glanced instinctively in the direction of the Tower. She walked, unconsciously, a few steps along the road and seated herself at the foot of a huge walnut tree, on another uprooted tree which formed a natural bench. She had been sitting there for some time, happy in Agathe’s happiness, and thinking that it must be very sweet to inspire love in a person to whom one is attracted, when she felt, all of a sudden, something rub against her hand; her first feeling was one of alarm, but it speedily vanished when she saw beside her Ami, the beautiful dog belonging to the owner of the Tower. Ami was not backward in manifesting his pleasure at the meeting; he licked her hands and played about her; he even carried his familiarity so far as to put his paws on the young woman’s lap now and then. But she received these tokens of affection with pleasure, and while she patted Ami’s head and neck, she glanced about her, for the dog’s presence always announced his master’s. But she looked in vain—she could see no one. Ami left her for a moment; he too seemed to be looking in all directions; then he returned to Honorine, and barked as if he wished to ask a question. “I see plainly what you are looking for, good dog; you are asking me where Agathe is—Agathe, whom you are used to seeing with me always. I am alone to-day; you must be content with my company. But you too are alone, Ami; how is it that you come here without your master? You are far from home. Did you leave the Tower to come to see us? Did your master send you here? Have you some message? Are you going back soon?”
  • 66.
    The dog, afterlistening a moment, lay down at Honorine’s feet and stretched himself out there with that unrestraint, that unfeigned laziness which dogs exhibit when they have found a spot which they like. “He doesn’t act as if he intended to go away,” thought Honorine; “it’s singular; I wonder if his master is anywhere about?” At that moment Ami turned his head quickly, but did not leave his place. The young woman looked in the direction to which the dog seemed to call her attention, and she saw the owner of the Tower climbing a little path which led from the village to the road by which she was then sitting. Paul had not seen her, but he could not fail to pass her in a moment. Honorine lowered her eyes, but she let her arm rest on the dog, as if to ask him not to leave her. A few seconds later Paul had halted in front of the young woman; and his dog gazed at him earnestly, without moving from his place, as if to say: “I am very comfortable here!” “Really, madame, I am afraid that Ami presumes too far upon your kindness to him,” said Paul, as he bowed to Honorine; “he is altogether too unceremonious; you should send him away.” “Oh! monsieur, why should I send the good dog away, when he shows such a friendly feeling for me? it is not such a common thing; and one can depend upon it in his case, I fancy?” “Oh! yes, yes! and in no other!” “Do you really mean that you make no other exception, monsieur? It must be very melancholy to think that no one can ever have a friendly feeling for one!” Paul made no reply; he remained standing in front of the young woman; but he gazed fixedly at his dog and seemed to be studying the contented expression that he read in his eyes. “Monsieur,” said Honorine after a moment, “if you care to rest a while, this tree trunk on which I am sitting is quite large enough for two. I do not ask you to come into the house, although it is within a few steps; for, as you have never deigned to accept our invitations, I am bound to presume that they do not please you.” Ami’s master made no reply, but he seated himself on the tree trunk, beside the young woman; and his dog, who had followed him with his eyes,
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    stretched out oneof his paws and rested it on his master, looking at him with an expression of the greatest satisfaction. Honorine waited expecting that her neighbor would speak to her, but he maintained silence and seemed absorbed in his reflections. The young woman, who was very desirous to talk, decided to begin. “Have you lived in this part of the country long, monsieur?” “A little more than nine years, madame.” “And you live alone on your estate?” “Practically alone.” “You abandoned the world very young.” “One finds it easy to leave what one despises!” “Oh! pray let me believe, monsieur, that that contempt does not include the whole world.” “Doubtless there are exceptions, madame; but I have been so cruelly tried, that I am quite justified in entertaining a bad opinion of men.” “And of women too, perhaps?” “Of women even more!” “Really? And because one woman deceived you, you despise them all! Allow me to tell you, monsieur, that all women are not alike!” “They have all been alike to me, however!” “Ah! you have been deceived by several?” “So long as it is only a matter of pleasure—of follies, if you will—one can always make excuses, forgive; but there is a kind of treachery that reaches the heart, that has deplorable, heartrending consequences, and that leads to irreparable disasters! Ah! that sort of treachery one never forgives!” “No; but one pours out his grief upon the bosom of a friend, who comforts one, who strives to make one forget one’s suffering, or at least to alleviate it.” “I have never met one of those friends!” “How could you have met them, since you shun all society, all companionship?” “I have the companionship of my dog. He loves me; he won’t betray me, will you, Ami?”
  • 68.
    In reply tothis question, Ami, whose left paw was still resting on his master, pricked up his ears, lifted his right paw and laid it on Honorine’s lap. “On my word, Ami, you are getting to be too familiar,” said Paul, putting out his hand to remove the paw; but Honorine stopped him. “Do let the dog alone. He loves me too, you see. Does that displease you?” “No—no—madame; but——” “Does it surprise you?” “I confess that—knowing you such a short time——” “You do not understand the friendship that your dog displays for me. But the very first time that he saw Agathe, he fawned upon her and caressed her; that was much more singular!” “It was indeed; and I have often wondered, but in vain, what could be the source of Ami’s affection for a person he had never seen.” “I should suppose, monsieur, that you would divine more readily this honest and faithful servant’s instincts; at least, after what I have heard.” “What have you heard, madame?” “That your dog had the gift of divining at once the sentiments with which a person regarded his master; and that, as a result of that instinct, he greeted your enemies far from cordially, that he growled and barked at people whom you had reason to distrust; while, on the contrary, he showed much affection for those who were disposed to feel a—a sincere affection for you.” Honorine almost stammered in her utterance of these last words. Paul fixed his eyes on the young woman’s sweet and sympathetic features, and his brow, ordinarily clouded, seemed to clear; one would have said that for the first time during a long period his heart beat fast under the impulse of a pleasurable sensation. “It is true, madame,” he said after a moment’s silence, “that my dog has often afforded proofs of that peculiar instinct; but had I not the right to doubt the accuracy of his second sight in this instance? How could I suppose that you could entertain the slightest affection for me? I have done nothing to deserve it.”
  • 69.
    “You forget, monsieur,that you have twice established a claim to our gratitude—on the two evenings of the cow and the storm. What would have become of us but for you?” “Anyone would have done as much as I did.” “I see, monsieur, that you have made up your mind that you will see only evil-minded, false, treacherous people in all who surround you.” “Oh! madame!” “But your efforts are vain; your dog, who knows what to believe, will always look upon us as his friends. Look; see how he gazes at me; he seems to express approval of my words; if he continues to show such friendliness to me, you will distrust him too, will you not, monsieur?” “Ah! madame, far from it; on the contrary, I shall think that I have at last found what I believed it to be impossible to find—a true friend!” At that moment Agathe appeared at the little gate. “Honorine!” she called; “Honorine! are you there?” “Here I am,” said the young woman, rising; “I was not far away.” “I have been looking for you everywhere; I was worried about you. Ah! here’s Ami; good-day, brave dog!” Ami had left his place to run to meet Agathe, who then spied the owner of the Tower. She bowed affably to him, saying: “Had I known that monsieur was with you, I shouldn’t have been alarmed, as he is always our protector.” “I have done nothing yet to earn that title,” said Paul, returning Agathe’s bow. “But I should esteem myself very fortunate, mademoiselle, if I could ever be of any real service to you.” As he finished speaking, he bowed to the two friends and left them, motioning to his dog to follow him, which he did not make up his mind to do until he had trotted back several times to the young women, to fawn upon them and wag his tail.
  • 70.
    XI AN AMAZON Two dayslater, Père Ledrux was working in Madame Dalmont’s little garden. Humming as usual, he approached the two friends, who were sitting amid a clump of trees. “Well!” he said, “here’s more fine folks in the place; ah! but these are regular bigwigs, so it seems; even bigger than Madame Droguet!” “Whom are you talking about, Père Ledrux?” asked Honorine. “The folks who’ve bought the house with the goldfish.” “What!” cried Agathe, “is there a house with goldfish in this village— and we didn’t know it?” “Bless me! mamzelle, when it was for sale, nobody thought much about it; it was too dear for the natives here. It’s a splendid place, with a park and an English garden and a kitchen garden.” “And goldfish apparently?” “Yes, mamzelle; a big pond full of ‘em.” “And you know who has bought the place?” “Pardi! everybody in Chelles knows.” “You see that that isn’t so, Père Ledrux, for we don’t know a word about it.” “The buyers are Monsieur and Madame de Belleville—man and wife; both young. The lady’s a fine woman, and she’s always dressed up—my word!—as if she was going to a wedding.” “Really? then they are living here?” “Oh, yes! they’ve been here for the last ten or twelve days——” “Oh! I’ve seen the lady, I have,” said Poucette, coming forward; “I’ve seen her several times—for the last three days you don’t see anything but her riding by here on horseback. Anyone would think it was our house she wanted to see; she rides in front of it and behind it, and she looks over the garden wall; that’s easy, on horseback!—She’s got a fine blue cloth habit,
  • 71.
    with a longskirt that hides her horse’s tail, and a man’s round hat. You ought to see how well she sits on her horse! Oh! she ain’t afraid, that lady ain’t! you can see that right off.” “Is she pretty?” “Faith, mamzelle, you can’t say that she ain’t good-looking; but with her great black eyes, when she looks at you, you’d think she wanted to frighten everybody. She’s got a bold, haughty way! for my part, I don’t like such ways.” “When you see this beautiful amazon again, Poucette, call me; I am curious to see her.” “All right, mamzelle; I’ll bet she’ll ride by again to-day; for I tell you she always rides round the house and then comes back this way.” “That’s rather strange, don’t you think so, Honorine?” “For my part, I see nothing extraordinary about it, my dear girl; this lady comes to live in a part of the country that she isn’t familiar with, and she goes out in the saddle; that’s the best way of becoming acquainted with the neighborhood. If she looks at the houses, it’s because she wants to know the people who live in them.” “But why does she pass our house so often? why does she ride round it?” “She passes it, no doubt, because it’s on her road when she goes out to ride. Poucette thinks that she rides round it; probably that is because it’s her shortest way home.” “You always think that everything’s all right. Still, I am very curious to see this beautiful equestrian.” “And I am not in the least, I assure you.—By the way, you don’t mention the husband; doesn’t he ride too?” “Oh, no!” said the gardener; “the husband don’t know how to sit a horse very well, it seems; the first day Madame de Belleville went out to ride, her husband thought he’d go with her. So he took a horse, but he didn’t look as if he was very comfortable on him. ‘My dear love,’ he sings out to his wife, ‘please don’t go so fast! I’ve got out of the habit of galloping.’—But whether his wife didn’t hear him, or whether her horse wouldn’t stop, she was off like a flash in an instant. Monsieur de Belleville tried to overtake her, but patatras!—off he went, head over heels. He got up and went home,
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    limping a littleand swearing he’d never get on a horse again; but that don’t prevent madame’s going every day.” “She has a servant follow her, of course?” “No, she always goes alone. As Poucette says, she ain’t afraid. It seems there’s to be a dinner-party to-morrow, given by the owner of Goldfish Villa; all the bigwigs of the place are invited—the Droguets and Remplumés and Jarnouillards; you don’t hear anybody talking about anything else. Perhaps it’s to invite you that Madame de Belleville rides round your house the way she does.” “Oh! no, Père Ledrux; it can’t be for that. In the first place, one doesn’t go on horseback to pay a ceremonious visit; and in the second place, we are not bigwigs, and as this lady chooses to make friends of all the people who talk ill of us, it is probable that we shall never make friends with her. But if you hear any more gossip, Père Ledrux, about Monsieur Edmond Didier’s frequent visits to us, I authorize you to say that there is nothing surprising in the fact of a young man’s paying court to the person he is to marry; for Monsieur Edmond and Agathe are engaged.” “Well, well! I had a suspicion of that!” cried the gardener; “I says to myself: ‘That young man and that girl—hum! it might well be—they’re both very good-looking!’—But, you understand, I just said that to myself, by way of reflection; for it don’t concern me, it’s none of my business.—I’ll just go and take a look at your hens; it’s as sure as can be that the black one fights with the others; if you don’t eat her, I’ll have to take her away; she makes the others too miserable.” “We don’t eat the hens whose eggs we have eaten; take her away, Père Ledrux.” “Well! you understand, it’s in your interest; she’d spoil all the others.” Père Ledrux went off to the hencoop, and Honorine had returned to the house, when Poucette came running to Agathe, crying out: “Mamzelle, here she is, she’s coming this way.” “Who? the amazon?” “Yes, she’s on the narrow road, at the end of the garden; you can see her nicely from the summer-house.” “Let us go there then!”
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    Agathe was soonat the window of the summer-house, and Poucette, who had followed her, pointed to a lady on horseback, coming from Gournay, and riding her horse at a gallop, with a poise and boldness worthy of a circus rider. Thélénie was dressed in a beautiful habit of light blue broadcloth; on her head was a man’s hat, with a very broad brim, set a little on one side, and adorned with a waving mass of black ribbons. Her lovely black hair fell in corkscrew curls on each side of her face, and her great gleaming eyes shone with wonderful brilliancy beneath her hat-brim. She held in her right hand a dainty riding-crop, with which she lashed her horse vigorously when he showed signs of relaxing his pace. Agathe gazed with unwearying admiration at the beautiful equestrian; she leaned from the window in order to see her better, saying to Poucette: “Oh! how splendidly she rides! what grace! what fearlessness! She is a very pretty woman too!” “Yes, at a distance! but wait till you see her near to.” As Thélénie drew near Honorine’s house, she saw that there was someone at the window of the summer-house; instantly she changed her horse’s gait and brought him down to a walk. “I can see her much better now,” said Agathe; “she has stopped galloping and is coming very slowly.” “I guess she’s walking her horse so that she can see you better. Just see how she stares at you, mamzelle! wouldn’t you think she wanted to bury her eyes in your face?” “That is true; she is looking at me so attentively!—I don’t think her so pretty now.” “There! I knew it! She has a very wicked look, that fine lady has!” “See; she is turning round to look at me.” “If I was you, mamzelle, I’d stick out my tongue at her.” “She is going on at last; I’m glad of that!” “Never mind; she’ll know you another time!” “Really, I can’t understand how a person can stare at one in that way!” “And with such a look! anyone would think she’d have liked to beat you! I say, mamzelle, I’m sure that if Monsieur Edmond had seen that
  • 74.
    woman stare atyou like that, he’d have gone out and said to her: ‘What business have you to look at my intended like that? Do you know her? Do you want anything of her?’” “That is very likely; but I shan’t mention that woman to Edmond! After all, if she doesn’t find me to her taste, so much the worse for her! it’s all the same to me.” “She must be pretty hard to suit! For my part, I think she finds you too good-looking, and that’s what vexed her.” “How foolish you are, Poucette! what difference can it make to her whether I am good-looking or not?” “Look you, mamzelle! that handsome amazon probably says to herself when she comes here to live: ‘I shall be the prettiest woman in the place; everybody will admire me!’ Especially as she’s mighty particular about her dress.—Well, you understand, so long as she don’t see anybody but the Droguets and Remplumés and Jarnouillards, she might well think herself the handsomest woman in the place; but now that she’s seen you, it’s another story.” Agathe went to Honorine and told her what had happened, and described the impertinent way in which the new owner of Goldfish Villa had stared at her. Whereat Madame Dalmont began to laugh, saying: “That serves you right! You were so curious to see this woman and now you are well paid for your curiosity.” “Never mind, my dear; if I meet this Madame de Belleville again, and she stares at me as she did just now, I shall ask her what she wants of me.” “You will be very foolish, Agathe; when people behave impertinently, the best way to mortify them is to pay no attention.” Since her conversation with the owner of the Tower, Honorine had gone out quite frequently to sit on the tree trunk under the walnut. She declared that from there the view was very extensive, while Agathe maintained that it was quite as fine from the window of the summer-house. So that Madame Dalmont almost always selected the hours when her young friend was practising on the piano, to open the little gate and go out into the road. Did she hope to meet there again the excellent dog, who had shown her so much affection? or was it his master whom she hoped to see? But there was no sign of Paul or of his dog.
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    By way ofcompensation, the one engrossing subject of conversation in the neighborhood was the dinner given at Goldfish Villa. Père Ledrux and Poucette repeated to the two friends what was said in Chelles on that subject. “It was a magnificent affair.” “Besides the notable people from this region, there were lots of people from Paris, men especially, all of the best tone and of the most perfect refinement! Some smoked at dessert, but it was only to change the air.” “They had things to eat that no one knew the names of, and wines to drink that looked like liqueurs.” “There was a most beautiful porcelain service. A servant broke a plate on Monsieur Jarnouillard’s head; but it did nothing but spoil his coat, which was spoiled already.” “The master of the house nearly strangled eating fish.” “Monsieur Luminot got a little tipsy.” “Madame de Belleville changed her dress after the second course.” “Madame Remplumé was sick.” “Monsieur Jarnouillard counted the different dishes of dessert—there were thirty-three.” “They played cards and danced in the evening.” “Monsieur Droguet fell while waltzing.” “They played for infernally high stakes. Madame Droguet lost four francs at lansquenet. But Monsieur Antoine Beaubichon won three at écarté.” “Everybody went away overflowing with admiration for Monsieur and Madame de Belleville.” Such were the remarks which circulated through the village after the grand banquet. The names of the new owners of the villa were mentioned in Chelles only with the most profound respect. Monsieur Remplumé even went so far as to remove his hat when he passed their house. And when Thélénie pranced through the village on horseback, people ran to their doors and windows to see her pass, crying: “There she goes! there she goes! she rides like a dragoon!”
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    To be sure,there were some urchins who yelled: “A la chienlit!” But those unseemly words were drowned by the applause and cheers. Thélénie continued to gallop by Madame Dalmont’s house; but Agathe, instead of watching her, left the window if she were sitting at it, determined that that lady should not have the satisfaction of scrutinizing her as she did before. One afternoon, when Honorine was sitting alone under the great walnut tree by the roadside, she suddenly heard piercing shrieks not far away. They evidently proceeded from a child’s lips, and the young woman, thinking that someone might be in need of assistance, hastened down the hill, and saw, some two hundred yards away, a woman on horseback striking with her crop a small boy in whom Honorine instantly recognized the one who had stolen her cherries. The appearance of a lady on the scene did not calm Thélénie’s wrath; she continued to belabor the lost child, exclaiming: “Ah! you won’t stand aside when I tell you to look out, won’t you? You make signs to show that you aren’t afraid of me, and you make faces at me! You little blackguard, I’ll teach you to know me and respect me!” When he caught sight of Madame Dalmont, little Emile ran to her for protection, still making a great outcry, in which there was at least as much anger as pain. The amazon would have ridden after him, but Honorine barred her way. “Mon Dieu!” she said, “what has this child done to you, madame, that you should punish him so severely?” Thélénie eyed Honorine insolently as she retorted: “What has he done to me? what business is it of yours? If I horsewhip him, it’s because I choose to do it, and because he deserves it. What are you meddling for?” “Meddling—when I defend a child who is being beaten! Evidently, madame, you would see a child overwhelmed with blows without thinking of defending him!” “What does this mean? that madame is pleased to give me a lesson, perhaps?” “I might well give you a lesson in politeness, I fancy; for you adopt a tone which is very little in harmony with your costume.”
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    Thélénie bit herlips angrily; then she cried abruptly: “Ah! you are Madame Dalmont, no doubt?” “I am Madame Dalmont.” “I might have guessed as much. Ha! ha! ha! I have frequently heard of madame and her little friend, Mademoiselle Agathe! Ha! ha! You ladies are very well known in Chelles.” “I think not, madame, as we see very few people.” “But you are much talked about all the same!” “It is quite possible, madame; there are people whose sole occupation is gossip, slander, calumny. But what comes from the mouths of those people is not worth thinking about, really!” “Do you mean that for me, madame?” “How could I mean it for you? I do not know you!” “I am Madame de Belleville, and I am not in the habit of putting up with an insult from anybody, no matter who it may be.” “And I am Madame Dalmont, and I am not in the habit of fighting because I am not a man.” Thélénie was irritated beyond measure by the young widow’s imperturbable calmness. But while this dialogue was taking place between the two ladies, little Emile, thirsting for revenge for the blows he had received, picked up a large lump of earth and threw it with all his strength at the person who had beaten him. The clod did not reach her, but it struck one of the ears of her horse, and as it broke, spattered and soiled the beautiful blue skirt. The horse, not expecting the assault, made a leap side-wise which might well have unseated his rider; but Thélénie, unshaken in her saddle, simply cried out in rage: “Ah! you little villain!” she shrieked; “this time you shall feel my crop, and you’ll keep the marks of it!” The lost child hid behind Honorine; but that obstacle did not seem to deter Thélénie. “Stand aside, madame,” she cried; “move from in front of that rascal, or I won’t be answerable for my horse.” “For heaven’s sake, madame, forgive the child!”
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    “No! no! andif you don’t move—So much the worse for you, if you get a taste of the crop too!” With that the amazon urged her horse upon Honorine and the little boy; but, like the great majority of those noble-hearted creatures, the horse hesitated, stopped and tried to make a détour in order to avoid running down a woman and a child. The amazon persisted in her attempts to ride him upon them, when suddenly an unexpected defender changed the whole aspect of affairs. Ami rushed down the hill, and without pause or hesitation jumped at the rider, barking in a tone which indicated that he was not in a good humor. At sight of that magnificent beast, who was doing his utmost to jump upon her, Thélénie, forced to defend herself, tried to strike Ami with her crop. But he cleverly avoided the blows, springing from side to side, but biting the horse at the same time. “Madame! madame! call off your dog!” shouted the amazon; “he is biting my horse! you will be responsible for what may happen!” “The dog is not mine, madame; but I am thankful for his arrival at this moment, for it has prevented you from doing a cowardly thing.” “Oh! you haven’t heard the last of this, madame! The cursed dog! And I shall find this little wretch again, too. We shall see! we shall see! I will find that dog’s master!” But harassed by Ami, who tried to bite her legs, and obliged to attend to her horse, whom the constant attacks of the dog were driving to frenzy, Thélénie had no choice but to abandon the field of battle. She plunged her spurs into the beast’s sides, and gave him the rein; he instantly galloped away at the top of his speed, and horse and rider soon disappeared altogether. Ami started to pursue them, but Honorine called him back so vehemently that he returned to her side at last, still excited by the battle he had fought. The young woman looked about in every direction, but to no purpose; the dog’s master did not appear. She was about to return to the house, when she noticed that little Emile was still by her side. “Why did you throw a stone at that horse just now?” she asked. “It wasn’t a stone, it was a lump of dirt.”
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    “No matter; youhoped to hit that lady, I suppose?” “Yes, I aimed it at her.” “That was a very naughty thing for you to do. Just think of all that might have happened: the lady galloped her horse at you——” “And at you too.” “And if it had not been for this good dog that arrived just in time, you might be badly hurt.” “And you too.” “None of those things would have happened if you had not thrown that lump of dirt.” “What made that dragoon strike me with her whip?” “Why didn’t you stand aside to let her pass?” “She could pass well enough; there was plenty of room. Does she need the whole road for her and her horse?” “My child, do you mean always to be naughty? You have already forgotten what I told you the other day; make people love you instead of making them fear you, and you will be much happier.” The boy looked at the ground and muttered in a low voice: “No one wants to love me!” Honorine took a small coin from her purse and gave it to Emile. “See, I will give you this,” she said, “but only on condition that you won’t throw any more stones or dirt at anybody. If I learn that you have done it again, I will never give you anything more.” “Not cherries?” “Neither cherries nor anything else; now go.” Ami listened to this conversation, seated on his haunches, with the gravity of an examining magistrate. Then he followed Honorine to the garden gate, where she turned and said to him: “Are you coming in with me, good dog? No; you won’t. Your master isn’t with you, so you came all by yourself to pay me a visit; that was very nice of you. When you choose to come again, just scratch at this gate, and you will always be welcome.” Ami, who seemed to understand her words perfectly, yelped once or twice, then bounded away toward the Tower, barking loudly and joyously.
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    XII THE BARON VONSCHTAPELMERG Thélénie galloped to her house, without once drawing rein. As she rode into the courtyard, she almost over-turned her husband, who was just starting out for a walk, and had barely time to jump into the stable. Then she dropped the reins, jumped to the ground, tossed her crop in the face of the servant who stepped forward, and, still in a rage at having been forced to retreat, cried: “Where is monsieur? where is he hiding? tell him to come to me instantly.” Chamoureau made bold to put his head out of the stable. “Here I am, my love,” he said; “I am here. Your infernal horse came near upsetting me! Is it possible you didn’t see that? Your horses are too restive, they’ll play you some bad trick one of these days. You look annoyed; have you had a fall?” “Hold your tongue, monsieur! It’s natural for you to fall; you know nothing about bodily exercise!” “What’s that? I know nothing about bodily exercise! Why, it seems to me that there are some kinds in which I——” “I am furious, monsieur; I am exasperated!” “The deuce!” “Yes; for I have been insulted, outraged, laughed at! But it shall not pass off so! I must have reparation; and I look to you for that!” Chamoureau, scenting a duel in what his wife had said, and feeling no vocation for that sort of amusement, was strongly tempted to return to the stable. He walked about the courtyard, muttering: “I had something in hand; what in the devil did I have in hand?” “Be kind enough to listen to me, monsieur. I tell you that your wife has been insulted!”
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