Television & Health

Television & Health

Television statistics
Influence of telvision on health
TV Free America - Statistics and essays on the influence of TV on health. National TV turnoff week.
ParentsTV - A grass roots effort against indecency, foul language and gratutious violence on TV
Television Statistics
According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.


I. FAMILY LIFE
Percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99
Number of TV sets in the average U.S. household: 2.24
Percentage of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets: 66
Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
Number of hours of TV watched annually by Americans: 250 billion
Value of that time assuming an average wage of S5/hour: S1.25 trillion
Percentage of Americans who pay for cable TV: 56
Number of videos rented daily in the U.S.: 6 million
Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million
Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49


II CHILDREN
Approximate number of studies examining TV's effects on children: 4,000
Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful
conversation with their children: 3.5
Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children's TV watching: 73
Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV
and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500


III VIOLENCE
Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000
Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000
Percentage of Americans who believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem: 79


IV. COMMERCIALISM
Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
Number of TV commercials seen by the average person by age 65: 2 million
Percentage of survey participants (1993) who said that TV commercials
aimed at children make them too materialistic: 92
Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1
Total spending by 100 leading TV advertisers in 1993: $15 billion


V. GENERAL
Percentage of local TV news broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30
Percentage devoted to stories about crime, disaster and war: 53.8
Percentage devoted to public service announcements: 0.7
Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59
Percentage who can name at least three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: 17

Compiled by TV-Free America
1322 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036


Influence of Television

For decades, research and studies have demonstrated that heavy television-viewing may lead to serious health consequences. Now the American medical community, which has long-voiced its concerns about the nation's epidemic of violence, TV addiction and the passive, sedentary nature of TV-watching, is taking a more activist stance, demonstrated by its endorsement of National TV-Turnoff Week.

The average child will watch 8,000 murders on TV before finishing elementary school. By age eighteen, the average American has seen 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders. At a meeting in Nashville, TN last July, Dr. John Nelson of the American Medical Association (an endorser of National TV-Turnoff Week) said that if 2,888 out of 3,000 studies show that TV violence is a casual factor in real-life mayhem, "it's a public health problem." The American Psychiatric Association addressed this problem in its endorsement of National TV-Turnoff Week, stating, "We have had a long-standing concern with the impact of television on behavior, especially among children."

Millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist and TV-Free America board member Robert Kubey. Heavy TV viewers exhibit five dependency symptoms--two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse. These include: 1) using TV as a sedative; 2) indiscriminate viewing; 3) feeling loss of control while viewing; 4) feeling angry with oneself for watching too much; 5) inability to stop watching; and 6) feeling miserable when kept from watching.

Violence and addiction are not the only TV-related health problems. A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey released in October 1995 found 4.7 million children between the ages of 6-17 (11% of this age group) to be severely overweight, more than twice the rate during the 1960's. The main culprits: inactivity (these same children average more than 22 hours of television-viewing a week) and a high-calorie diet. A 1991 study showed that there were an average of 200 junk food ads in four hours of children's Saturday morning cartoons.

According to William H. Deitz, pediatrician and prominent obesity expert at Tufts University School of Medicine, "The easiest way to reduce inactivity is to turn off the TV set. Almost anything else uses more energy than watching TV."

Children are not the only Americans suffering from weight problems; one-third of American adults are overweight. According to an American Journal of Public Health study, an adult who watches three hours of TV a day is far more likely to be obese than an adult who watches less than one hour.

Sometimes the problem is not too much weight; it's too little. Seventy-five percent of American women believe they are too fat, an image problem that often leads to bulimia or anorexia. Sound strange? Not when one takes into account that female models and actresses are twenty-three percent thinner than the average woman and thinner than ninety-five percent of the female population.

Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009

of http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/learning_on_demand_sr2010
Acesso em 24 de set de 2010

Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009
The complete report, “Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009” is availablehere.
Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009 represents the seventh annual report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education. This year’s study, like those for the previous six years, is aimed at answering some of the fundamental questions about the nature and extent of online education. Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and based on responses from more than 2,500 colleges and universities, the study addresses the following key questions:
How Many Students are Learning Online?
Background: For the past six years online enrollments have been growing substantially faster than overall higher education enrollments. The expectation of academic leaders has been that these enrollments would continue their substantial growth for at least another year. Do the measured enrollments match these lofty expectations?
The evidence: Online enrollments have continued to grow at rates far in excess of the total higher education student population, with the most recent data demonstrating no signs of slowing.
· Over 4.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2008 term; a 17 percent increase over the number reported the previous year.
· The 17 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.2 percent growth of the overall higher education student population.
· More than one in four college and university students now take at least one course online.
What is the Impact of the Economy on Online Education?
Background: Bad economic times have historically been good for higher education enrollments, either because the decreased availability of good jobs encourages more people to seek education, or because those currently employed seek to improve their chances for advancement by advancing their education.
The evidence: Academic leaders at all types of institutions report increased demand for face-to-face and online courses, with those at public institutions seeing the largest impact. In all cases the demand for online offerings is greater than that for the corresponding face-to-face offerings.
· Over one-half (54 percent) of institutions report that the economic downturn has increased demand for existing face-to-face courses.
· The economic impact has been greatest on demand for online courses, with 66 percent of institutions reporting increased demand for new courses and programs and 73 percent seeing increased demand forexisting online courses and programs.
· The economic impact on institutional budgets has been mixed; 50 percent have seen their budgets decrease as a result, but 25 percent have experienced an increase.
What Contingency Plans do Institutions Have for H1N1?
Background: A series of questions about the effect of the H1N1 on institutions and the extent and type of contingency plan were asked of chief academic officers. Of particular interest is the use of online as part of the contingency plan.
The evidence: Proponents of online learning have long posited that moving face-to-face classes online could become an important component of academic continuity planning. A potential H1N1 pandemic is such an event that might trigger such planning.
· Over two-thirds of institutions report that they have a formal contingency plan in place to deal with a possible disruption from the H1N1 flu.
· Substituting online for face-to-face classes is a component of 67 percent of H1N1 contingency plans.
· Twenty percent of institutions with no current online offerings include introducing online classes as part of their contingency plans.
Is Online Learning Strategic?
Background: Last year’s report showed a very small decline in the number of chief academic officers declaring online education as critical to their continued growth. Is there a continued decline in 2009?
The evidence: This year’s results show a very small increase from the previous year and begin to signal that a plateau may have been reached by institutions believing that online is critical to their long-term strategy.
· The proportion of institutions that see online education as a critical component of their long-term strategy appears to have reached a plateau over the past several years.
· Baccalaureate institutions continue to be the least likely to consider online to be strategic, with only 33 percent agreeing.
· Public institutions (74 percent) are more likely to believe that online is critical for their long-term strategy than either private for-profit (51 percent) or private nonprofit (50 percent) institutions.
Has Faculty Acceptance of Online Increased?
Background: The perception of chief academic officers of faculty acceptance of online teaching and learning has changed little in the last six years.
The evidence: While the number of programs and courses online continue to grow, the acceptance of this learning modality by faculty has been relatively constant since first measured in 2002.
· Less than one-third of chief academic officers believe that their faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online education. This percent has changed little over the last six years.
· The proportion of chief academic officers that report their faculty accept online education varies widely by type of school but reaches a majority in none.
Do Faculty Receiving Training for Teaching Online?
Background: For faculty teaching online the type of pedagogy used may differ significantly from face-to-face classes. The growth of online courses and programs has increased the need for faculty to become comfortable with online teaching and gain the necessary skills to make online courses a success.
The evidence: There is no one approach being taken by institutions in providing training for their teaching faculty. Most institutions use a combination of mentoring and training options.
· Only 19 percent of institutions with online offerings report that they have no training or mentoring programs for their teaching faculty.
· The most common training approaches for online faculty are internally run training courses (65 percent) and informal mentoring (59 percent).