Television, A cognitive terminal

Summary: There is a dimension of television that the compartmentalization of research into the relationship between children, television and school helps to conceal: its status as 'cognitive terminal', independent of programme content. This dimension is approached here in three ways: through the current perception of television as entertainment, which distorts judgments on its usefulness as a source of learning; through the cultural diversity of ways of watching television, which makes the 'TV effecť just as much a class phenomenon as other sources of social inequality; and through the cognitive modality peculiar to television, which contrasts the conventional monolithic model long propagated by the school system with a model of knowledge as an interpretive and relational process. In this sense, entertainment-oriented 'neotelevision' does not stand in opposition to the more didactic 'palaeotelevision' , but they do represent different educational models reflecting two types of society. Hence the need to 'make television less exotic', both in the classroom and in research into its cognitive effects.