Children Encountering Values: Lessons in the Home, the School and the Media

This report presents four years of research conducted by seven municipalities in Western Norway which seeks to describe how children experience different values from home, in school and in mass media presentations. The study included children aged 11-12 and 15-16.

The study included both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Questionnaires, in-depth interviews,
media literacy analysis of the most popular TV programmes in the respective age groups, and a brief
informal 'field trip' in the classroom to find out reactions, were some of the methods used.

The report points to two quotes that are indicative of its findings. One 6th grade boy comments
"The difference is clear. For many years we have been taught that certain things are right and other
things are wrong. Then we get confused seeing programs where adult persons are doing the opposite of what we have been taught to be right." A 10th grader says "Yes, there exists a tension between the values in the school and the values in the media. But I believe young people are able to discover the
difference between these two sets of values."

According to the report, a duality exists in the children's reactions to the values they encounter in the media. The researchers recognised this through seeing "a certain uneasiness in their reflections and emotions." Research findings support the fact that children may be more insecure in the encounter with values in the media than they are willing to admit. The report also indicates, that children do generally find
their parents trustworthy. The report states: "one is reminded of the two step hypothesis. "When you get information in the media and you do not know if it can be trusted, you seek the advice of knowledgeable persons you trust, before you accept or reject the given information."

The report described the teachers and parents who participated as close adults of those children

involved in the research project as having "voiced deep concern about many aspects of the media, yet

they still consider the media as a basically positive resource in the upbringing of children today. As

adults trying to teach and guide the children in their daily life, they find the children to be really

in a crossfire of value impulses. This seemingly observed convergence is an issue for further

research."

This research was supported by Volda University College and NLA College of Teacher Education. The

study was endorsed and financed by the Research Council of Norway.