Review of: The Impact of Television: A Natural Experiment in Three Communities

Reviews the book, The impact of television: A natural experiment in three communities edited by Tannis MacBeth Williams (1986). In their natural experiment, Williams and her colleagues proceeded to research several of the most important questions about the impact of television. This book presents the studies and their findings. Most of studies occurred at two points in time, approximately 6 months prior to the introduction of television in (Phase 1) and again 2 years later (Phase 2). The topics of the studies are: reading competence; children's cognitive abilities; involvement of community activities; impact of television-viewing patterns on the use of other media by both children and adults; the effect of television on children's aggressive behaviour; and television's effects on adults' divergent thinking, cognitive style, perceptions of self and community, and orientation to the environment. The book is written with two kinds of readers in mind--the intelligent general reader and the researcher--and is organized so that both may obtain the information they require efficiently. The quality of the research is excellent. The overall design and each part of the study show careful attention to issues, well-considered methodologies, and relevant data analyses. This book is certain to stand as a classic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)