Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: television watching

television watching stories: 13 news summaries

(Newser) - A mysterious bald audience member turning up on various live Fox broadcasts is a viral marketing plant—as well as an actor on the show he’s subtly promoting. Michael Cerveris, in character as “The Observer” from the sci-fi drama Fringe, has so far been spotted, well, observing football,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • American Idol • NASCAR • football • Fox • television watching • network television • television advertising • live television • Fringe • Michael Cerveris

 Study Links TV 
 to Child Asthma Risk 

Young kids who watch more than 2 hours a day twice as likely to develop asthma

Mar 3, 09 3:03 AM CST
(Newser) - Young children who watch over two hours of television a day are twice as likely to develop asthma later in childhood. Researchers, who tracked the health of 3,000 children from birth to 11, believe that the TV-watching is symptomatic of sedentary lifestyles, the BBC reports. They speculate that more... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • children • exercise • asthma • television watching • respiratory problems

 Unhappiest 
 Watch Boob 
 Tube the Most 

Happy people
socialize, pray,
in free time: study

Nov 23, 08 5:34 PM CST
(Newser) - Unhappy Americans watch more TV, or TV-watching makes Americans unhappier—a new study isn't sure which. But the survey of nearly 40,000 people shows that those who watch 30% more television are less happy than those who pass their time in other ways. Sex, sports, and playing or reading... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • depression • study • television watching • happiness

 TV Makes Us Dream in Color 



Research suggest childhood TV-watching affects whether dreams are in color or not

Oct 18, 08 5:50 AM CDT
(Newser) - The advent of color TV may have injected color into generations of dreams, the Daily Telegraph reports. A study finds that people who grew up watching black-and-white TV often dream in monochrome—as people are believed to have done before the dawn of television—while those who grew up with... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • psychology • television watching • dreams

Cruel TV Makes for Crueler Viewers: Study

Meanness of Mean Girls as influential as killing in Kill Bill

Sep 16, 08 1:32 PM CDT
(Newser) - Psychologists have long known about the link between on-screen violence and real-life aggression, but a new study suggests video cruelty has much the same effect, USA Today reports. Groups of subjects shown either footage from Mean Girls of the hands-off hostility known as "relational aggression" or a knife fight... More »

MORE ABOUT:
psychology • television watching • psychological research • movies • viewership • relational aggression • Mean Girls • Kill Bill

TV Not All Bad for Kids, Study Discovers

Some couch potatoes apparently got wise
watching boob tube

Sep 6, 08 6:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - TV has long been blamed for social ills from childhood obesity to plunging SAT scores, but a pair of researchers say the "idiot box" could actually be doing kids some good, the Wall Street Journal reports. Examined test data from 1965 showed that children with more access to TV... More »

MORE ABOUT:
education • television • children • pediatrics • cognitive development • American Academy of Pediatrics • television watching • childhood

 Best Small-Screen
 Frightfests Ever 

EW lists its top 16, from Twilight Zone to X-Files

Jun 9, 08 7:21 AM CDT
(Newser) - Who says the small screen can't scare up big fear? NBC’s new horror anthology, Fear Itself, has sparked Entertainment Weekly to list its top TV scare-fests of all time:
  1. The Twilight Zone: The geography may be fuzzy (fifth dimension? parallel universe?) but fright fans have memorized every
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • NBC • aliens • horror • television watching

Nickelodeon Show Draws Stoner Crowd

Old-school format,
cool music attract
older, higher viewers

May 8, 08 10:40 PM CDT
(Newser) - A Nickelodeon series aimed at preschoolers has garnered an unusual following—hipster parents and twenty-something potheads. The variety-show format of “Yo Gabba Gabba!”—celebs and indie rockers guest between animated shorts—attracts a generation weaned on “The Muppet Show,” reports ABC News. Add bright colors,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • YouTube • marijuana • Nickelodeon • television watching • preschool • Yo Gabba Gabba! • Tracie Egan

 Baby Zzzs Linked to Obesity 

Also tied to behavioral problems

Apr 8, 08 7:56 AM CDT
(Newser) - Babies who get less than 12 hours of shut-eye a day double their risk of being overweight by the time they're 3 years old, a new study finds. The risk is even higher for little ones who watch two hours of TV a day, the Daily Telegraph reports. If habits... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • sleep • parenting • childhood obesity • children • baby • toddler • sleep deprivation • television watching • sleep disorder • medical study

For Healthier Teens,
Keep the TV in the Den

Older adolescents who watch in their bedrooms pick up bad habits with the remote

Apr 7, 08 12:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - Older teens feeling too fit, well nourished, and smart can turn all that around with one simple move: install a TV in the bedroom. Kids 15 to 18 with a boob tube in the boudoir were twice as likely to watch 5 or more hours a day than those who... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • health • public health • University of Minnesota • television watching • teen health • scientific study • health study • teenager

In Surprise Turn, Verizon Embraces File Sharing

'The problem is not peer-to-peer technology, the problem is how you deploy it.'

Mar 14, 08 5:22 PM CDT
(Newser) - Verizon announced today that it plans to use peer-to-peer software to speed the deployment of legitimate content over its networks, in a break from the industry’s usually negative stance towards file sharing, the AP reports. Working with a P2P company named Pando Networks, Verizon found that when an ISP... More »

MORE ABOUT:
NBC • Verizon • file sharing • p2p • Internet service providers • television watching • copyright infringement • NBC Direct

60% of Viewers Favor Writers Over Studios

Strike prompts switch to reality shows—and reading, sleeping

Dec 19, 07 1:52 PM CST
(Newser) - The sympathies of viewers affected by the Hollywood writers' strike lie squarely with the writers, not the studios, a new poll shows. USA Today reports that 60% of Americans side with the scribes, and only 14% with their erstwhile employers. Reactions to the strike are varied: Many viewers watch more... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Hollywood • Jay Leno • late night talk show • Conan O'Brien • Hollywood writers' strike • television watching

India and China Drive Mobile Growth

Big developing markets adopt most phones, text the most

Dec 12, 07 12:20 PM CST
(Newser) - Telecom companies must be brushing up on their Hindi. India doubled its cell phone user population in 2006, adding more subscribers than Britain had total, according to a new international communications report. The 150 million Indian phone-toters represent just 14% of the population. China meanwhile sent 429 billion text messages,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
China • India • cell phones • telecom industry • texting • television watching

13 Stories


from our news partners