Abstract

The article revisits the old debate about media influence, focusing on whether children learn from television or not. It argues that TV per se does not guarantee that a child will build knowledge because mediations connected to family members, peers, or school teachers are necessary to activate learning processes. From this perspective the issue of media influence is related to cultural and school capital and to impersonal communication. Attention is drawn to the contribution of the media to the child’s acquisition of cultural capital.