Abstract
Although the mass media, especially television, seem to occupy a central position in the lives of today's schoolchildren, there has so far been little scientific research in Germany and Switzerland on why they use the mass media so intensively and with what consequences. The discussion about the influence and functions of the various media on young people in the field of tension between the socialisation instances of school, family and comrades is rather conducted mainly by committed laypersons who are not free of prejudices according to their activity for school, church, politics, economy or for the media sector itself and who, moreover, all too often one-sidedly target only the leading medium of television. Parents, on the other hand, often evaluate the mass media negatively due to everyday ideas about the direct effects of the media; however, they do not want to and cannot do without their own media consumption and thus run the risk of appearing untrustworthy to their children. Finally, for educators and teachers as representatives of the official education system with its corresponding norms and values, the media pose a threat in that they offer alternative or even contradictory socialisation content that often seems more attractive to the pupil than the school material. Because one's own relationship to the mass media is ambivalent, science is repeatedly called upon to give instructions and practical recipes, and even to provide clear information on the global question: Are the media good or bad for schoolchildren?
