This book reports findings from a major, multidisciplinary study of the impact of broadcast television on the remote island community of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Broadcast television was introduced to the island for the first time in March 1995. This introduction represented a major event on the island, whose only televisual experience had been through video.

In the years leading up to the introduction of TV, the researchers who wrote this book collected data by observing the island's young children in classroom settings, and during free-play. In addition to these...