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The possible effect of television on its viewers has been a source of controversy for decades. Over the years, the "flickering box" has been blamed for every kind of social problem and antisocial act, and in many cases has been found guilty by an audacious but often surprisingly shaky range of studies. The hypothesis that television makes people mad, bad, or otherwise dangerous to know, has been tested in multifarious ways, whilst researchers have also investigated whether television might actually do viewers good. This book is a comprehensive overview and critique of this body of research. It examines all of the major studies in the field, drawing firm conclusions not only on the notoriously vexed question of TV violence, but also about the impact of campaigns which are specifically intended to persuade. The prosocial content of educational and everyday programmes is also considered. The book removes the academic arguments and findings from the vacuum in which they are often produced, and pitches them against numerous examinations of TV content, from "Sesame Street" to "The Simpsons", "Casualty" to "Cracker", and finds that there can be more to television than meets the eye.