Conflicting Cultures: Reflections on the reading and viewing of secondary-school pupils

In a previous paper (Benton, 1995) the author outlined the findings of a survey of pupils' voluntary reading of fiction and non-fiction undertaken with a representative sample of over 700 year 8 (12-13-year-old) pupils from 14 comprehensive schools in a shire county of southern central England. The same survey also investigated year 8 pupils' reading of comics and periodicals as well as their viewing habits. It also elicited similar information about a smaller group, approximately four hundred strong, of year 10 (14-15-year-old) pupils including their reading of fiction and non-fiction. These further findings form the basis of this article and extend the inquiry to the reading of magazines and comics in years 8 and 10, the watching of television and the time spent in viewing videos and in playing computer games. The pattern of reading, showing the dominance of American teenage horror stories is similar to that of the year 8 group and the downward trend in the amount of both boys' and girls' optional reading is confirmed, with a particular decline noted in the reading of books by year 10 boys. The marked difference between the nature of boys' and girls' comics and magazines is noted. Whilst the amount of television viewing has remained fairly constant over several years, the nature of the viewing had changed greatly and some pupils-particularly boys-were spending a considerable amount of time in front of screens of various sorts in any one day. The relationship between these factors is considered.