Suitable for classroom use, the handbook promotes public awareness of the need to provide more positive role models and fewer negative stereotypes on children's television. Each section contains photographic examples and quotations by members representing organizations such as Black Endowment Television, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Chicano Coalition of Los Angeles, The Gray Panthers, the National Council of Negro Women, and the National Black Media Coalition. The handbook presents research indicating that proportional representation of racial minorities, women, handicapped people, and the elderly in TV comedies and dramas has actually declined over the last decade despite the fact that minorities are the fastest growing segment in the population. A look at what is wrong with the way minorities are depicted on the screen extends into a discussion of stereotyping in advertising. Statistical evidence that minorities and women are underrepresented in the ownership and control of the media is presented. Examples of networks, programs, and alternative technologies are given which offer hope that children's television of the future will do a better job of putting diversity in programming. Affirmative action efforts to promote policies aimed at encouraging minority ownership of TV stations, and the hiring and advancement of women and minorities are noted. In addition, fourteen steps for changing the system and improving TV messages are outlined. (LH)