Pedagogic and Educational Function of China's TV for Children and Peculiarities of Its Implementation

Abstract

The article deals with functions of China’s TV programs for children and forms in which they are implemented. The variety of the genres and thematic content is aimed at one of the biggest TV audiences and is broadcast on both universally available and commercial thematic channels, which determines the topicality of the research. The authors conceptualize the pedagogic and educational influence of TV programs for children, and distinguish its key aspects, which include delivering moral values and social norms, propagating cultural and scientific knowledge, encouraging interest in learning, and developing the ability for self-actualization and world cognition. The qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to analyze which of the aspects are realized by means of TV programs and animated films for children in China. The study covers 34 programs and 74 animated films for children shown on 33 universal and 4 most popular special TV channels. The results of the research are as follows. One of the most popular forms of content on TV channels for children is animated films, whose key function is delivering moral values and social norms. Magazine format is a rather common form of journalist content. TV programs are mostly aimed at encouraging children’s interest in learning. Since it is rather difficult to combine entertainment and educational components, on universally available channels there is a large number of TV programs for children that fulfil their pedagogic and educational function only formally.