Watch and Learn: Gendered Discrepancies in Educational Messages on Television Channels Targeted at Boys versus Girls

Abstract

The contents of cable channels targeted at children are an important and persistent source of images of education and yet they remain unaccounted for in the research on children, media, and education. Although existing literature indicates a correlation between children’s television programming and attitudes, there is minimal research on how education is itself represented on children’s television. This study begins to address this gap using a content analysis of 6 months of programming on Cartoon Network, Disney, Disney XD, and Nickelodeon. Transcripts of 8,624 hours of programming on the channels were examined for the frequency of (a) general educational terms; (b) science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)–related terms; and (c) humanities-related terms using customized recording and searching software. Educational terms were frequently found on children’s television, with some terms appearing in 20% of time blocks, and STEM terms appeared more frequently than Humanities terms. Most significantly, the frequency of educational terms and messages varied by channel and target audience, with channels targeted at girls significantly more likely to contain educational messages than channels targeted at boys.