Children's Television Programs Research Articles

Television: Providing Powerful Multicultural Lessons Inside and Outside of School

Television is responsible for more multicultural education than our public school system. The literature reveals that children's programming reflects society's dominant values and beliefs about a number of diversity-related topics such as race and gender. This article describes the findings of a unique study of preservice teachers' evaluations of children's television programming. Through a list of research-based suggestions, teacher educators are encouraged to prepare preservice teachers to draw upon televisions multicultural teaching power so that young people become more critically literate viewers of television. Academia needs to understand that the popular press and the mass media educate more people about issues regarding ethnicity and race than all other sources of education … providing more public education … than by teachers, professors, and anyone else. (Bartolem & Macedo, 1997, 273)

The depiction of mental illnesses in children's television programs

AbstractConcern has been expressed that negative attitudes toward people with mental illnesses begin to develop early in childhood. This study examines one of the possible sources of learning of such negative attitudes—children's television programs. Two hundred sixty‐nine (269) hours of children's television programming were videotaped, viewed, and rated. Nearly half the programs viewed contained use of mental health terms. Most of these terms were slang and disrespectful (e.g., crazy and nut) and were used to disparage others. Twenty‐ one (21) characters with a mental illness were identified. These characters tended to be depicted as aggressive and threatening, and other characters responded to them with fear, exclusion, and disrespect. Children's television programs seem to provide substantial opportunity for children to develop negative attitudes and behaviors toward those with mental illnesses. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Healthy cartoons? The nutritional implications of digital video recorders on children's television

Research over several decades has established definitively that children's television consumption has negative nutritional consequences for its young viewers. However, nearly all studies in this area have focused either on the advertisements interspersed with children's programs or on the overall act of television viewing. The few studies that have looked directly at the content of children's programs themselves with respect to nutrition were limited to prime-time programming. As a result, the question remains whether children's television programs themselves carry negative nutritional implications, or whether the problems appear exclusively in the advertisements and the general act of watching television. This distinction becomes important in light of the growth of digital video recorder (DVR) usage. DVRs enable viewers to record programs for future playback, with the additional capability of easily skipping past the advertisements. Although many children will certainly continue to watch television unimpeded by DVRs, the availability of the new technology has introduced the option for guardians to pre-record programs, and to show those programs without the advertisements. If the nutritional problems of children's programming do in fact reside primarily in the advertisements, DVRs could theoretically decrease the harmful consequences of children's television programming. A preliminary content analysis of non-prime-time children's television programming evaluated the extent to which the actual content presents negative (or positive) nutritional messages. The implications of the findings form the basis of recommendations for additional research.

La publicidad infantil en televisió de Catalunya

En los últimos años, niños y niñas se han consolidado como uno de los grupos de telespectadores y usuarios de internet más numerosos. Su acceso a los contenidos emitidos por estos medios ha hecho que existan unos horarios protegidos de los que están exiliados los contenidos que puedan inteiferir negativamente en su desarrollo cognitivo y emocionaL Este artículo presenta los resultados obtenidos en una investigación sobre los contenidos y valores transmitidos en la publicidad emitida en horario infontil por Televisió de Catalunya así como por las páginas web relacionadas con la corporación.

Consumer socialization of Chinese children in schools: analysis of consumption values in textbooks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine what types of consumption values are taught at elementary schools in Mainland China, how these values are presented, and how these values relate to traditional Chinese cultural values.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of 72 lessons in textbooks on moral education for elementary schoolchildren in national China was conducted. The themes of consumption values, desirable and undesirable consumer behaviors, and the reasons provided in the textbooks for adopting these consumption values were analyzed.FindingsThe paper finds that eight out of 72 lessons (i.e. 11 percent) were about consumption. The media contents put strong emphasis on thrift and frugality. Children were taught that there were private goods and public goods. All material goods were the results of human labor. Goods should be used properly. Wasting goods was portrayed as sin. The consumption values conveyed in textbooks reflect a mix of communistic values as well as traditional Chinese value of long‐term orientation and inner experience of meaning. The consumption values taught at school were in sharp contrast with the consumption values of uniqueness, fun and enjoyment portrayed in children's television programs and commercials.Research limitations/implicationsThe study did not measure how children respond to the consumption values taught in schools. In other words, it did not have information about whether Chinese children understand or believe in these values.Practical implicationsThis paper offers advice for marketers and advertisers to frame the benefits of their products in line with desirable Chinese cultural values. For example, in view of the strong emphasis on meaning in consumption, there is a big market for products and services related to saving. Also, companies should consider sponsoring charity activities of non‐profit‐making organizations in order to establish positive and responsible corporate images.Originality/valueThis paper offers insight to understanding the inherent hindrance to children's pursuit of hedonism in consumption. It also provides suggestions for product design, planning of promotional activities as well as brand positioning to appeal to parents and children in China.

A Content Analysis of Health and Physical Activity Messages Marketed to African American Children During After-School Television Programming

To examine the number of food advertisements African American children are exposed to during children's television programming aired on predominantly African American and general television stations. A content analysis was conducted to identify and analyze the health-related content (HRC) and physical activity-related content (PARC) of food advertisements shown during children's television programming. Three sets of television advertisements from 3 stations (Black Entertainment Television, The WB [Warner Bros], and Disney Channel) served as the sample during a 1-week period in July 2005 (July 11-15), from 3 pm to 9 pm. In total, 1098 advertisements were recorded, with 256 food and beverage commercials used for this study. Results indicate that 36.3% of all commercials were based on fast food restaurants, 31.3% were for drinks, 16.8% were for candy, 13.7% were for cereals, and 2.0% were for snacks (percentages do not total 100 because of rounding). Compared with The WB and Disney Channel, Black Entertainment Television had significantly (P=.001) more food and beverage advertisements. Few HRC or PARC advertisements were shown. Of 256 food and beverage commercials, only 8.2% contained HRC and 9.4% had PARC. Also, the HRC and PARC scenes contained messages that were implied vs explicitly talking about the health or physical benefits of the product. African American children are overexposed to numerous types of food and beverage advertisements. These advertisements do not provide an adequate level of positive HRC and PARC messages. Consequently, the messages that are portrayed may undermine efforts to teach African American children about the importance of healthy living and physical activity.

The Production of a Beloved Community: Sesame Street's Answer to America's Inequalities

The children's public television program Sesame Street strived exemplify and create an egalitarian and more tolerant community both on screen and in actuality. Sesame Street's aim educate disadvantaged urban preschool children and put them on an equal intellectual level as their middle-class peers when they entered grade school was central the development and direction of the show. To appeal their audience, the producers designed reproduction of working-class, urban city block for television studio set and directed multiethnic and multilingual cast of human and puppet characters that taught fundamental skills for reading, writing, and mathematics as well as social practices of open-mindedness, tolerance, and goodwill. The diverse cast commingled and solved problems together in their neighborhood setting. With the debut on November 10, 1969, and at least three years prior of preparation and research, Sesame Street grew out of the era's milieu of the civil rights struggle and the effort of social reform. The vision and principles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s beloved community signified the central commitment of the show. The idea for beloved community developed long before King espoused his message the civil rights movement, but the concept became popular as result of his leadership and appeal. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century thinkers Walter Rauschenbusch, Reinhold Niebhur, and Josiah Royce combined Christian doctrine and the practice of moral compassion define their ideal vision of beloved community (Zepp). By the mid-1950s, recognized as the beginning of the civil rights movement, King pronounced in speeches and published writings his primary goal as the fulfillment of such society. The roots of King's philosophy and the beliefs he carried throughout the movement remain in contention as scholars debate King's major influences and primary goals. Zepp situates King's influences in the history of American liberal theology, while James Cone and Richard Lischer find the source of King's position in the Southern Baptist Church and African American religious tradition. Throughout the movement, King's thinking proved anything but static, but his goals expressed in his publications and major speeches, designed for mostly white audience, emphasized nonviolence and the realization of beloved community. In beloved community, the diverse peoples of the United States and ultimately the world reconciled their differences, integrated, cooperated, and coexisted with one another. I have dream, King called out at the March 1963 on Washington that ... the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able sit down together at the table of brotherhood (qtd. in Carson and Shepard 85). He asked for peoples of all nationalities and religions join hands and respect one another (Carson and Shepard 87). Childhood is not simply time of innocence - free from the social and cultural pressures of the adult world -but defined by historical trends and political agendas. Joel Spring argues that, throughout its history, the behaviors and goals of the public school system have sustained the goal of cultural domination. Public schools particularly have become one form of what Spring calls ideological management (4), or the act of creating and dispersing knowledge throughout society. From its incipience, the public education system sought to manage the distribution of ideas m society (3) in order preserve and uphold democracy. Sesame Street became an example of such school; originally financed by the federal government and nonprofit organizations, the program educated children through the medium of television before they entered the school system. Spring argues that the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the production company behind Sesame Street, attempted shape public morality and present a standard as what the world should be like (384). …

The weighty issue of Australian television food advertising and childhood obesity

The aim of this paper is to provide an accessible overview of research literature on the link between childhood obesity and food advertising on Australian television. A systematic review of current medical, public health, psychological and marketing research literature surrounding the topics of childhood obesity and television food advertising, with emphasis on Australian data. Childhood obesity rates have tripled since 1985, mirrored by increases in consumption of energy-dense foods. Energy-dense food advertising is ubiquitous in children's television programming, but children's ability to perceive the commercial intent of advertisements only emerges gradually as a function of age. Until such time, children are trusting, and hence vulnerable, to food advertising, influencing their desires and purchase requests to parents. There is robust evidence to suggest that television viewing and childhood obesity are related. However, the direction of causation and specific contribution of food advertising remains equivocal. Moreover, the link between television and childhood obesity is surprisingly weak, with only a small independent effect size (approximately 1%). Television food advertising seems to have only a very small, indirect link to childhood obesity.

Content analysis of children's television advertising in relation to dental health

This paper provides some disturbing facts and figures about the amount of television being watched by children. In addition, it reports on the volume and type of television advertising aimed at young people, both in the United Kingdom and other developed countries. In view of recent public and professional concern as to the possible adverse effects of food advertising on children's health, this study set out to examine what proportion of television advertisements, directed at children, promoted products potentially harmful to dental health. Forty-one hours of children's television programming broadcast on ITV1, the main UK commercial channel, were recorded on to videotape for subsequent analysis. Almost 1,000 adverts were analysed; each was timed and broadly categorised as relating to a food/drink product or non food/drink product. Advertisements for food and drink were further subdivided according to their sugar and/or acid content. We found that, on average, 24 adverts were shown per broadcast hour, which accounted for 15.8% of the total schedule time. 34.8% of adverts related to food/drink products, and 95.3% of these promoted products that were deemed potentially cariogenic or erosive. The most frequently promoted food/drink products included breakfast cereals with added sugar (26.3%), confectionery (23.7%) and non-carbonated soft drinks (18.1%). It is very concerning that, despite recent specific codes of practice outlined by the Independent Television Commission for Children's Advertising, many food and drink products promoted during children's programming are potentially damaging to dental health.

Classics for High School Reform

IN JUNE I offer my annual summer reading list for adults. My suggestions have ranged from children's storybooks to fantasy to political commentary, but all the works I choose have special messages for educators and policy makers. The current list is inspired by the scramble to concoct a college-prep curriculum for all students. Let's begin with recommendations for rereading certain classics for inspiration and perhaps also for descriptions of follies and commentaries on them. First, all those warring factions involved in the controversy over No Child Left Behind (NCLB) might expend some of their energy in rereading Homer's tale about the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, the Iliad. The military conflict over Troy lasted 10 years (about enough time for NCLB to reach its zenith) and was continued in the sagas of Virgil. It resulted in thousands of deaths, many slights and insults that involved the gods (federal policy makers), and a series of games, most of which ended in a draw (because the gods intervened). The Greeks finally conquered Troy but were so unmerciful in doing so that the gods punished them, either on their journeys or when they got back home (maybe a warning about the future). And perhaps California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ought to check out a different classical reference: Ovid's Metamorphoses and the misadventures of Hercules. Granted, we understand that the governor's phraseology derives from spending too many years making testosterone- filled movies (e.g., Hercules in New York, 1970), but to suggest that teachers in urban schools should be given extra combat pay goes a bit far. It's an insult to hard-working teachers and the majority of students who want to succeed in classrooms that are short on resources and who live in communities that are long on negative factors. In my years of covering urban schools, I found highly dedicated and competent teachers (not enough of them, for sure); more willingness to explore new ideas for instruction; and, as recent research from the Council of the Great City Schools shows, substantial progress in meeting state accountability standards (even though that is not a perfect measure of progress). Hercules' own temperamental behavior, while finding expression in physical abuse rather than the verbal kind, earned him a 12-year exile during which he was given daunting challenges to overcome. Perhaps Gov. Schwarzenegger's lion- and snake-killing reparations could include making a series of films for UNESCO or the World Institute for Peace. Or, perhaps most excruciating of all, he could make a series for distribution by the NEA and the AFT on the need to ensure that all teachers have sufficient income and adequate professional resources, the kind that businesses provide for valued employees or movie studios bestow on stars. Who knows? Hercules met all his trials and eventually became a god. Another public official, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, could mine lots of classics for inspiration this summer. But one would be especially helpful: On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill. Faced with all the issues regarding NCLB, including rebellion from her own state of Texas, and the problems posed by defending the President's budget- slashing of her department, the secretary chose as her first foray into the policy-making arena a public criticism of a segment on the PBS children's television program Postcards from Buster. In it, Buster portrayed the Easter Bunny visiting a lesbian couple and their children. Spellings later explained that she was hired to uphold the values that Congress dictated for federal support of children's programming, a sort of Faustian bargain. But, rather than recommend Goethe's classic, I think the Mill treatise on liberty is highly appropriate. In On Liberty, this 18th-century Englishman argues for the utmost diversity in thought and civic actions, for protection of minorities, for the greatest possible freedom of thought and expression, and for the benefits of supporting nonconformists. …

The Commodity Flow of U.S. Children's Television

This article argues that commodity flow is a defining characteristic of children's television programming, and that this flow of commodity and corporate-brand images builds into the genre a relatively coherent selling ethos. Three-hour blocks of programming, recorded on two different Saturday mornings for several broadcast and cable networks, were analyzed to highlight commodity flow within and between networks. This flow of commodities on children's television indicates a blurring of the distinction between content and promotional forms and illustrates the high level of commercialism targeted at this audience.

FCC adopts children's television programming rules

Children will see more educational television programming in coming years after the unanimous adoption of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order on Sept. 9 requiring additional hours of children's educational and informational (E/I) programming by broadcasters. It also requires a uniform

Toddlers, tourism and Tobermory: Destination marketing issues and television-induced tourism

It has been witnessed on an international scale that destination-specific film and television has the power to increase tourism demand. For destination marketers, the projected image and the profile of visitors attracted form significant areas of concern. Nowhere has this been more marked than on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, where in 2003, a new phenomenon termed ‘toddler tourism’ was sparked by the popularity of a new pre-school children's television programme called Balamory, which is filmed on the Island. This paper reports on a survey of tourism business operators on Mull and provides evidence of the nature and scope of the impact of television-induced tourism on tourism business performance and activity, indicating that the effects were concentrated spatially and temporally. Marketing implications are explored using business operators perceptions of the effects of marketing on tourism patterns and broad areas of concern for the future development of tourism as a result of television programmes are highlighted.

Saturday-morning television: do sponsors promote high-risk behavior for burn injury?

Television has become an important tool for learning and socialization in children. Although television violence has been associated with adverse effects, data on depiction of fire and burn injury are lacking. We sought to determine whether Saturday-morning television programming, viewed primarily by children, depicts fire and burn injury as safe or without consequence, thus potentially increasing the incidence of burn injury in children. This was a prospective observational study. Saturday-morning children's television programs were videotaped from 7 AM to 11 AM for eight different television networks during a 6-month period. Tapes were scored for scenes depicting fire or smoke by independent observers. Recorded items included show category, scene type, gender target, context of fire, and outcome after exposure to flame. Fire events were documented during programs and their associated commercials. A total of 108 hours of children's programs, 16 hours per network, were recorded. Scenes depicting fire or smoke were identified 1960 times, with 39% of events occurring during the program itself and 61% in commercials. Fire was depicted as either safe or without consequence in 64% of incidents. Action adventure stories accounted for 56% of flame depictions. Overall, one incident involving flame and fire was portrayed for each 3 minutes of television programming. Saturday-morning television programming frequently depicts fire as safe, empowering, or exciting. The incidence of flame use in programming varies between stations but is most prevalent in action/adventure stories. Television commercials, although brief, provide the majority of the misinformation regarding fire. Medical professional societies should alert the public to this potential hazard and recommend responsible portrayal of fire in children's television programming.

The Birth of an Advocacy Group

This article uses oral history, archival research, and popular and trade publications mostly from the 1960s and the 1970s to tell the story of Action for Children's Television (ACT). An advocacy group started by a group of mothers in Newton, Massachusetts, ACT changed the way that the broadcasting industry and the Federal Communications Commission approached TV programming for children. Policymakers credit the women of ACT with shaping current children's television programming and advertising regulations. Although the group's leadership changed over time, the organization always maintained the goals it set in the first few months of its existence. With these goals, ACT exemplified the impact that a determined advocacy group can have on government and the television industry.

The Gender-Role Content of Children's Favorite Television Programs and Its Links to Their Gender-Related Perceptions

Two studies were conducted to (a) examine the gender-role stereotypical, counterstereotypical, and gender-neutral messages contained in a sample of first- and second-grade children's favorite television programs; and (b) to link the results of the content analysis to the children's gender-role values and interpersonal attraction to same- and opposite-gender television characters while the content analysis showed that there was a great deal of gender neutrality in the programs the children preferred. However, as predicted, male characters were still more likely than female characters to answer questions, boss or order others, show ingenuity, achieve a goal, and eat. The results of the survey showed that preference for stereotypical content predicted boys' valuing hard work and humor. In addition, for girls preference for male stereotypical and male counterstereotypical content negatively predicted interpersonal attraction to female characters, whereas preference for female counterstereotypical and gender-neutral content positively predicted interpersonal attraction to female characters. For boys preference for female counterstereotypical content positively predicted interpersonal attraction to male characters.

The fall from Eden, critical theory, and The Teletubbies

This essay demonstrates how the biblical story of Eden (Genesis chapters 2–3) illuminates contemporary critical theory and culture. Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin evoke the myth of the Fall in their studies of mass culture. Giorgio Agamben and Peter Sloterdijk show how modernity is defined by such extraordinary places as concentration camps and parks. But my reading of Genesis 3 reveals a subtle story even better suited to cultural criticism than the standard myth of the Fall. In an analysis of the children's television programme. The Teletubbies, I show how the Edenic world of Teletubbieland reflects the most sinister qualities of consumer culture. The interplay between Teletubbieland and reality echoes the dynamic tension between Eden and life outside it. Teletubbieland captures two motifs common to the biblical story and critical theory: extraordinary places and the human–animal relationship. By merging contemporary theory and culture with biblical tradition, this essay points out new directions for biblical studies.

Meme Engineers: children as producers of musical culture

This paper examines the ways in which young children construct and negotiate musical meaning as song-makers in a post-modern consumerist musical world. A critical analysis of the presentation of music in two popular Australian children's television programmes (Play School and Hi-5) and the ways in which such media impact upon children's constructions of music and musical understanding is presented. This analysis provides a context for the examination of tensions that exist between a modernist account of what constitutes musical understanding in the young child, and an account that is cognisant of post-modern aesthetics. The implications of this concerning views of children's musical development and curriculum decision making are discussed and a view of the child as an active agent in the construction of her musical worlds is illustrated through an examination of the musical narratives of a 4-year-old child.

Lessons from children's television: The impact of the Children's Television Act on children's learning

The 1990 Children's Television Act (CTA) requires broadcasters to provide educational and informational television programs for children. A multimethod, multidisciplinary approach, utilizing both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, was used to investigate the degree to which the CTA has had an effect on children's viewing experiences and learning. Second- to sixth-grade children's preferences and comprehension of content from prosocial and academic programs broadcast by the four major commercial networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) were compared to those for similar programs broadcast by PBS and Nickelodeon. Overall, girls and younger children liked educational and informational television programs more than boys and older children did. Girls and older children understood the programs best, particularly the prosocial ones. Over the course of 9 months, however, viewing educational and informational television programs declined, particularly for older boys. Nevertheless, lessons were reported more often after viewing favorite educational than favorite entertainment-driven programs. Results suggest beneficial effects of many commercial educational and informational children's television programs as well as the value of protections, such as requiring broadcasters to provide 3 h of educational and informational programs each week, to ensure that educational television programs survive in the competitive market place. Such policy decisions provide our children with access to quality television programs that can improve their social, emotional, and cognitive well-being.

Minorities in Children's Television Commercials: New, Improved, and Stereotyped

Mass media is one means by which consumers learn how to behave as consumers. Consumers’ beliefs about minorities as consumers are also influenced by mass media, and the impact is likely highest among young children. A content analysis of 813 commercials in children's television programming reveals that while Caucasians continue to be the predominant models in terms of numbers and in the types of roles they play, the numerical representation of minorities, especially Blacks, has improved. However, the study found that minorities are more likely than Caucasians to have minor roles and to be portrayed in certain product categories, settings, and relationships. Societal impacts and implications for minority consumers are discussed.