Gender Performativity and Postfeminist Parenting in Children’s Television Shows

Millions in taxpayer and foundation euros and dollars have been spent building and testing educational video games, games for health, and serious games. What have been the fruits of this frenzy of activity? What educational video game has had the reach and impact of Sesame Street or Blues Clues television shows? By comparison, the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) managed to get Sesame Street off the ground within a couple of years, writing the basic scientific literature on educational media design in the process. Not only is Sesame Street well known and proven, it laid the basis for every effective educational show to follow. This article explores the differences between the CTW scientific approach to educational media production and the mostly nonscientific approach consuming so many resources in the educational games, games for health, and serious games movements. Fundamental scientific questions that remain unanswered are outlined.

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Representations of Gender-Diverse Characters in Adventure Time and Steven Universe

Studies in Media and Communication ◽

10.11114/smc.v8i2.5048 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 61

Author(s):

Abigail S. Walsh

Keyword(s):

Language Use ◽

Children's Television ◽

Future Research ◽

Gender Representations ◽

Television Shows ◽

Gender Diverse ◽

The Social ◽

Gender Neutral ◽

And Gender ◽

Television Representation

Television is a strong educational and socializing agent for children. Watching television can teach children appropriate language and vocabulary to use, as well as the social norms about gender behaviors or activities. Previous research on gender representations in children’s television has been limited to studying male and female characters because children’s programming has historically presented audiences with cisgender characters (e.g., boy and girls). Recently, television shows aimed at children have provided audiences with nonbinary and gender-diverse characters. This study is the first exploratory content analysis, to my knowledge, to examine the portrayal and representation of nonbinary and gender-diverse characters in children’s television. The current study examined the gender-neutral pronoun and gendered language use toward nonbinary and gender-diverse characters, as well as the portrayal of these characters as leaders, and with special skills in Adventure Time and Steven Universe. Overall, nonbinary and gender-diverse characters were portrayed as strong, positive, characters, and were represented similarly to their cisgender counterparts. This represents a promising shift toward more inclusive and equitable television representation, which may lead to the acceptance and appropriate use of gender-neutral pronouns toward peers by cisgender children, and the feeling of visibility and validation by nonbinary children. Future research should examine the impacts of these characters on viewers. RELEVANCE STATEMENT: As children’s television becomes more diverse it has the potential to positively impact the lives of cisgender (e.g., boys and girls) and nonbinary children. Because television has the potential to influence young children, gender-diverse representations in children’s television may lead to children developing more accepting attitudes and behaviors toward nonbinary peers.

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Media Policy, Co-Existence, and Freedom of Speech

New Media and Communication Across Religions and Cultures - Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-5035-0.ch011 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 176-190

Author(s):

Ronald I. Cohen

Keyword(s):

Public Affairs ◽

Children's Television ◽

Religious Communities ◽

Religious Groups ◽

Governmental Organization ◽

Television Programming ◽

Television Shows ◽

Religious Issues ◽

Canadian Association ◽

Broad Array

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer broadcast codes dealing with issues of ethics, stereotypes and portrayal, journalistic ethics and violence on television, among others. As of the end of 2011 (the period dealt with in this chapter), the CBSC had rendered 505 Panel decisions, which have served to define the parameters of permissible (and excessive) content on a broad array of radio and television programming, including news, public affairs, magazine format television shows, radio and television talk shows, children's television, other dramatic forms, and so on. In many of the foregoing types of programming, complaints pertain to representations and discussions of religious issues and religious groups. This chapter addresses the nature of the complaints received with particular relevance to religion, religious communities, and discourses.

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Media Policy, Co-Existence, and Freedom of Speech

Human Rights and Ethics ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-6433-3.ch034 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 613-625

Author(s):

Ronald I. Cohen

Keyword(s):

Public Affairs ◽

Children's Television ◽

Religious Communities ◽

Religious Groups ◽

Governmental Organization ◽

Television Programming ◽

Television Shows ◽

Religious Issues ◽

Canadian Association ◽

Broad Array

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer broadcast codes dealing with issues of ethics, stereotypes and portrayal, journalistic ethics and violence on television, among others. As of the end of 2011 (the period dealt with in this chapter), the CBSC had rendered 505 Panel decisions, which have served to define the parameters of permissible (and excessive) content on a broad array of radio and television programming, including news, public affairs, magazine format television shows, radio and television talk shows, children's television, other dramatic forms, and so on. In many of the foregoing types of programming, complaints pertain to representations and discussions of religious issues and religious groups. This chapter addresses the nature of the complaints received with particular relevance to religion, religious communities, and discourses.

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Learning

The Library Screen Scene ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190854317.003.0004 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 103-140

Author(s):

Renee Hobbs ◽

Liz Deslauriers ◽

Pam Steager

Keyword(s):

Digital Media ◽

Oral Language ◽

Public Libraries ◽

Children's Television ◽

Pedagogical Practices ◽

Inference Making ◽

Web Based ◽

Whole School ◽

Television Shows ◽

Effective Pedagogy

Efforts to integrate digital media and information literacy into education are expanding, and some schools have already adopted a whole-school integration approach. There are many pedagogical practices for using audiovisual media in ways that support learning. Media-based activities support literacy development when they strengthen the oral language, inference-making, and reasoning skills that are required for reading comprehension. To learn for a lifetime, the most practical competence is the ability to ask good questions and get answers in order to make wise decisions. The active process of learning to formulate good questions is an essential life skill that school, public, and academic librarians can help to develop in learners and patrons alike. Librarians in school and public libraries have done amazing work in paying attention to stereotypes that exist in children’s literature and books. They can also help students and parents unpack and reflect upon the stereotypes offered in children’s television shows, movies, and games. Close reading of media—the core pedagogy of media literacy—builds a habit of mind that promotes deep awareness of and sensitivity toward the rhetorical purposes of informing, entertaining, and persuading, whether it is print, video, or web-based content. There are challenges to using media effectively in some settings, including restrictive school policies for video use, how to assess credible sources, and choosing the most effective pedagogy for an audience.

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Children's media communicates essentialist views of science and scientists

10.31234/osf.io/s6chb ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Marjorie Rhodes ◽

Sarah-Jane Leslie

Keyword(s):

Children's Television ◽

Children's Media ◽

Television Shows

This paper analyzes the scripts of children's television shows and reveals that references to scientists in children's media are often generic in nature.

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Comparing Complex Syntax Across Popular Children's Television Shows

The Boller Review ◽

10.18776/tcu/br/3/87 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Madison Burnett ◽

Class of 2018

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Language Learning ◽

Mental State ◽

Child Language ◽

Sesame Street ◽

Children's Television ◽

Complex Syntax ◽

Television Shows ◽

Research Questions

Studies indicate that certain television shows, such as Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, can positively impact a child’s thinking and social skills (Mares and Pan, 2015; Rasmussen, 2016). This study considers syntactic content of popular children’s television shows to make predictions of their underlying linguistic value. Therefore, the research questions are: Does Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood have more complex syntactic utterances than Paw Patrol? Does the number of mental state verbs used correlate with complex syntax? Results indicate that Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood consistently uses more complex syntax and mental state verbs than Paw Patrol, and that mental state verb use does significantly correlate with complex syntax. Implications for child language learning are discussed.

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Dying to Watch

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000079 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 55-64 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Laramie D. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Terror Management Theory ◽

Terror Management ◽

Management Theory ◽

Media Content ◽

Sexual Content ◽

Entertainment Media ◽

Sexual Values ◽

Television Shows ◽

Sexual Cognitions ◽

Sexual Media

Research has shown that thoughts about death influence sexual cognitions and some media choices. The present study tested the hypothesis that thoughts about death may affect individuals’ tendency to select or avoid entertainment media programming containing sexual material. In two experiments, thoughts about death (mortality salience [MS]) were manipulated before college undergraduates expressed interest in viewing television shows and movies with varying amounts of sexual content. In both studies, MS was associated with greater overall interest in sexual media content. Although terror management theory would indicate that sexual worldview should moderate this effect, this was not observed to be the case. In addition, MS was not found to affect interest in other types of highly engaging media content including violent and dramatic content. Limitations regarding generalizability are discussed. Results suggest that MS increases a preference for sexual media content, and that this occurs for individuals with diverse sexual values systems. This is discussed in terms of implications for terror management theory and cognitive models of media influence.

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