The Role of Locally Produced and Digitally Animated Cartoons in the Process of Acquisition of Social Values

Television channels for children contain many cartoons and programs. These productions reach the viewers via both the television and the channel's official website. TRT Çocuk, broadcasting for children as a government television channel, presents many locally produced animated cartoons to the viewers. A product of the modern and digital technology, these locally produced cartoons carry importance in terms of transfer of social values. This study focuses on locally produced animation cartoons that have an important potential especially in the transfer of national and moral values. Determination of values conveyed via cartoons that bear importance in the transformation of television into an educational tool allows the media and child relationships to become visible. This work aims to examine the relationship between media and values by defining the concept of “value.” After creating a corporate frame, the study brings to light the social values conveyed in locally produced cartoons aired on TRT Çocuk television channel via qualitative analysis method.

New Communication Technologies

From the onset of the digital dawn, visually constructed new communication technologies, in particular social networks, have occupied a significant place in the lives of children. With increasing compactness of digital technologies, its availability increased also and helped social networks to a central role in the lives of adults and children as well. The shrinking of technology enabled most families to afford a tablet for their children who used the technology for starting an active social network life. This process brought with it endless debates about the actual control conditions of the children's usage and those conditions that were advisable. This study utilized in-depth interviews with six parents of children in the 4-7 age group, consisting a focus group to define the motives of adults who enabled their children with access to “digital technologies” and “social networks.”

Seeking Solutions for Enhancing Social Relations and Communication in Media-Dependent Children of the Digital Age

The technological age we're in removes all the temporal and spatial boundaries of communication and continues to provide various opportunities and conveniences for us. However, in this digital age in which individuals face intense information flow every day along with these opportunities, the effectiveness and control power of means of communication also increase. In today's capitalist or modern social order, a child model whose mental processes in a consumption-oriented way, who fully gets hold of the control mechanism and acts as an adult is being created. Parent profile of modern order accepts this model and they expect their children to behave as adults. The aim of this study is to find solutions to problems children—who have increasingly become dependent on communication devices of the digital age—face in socializing, establishing realistic relationships, and getting included within the communicative action of a realistic world to guide and raise awareness within parents for developing new communicative methods and skills with the children who have almost become mechanized.

The Impact of Social Media on Children

This chapter examines the impacts of social media on children. Advantages and disadvantages of social media are always available. Positive aspects of social media include allowing children to be brought up as multicultural individuals, enabling education and training environments to design for purposes, using as the main or supplementary source of education, a great power in creating and sharing information. Its negative aspects include leading to a reduction of their academic, social, and cognitive skills in the early periods when children were exposed to the social media, causing the children to develop obesity, mostly bringing up as consumption-centered individuals, perceive the world as a screenshot, and have low critical, creative, and reflective thinking skills. Therefore, one of the most important tasks undertaken to reduce or eliminate the negative effects is to raise and educate media-literate individuals.

Advertising Appeals Used in Children's Television Networks

Advertisement is a way of communication preferred by companies so as to communicate with their target audience. Nowadays, children account for a large number of consumers worldwide, having their own preferences in terms of fashion, toys, foods, and television channels. One of the most important aspects of advertisement is the appeal. This chapter deals with the appeals mostly used in children targeted advertisements and analysis their content. In total, 334 advertisements were analyzed through content analysis method. The findings of the study show that emotional appeals are far more commonly used than rational appeals. Specially in toy advertisements, the joy/happiness sub-appeal is preferred more than the other sub-appeals. As for the use of rational appeals analyzed, it appears that the price sub-appeal tops the list.

World Designs Presented to Children in Tales

Tale as a popular and narrative form differentiates according to time and space, the subject it deals with, the way it works, and the way the hero is built, and it designs different worlds for children. Various gender definitions—femininity and masculinity roles—through these designed worlds are presented to children underhandedly. This study evaluates how gender definitions—redefined with social, cultural, and economic changes in today's Turkey—are handled in recent Turkish tales by text analysis, specific to Keloğlan Tales on TRT cartoon channel.

Social Media and Children

As a result of high-tech developments and the increase in the importance of the global communication, social media websites and applications have occurred as a new way of communication and self-expression in the contemporary world. Globalization has forced people to obtain and spread the necessary information quickly, and due to this requirement, people of all ages have had to acquire digital skills which they utilize to meet their need of learning and being informed about the issues happening around the world. Social media tools and applications are being highly and commonly used all round the world by all kinds of people from all ages in order to express themselves, get to know other people, share their opinions and learn others' opinions on the world issues, socialize, and have fun. Regarding its effects on children, social media has both advantages and disadvantages.

Mechanism That Handles Child's Control Cartoons

Today, advances in technology are causing changes in the child's habits in daily life. Technological tools such as televisions, tablets, mobile phones, and computers have become easily accessible for children. Studies show that children spare most of their time to cartoons on the mass media. Spending so much time in front of the screen reveals a changing childhood image. The consumer child is an exhausted child, too. This chapter takes a look at the effects of cartoons on the development of children.

Consumption Ideology Constructed on Body and Sexualization in Kids Wear Advertisements

In this chapter, children's advertisements are problematized. The victims of advertisements are not only adults but also children. The identities of girls and boys, those used in children's clothing advertisements, are worrying because in these advertisements girls and boys are separated from their children identities and identified according to their sexual roles as men and women. The chapter makes a semiology analysis of an advertisement and reveals the identity of the child who became a sexual commodity.

Effects of Computer Games on the Socialization Process and Inclination to Violence of Adolescent Students

One of the main sectors that digital revolution made a great impact on is game industry. Computer games nowadays have started to take the first place in a lot of teen's free time activities. Social scientists especially study how these games affect the adolescents who are mostly students. In parallel with the first aim of study is understanding whether computer games affect adolescent students' socialization process and their tendency of violence or not. The second aim of the research is to show how and to what extent computer games affect the process of socialization and violence tendencies of adolescents. Data and information that are mentioned in the chapter contributes to the studies about this issue.