The talk of the ‘toons:
Researching stereotypes in children’s animated
televisual media
Calvin L. Gidney, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human
Development
Average number of hours
per week that 8-18 year
olds devote to media of all
kinds.
(Kaiser Family Foundation, www.kff.org)
The number of
hours that children
ages 2-11 spend
watching television
each week. (Nielsen
2010-2011 Annual Report)
In early adolescence, the typical
American child watches 5 hours of
television per day.
90% of U.S. two-year olds
regularly watch TV or videos.
Typically, preschoolers watch
1.5 – 2.5 hours of TV per day.
40 % of US 3month-olds
regularly watch
TV or videos.
In late
adolescence,
average TV
viewing is 3.5
hours.
Cultivation
Theory
(Gerbner)
Social
Learning
Theory
(Bandura)
Social
Cognitive
Theory
(Pajares)
Cognitive
Developmental
Theory
(Kohlberg &
Zigler)
Dr. Jennifer Burton, Professor of the Practice
Department of Drama and Dance
Film
Studies
Dr. Julie Dobrow, Director of Communications &
Media Studies,
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and
Human Development
Media
Studies
Dr. Calvin L. Gidney, Associate Professor
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and
Human Development
Linguist
ics
Sarah Pila, M.A. Candidate, CTV Research Coordinator
David Andrade
Vincent Carbone
Katherine Corneilson
Ashley Daugherty
Shira Faigel
Margaret Feltz
Hannah Fingerhut
Deborah Frank
Johanna Gittleman
Sylvie Grenier
Breandan Haley
Stephanie Liang
Nina Lutz
Marissa Maimone
Children’s
Television
Project
2015
RESEARCH
ASSISTANTS AND
CODERS
Ariana Michel
Claire Nataro
Anne Nesbitt
Rose Paisner
Sophie Pearlman
Aurora Phillips
Griffin Quasebarth
Maya Salcido White
Marissa Sashihara
Justin Sukernek
Daria Thames
Meghan Wales
Emily Whitley
Hannah Zwiebel
Content
Analysis of
Children’s
Animated
Television
Qualitative
Study of the
Production of
Children’s
Animated TV
Empirical
Study of
Children’s
Understanding
of Animated
TV
How do children make
sense of visual images
in televisual media?
Child
Development
Sociology
Psychology
Media Studies
How do children
understand dialect
variation and what are
their attitudes toward it?
How does children’s
animated television
portray gender, social
class, ethnicity and other
social categories?
How does children’s
animated programming
use dialect variation?
Sociolinguistics
What dialect stereotypes
and ideologies are found
in CATV?
How and when do
children’s awareness
of and sensitivity to
dialact variation
develop?
How do children
make sense of
television plots and
characters?
How do children
make sense of the
images in televisual
media?
2013/2014 Sample
1. Adventure Time - Cartoon Network
2. American Dad - Fox
3. Arthur - PBS
4. Bob’s Burgers - Fox
5. Digimon - Nickelodeon
6. Dragons: Riders of Berk - Cartoon Network
7. Legend of Korra – Nickelodeon
8. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Hub
9. Phineas and Ferb - Disney
10. SpongeBob SquarePants - Nickelodeon
2014/2015 Sample
1. Sanjay and Craig (NICK)
2. Breadwinners (NICK)
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NICK)
4. Wild Kratts (PBS)
5. WordGirl (PBS)
6. Ultimate Spiderman (Disney)
7. Gravity Falls (Disney)
8. Pokemon (CN)
9. Johnny Test (CN)
10.Littlest Pet Shop (Hub)
Any variety of language
associated with speakers of a
given type.
“Race” /
Ethnicity
Geographical
Age
Gender
Romantic
Orientation
SocioEconomic
Status
Other
Socially
Salient
Variables
Phonological: “I told my daughter not to give the dog
coffee.”
Lexical: soda / pop / Coke • milkshake / frappe / cabinet
Syntax, Semantics, Prosody, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistic,
etc.
Take CD 155
And learn
more!
DEMOGRAPHIC
INFORMATION
PHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS
PERSONALITY TRAITS (13)
 Serious … Comic
 Gender
 Skinny … Fat
 Good … Bad
 “Race” / Ethnicity
 Beautiful … Ugly
 Peaceful … Violent
 Dramatic Role
 Light Skin … Dark Skin
 Kind … Cruel
 Socioeconomic Status
 Well-dressed …
 Citizenship /
Nationality
Sloppily Dressed
 Dialects spoken
 Phonological features
 Morphological features
 Syntactic features
 Lexical features
 Genderlects
 Vocal qualities
Examples of each of these
Male & Female Characters Only
209
86
71%
29%
Female
Males & Females Only
Male
Characters by "Race"
100
30
27
3
Latino
Black
Characters by "Race"
63%
19%
17%
2%
Asian
White
Characters by SES
121
49
26
5
2%
Elite
5
13%
2%
Criminal
Upper Class
Characters by SES
24%
59%
Working Class
Middle Class
An independentsamples t-test was
conducted to
compare the
skinny/fat ratings of
female and male
characters.
There was a highly
significant difference
in the scores for
females (M=2.32,
SD=.8784) and males
(M=2.98, SD=1.1370); t
= 4.89, p < .00001, d =
.6532.
An independentsamples t-test was
conducted to
compare the
beautiful/ugly ratings
of female and male
characters.
There was a highly
significant difference
in the scores for
females (M= 2.274 ,
SD=1.085.) and
males,(M=3.20,
SD=.0870); t (268) =
7.589, p < .00001, d =
0.9472
Characters of Color (M=1.666, SD=1.433) ; White Characters (M=1.695, SD=1.568)
T = 2.50; p = .013 (p<.05), d=.352 (moderate)
Characters of Color (M=1.069, SD=1.314) / White Characters (M=2.072, SD=1.555)
T = 4.861 , p<.00001, d=.6987