Educational Television
Relies on active processing and includes salient
features such as:
Womens voices
Child dialogue
Non-human voices
Animation
Music
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Educational Television
Children elect not to pay as much attention to
programs that have:
Male voices
Adult dialogue
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Educational Television
When a well-designed, attention-holding program
is produced, information that is slightly more
complicated is introduced, allowing the exposure
of children to information they may have
previously ignored.
Educational Television
Repetition is a good tool for learning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8vUTm64h0
Positive Effects
Sesame Street study:
Children who watched Sesame Street at ages 2
and 3 scored higher at age 5 on measures of
language, math and school readiness.
Viewing at age 4 and beyond had no significant
effect
Positive Effects
Educational TV viewers:
Do better on standardized tests
Are rated as more ready to learn
Have getter preacademic skills
Are prepared to learn more
Think that learning is fun
Are eager to go to “real school” and are more
prepared for it.
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Long Term Effects
A study of adolescents who watched educational
programming as a child showed that:
A boy who watched 5 hours of educational tv a
week had a GPA aproximately .35 higher than
those who did not watch
A girl who did the same had a GPA aproximately
.10 higher
Prosocial Messages
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Any nonviolent social message designed to be
helpful or beneficial
Voluntary
Altruism, friendliness, sharing, cooperation,
sympathy and acceptance of others from
different groups
Aimed primarily at children
1990 Childrens Television Act
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Furthers the positive development of the child in
and respect, including cognitive/intellectual or
emotional/social needs
Efforts to fullfill educational programming
provided by major stations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxcrCqF8Gb
8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0_DPRFKel
8
Two basic learning mechanisms:
We learn by observing how to do things and
whether it is appropriate to do them.

We have emotional responses while watching
TV that affect our responses to simliar real-world
events.
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Entertainment Television
Television can have a strong impact on reaching children important values and prosocial behaviors such as helping others, sharing, telling the truth.
It can also encourage anti-social behavior which often yields positive results.
Entertainment Television
Children receive certain messages from television.
The different motivations of TV characters send
influential signals about the importance and value
of various aspects of life.
Entertainment Television in 2002
53% are motivated by peer relationships.
36% are motivated by sports and hobbies.
27% are motivated by romance.
24% are motivated by family relationships.
16% are motivated by society or community.
15% are motivated by school-related issues.
1% are motivated by religion or spirituality.
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Entertainment Television in 2002
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10% feature children dealing with major social
or family issues such as racism, substance
abuse or public safety
2% feature children dealing with major family
issues such as family crisis, child abuse,
domestic abuse or family values
Less than 12% of children are confronting
important issues.
Entertainment Television in 2002
Child Behaviors Most Rewarded on Television
Cooperating....................................91%
Helping........................................ 73%
Physical Aggression......................... 53%
Affection...................................... 46%
Explaining Feelings.......................... 45%
Deceit.......................................... 42%
Performing Responsibilities................ 32%
Verbal Aggression........................... 16%
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Entertainment Television in 2002
prosocial vs. anti-social
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70% of child characters on
fictional shows engage in
pro-social acts
Pro-social behaviors are
most likely to be seen as
effective in meeting the
child's goals
61 % of pro-social behaviors
were effective
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40% engage in anti-social
acts
while anti-social behaviors
are more likely to be shown
as ineffective
anti-social behaviors were
effective just 34% of the time.
Pro-Social Television
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Based on Neilsen ratings in 1999, out of the top
20 shows most watched by children ages 2 to
17, only four contained social lessions.
Of the four, only 2 contained pro-social lessons.
Of the 2, only one was designed explicitly for
children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poPgcjVRMdM
Pro-social Television in 2008
In a sample of 2,000 shows across 18 channels,
the following information was found:
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73% featured at least one act of altruism,
defined as helping, sharing, giving, or donating
On average, viewers of these programs saw
about three acts of altruism an hour
human characters rather than animated ones
enacted most of the altruism
about one-third of the behaviors were explicitly
rewarded in the plot.
Pro-social Television in 2008
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Altruism was more common in situation
comedies and children's shows than in other
types of programs
It was also more common on children's cable
networks such as Disney and Nickelodeon
Programs targeted to younger viewers often
portray helping behavior
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Popular among preschoolers:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDId6Jj958U
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Popular among young elementary:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoDqIKlFmQ
s
Social Interaction Statistics
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Preschoolers and their parents spend less time
talking with and looking at each other when the
television set is turned on than when it is off.
Families that eat dinner in front of the television
converse less and talk about fewer topics than
do families that turn the television off before
they sit down to dinner.
Families engage in more physical contact and
cuddling when they watch television together
than when they are doing other activities.
Pro-social Studies
Repeated exposure to pro-social television can
affect preschoolers' social behavior.
In one study, three- to five-year-olds watched
fifteen minutes a day of either Sesame Street or
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in their preschool.
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Observed behavior before, during and after.
Pro-social Studies
Exposure to Mister Rogers increased the amount
of social contact preschoolers had in the
classroom and increased their giving of positive
attention such as praise and physical affection to
others.
Sesame Street had a similar positive effect, but
only for those who were low in social skills at the
beginning.
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Summary
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Viewing pro-social programming does in fact
enhance children's pro-social behavior
The strongest effects of pro-social content are
on altruism
It's easier for television characters to
demonstrate behaviorally how to help someone
than how to be cooperative or tolerant of others