Popular Television Shows for Children Ages 6-9 and 9-12
Introduction
The two children television shows that I select and view for my paper are Barney and Friends, for children between the ages of one and eight and Popular Mechanics for children between the ages of seven and twelve. Barney and Friedens is created by Sheryl Leach and Popular Mechanic is based on Popular Mechanics magazine. Both shows are presented on PBS.Kids many times. These shows are very liked by children as well as by their parents. The main character Barney, communicates educational information's and messages via songs and other small activities like dance accompanied with friends filled with encouraging and optimistic attitudes. These shows present mixture of entertainment and education. There are also a lot of useful and healthy information's in these shows. In addition to the educational information's,
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available in these shows, children, can learn about main areas of childhood development of social emotional, cognitive and physical. Popular Mechanics reflects on the careers of Elisha Cuthbert and Jay Baruchel and Tyler Kyte.The main objective of this show is to lend ideas and information, for children on how things work in their environment and educate them on the importance of work and attitude. Kali, R.V., & Cavanaugh, J.C. (2014).The sheer amount of television that children's watch is not a powerful on development. Most of the impact of television for good or bad comes through the content of the television programs that they watch. :( P.207)
Both Shows Watched Barney and Friends Popular Mechanics
How many times I saw acts of violence Six 5 times
How many times I observed relational aggression Less than 7 6 times
How many times I observed pro-social behavior 27 times 33
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times There are some, act of violence, relational aggression, and prosocial, behaviors displayed in these shows. Inappropriate languages are also expressed in these two shows, particularly in the Barney and Friends. For example, when one kid unexpectedly, came to Barney and approached him,Barney, looks like unprepared and did not know, what to do with this kid and eventually, he said unacceptable word which makes the kid to cry and got mad at Barney. Subsequently, cops came and put Barney under arrest. In another act, the importance of having personality is not demonstrated well and it looks like having personality is insignificant and unnecessary. All of the participants dressed alike, act similarly and even talked alike. Some of the kids try to inform Barney about their interest and how they want to live in their life, but Barney did not listen. This sound like being a person is not necessary. Another negative, example is when Barney talks, about stealing and sharing he did not make clear the difference. He even jokingly said that taking someone's belonging is okay, if that person did not mind. In another episode, some children are seen taking part in a competition to take peanut using a spoon, without dropping it. One of the kids wanted the butter and he used his spoon to put butter on his spoon and he wins the competition. He was given reward for being the winner, even if cheating in the competition. Cheating looks like okay and that can send a bad message to children. In addition to what I mentioned above, there are also some episodes that entirely focus on negative emotions and feelings, such as scare, madness, anger, sadness, embarassment, and shame. In Popular Mechanic, the entire show mainly focuses on educating children about hard work and life. Dudko (2010) states, "Barney and Friends is educational by design. Each Barney episode emphasizes language and cognitive development, physical activity and social interaction," (Para 4) The negatives associates with these shows can have bad impact on Zach. For example, as I indicated above, cheating and misleading is demonstrated by the children in the show. Zach, may think, cheating is okay or having personality is not important in life. He also can interpret some of the negative acts in the show, as a normal and acceptable in the society in which he lives. There are also some positive outcomes that are associated with Zach observing shows like the Popular Mechanic, which is for older children This show educates children about work, relationship, and life. Zach can learn , about the importance of love, compassion, work and how society operates and identify the difference between himself and older children, in terms of how they interact to one another and try to make relationship meaningful and attractive. He also improve his thinking and problem solving abilities, by watching people engage in various activities in the show. Stevens ,K (2012) states, Children who watches educational and non-violent older children shows perform in the class better on reading and math tests than children who do not watch.( Para 6) Conclusion Cognitive and physical development n middle age and socioemotional development in the middle age are very important parts of the human development.
Children start moving to a level which allow them to build their thinking abilities and start identifying their surrounding and their interactions using their emotional developments. Watching educational television shows helps children cognitive development. It is difficult to avoid television for children. My nieces small children lives with me and always when they come home from school, the first thing they do is looking for a remote control to turn on the tv.Even if they don't turn it on, adults in the house tuned in to television, siblings or parents. In many homes, television is frequently on even if nobody in the house. My niece told me that she uses television as a substitute helper or
babysitter. Children’s television shows can have many beneficial effects, but it is always good to remember specially, for parents to know that if children are not paying reasonable attention and be able to identify what they might gain from watching any show they would not learn much from just watching television shows, even if the show is educational.
In “Television Harms Children”, Ann Vorisek White claims that the intellectual and cognitive development of children who frequently watch television is threatened. To support this claim, she points to the findings that “the more television children watch, the weaker their language skills and imaginations” (White, 2006). Before the brain fully matures around age 12, it is in the stage of rapid development. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) “recommends that children under the age of two not watch TV or videos, and that older children watch only one to two hours per day of nonviolent, educational TV” (White, 2006). A study from the AAP (as cited in White, 2006) found that the average American child watches four hours of television every day. Considering "expression and reasoning are not automatic" abilities, young children who routinely watch television eventually become "passive and nonverbal" to stimuli in their environment (White, 2006). Since the normality of curiosity and imaginations of young children are the foundation of how they learn, remaining passive for extended periods of time affects their intellectual and moral development.
First titled Life and Stuff, Roseanne aired its first season in 1988 and its last season in 1997. The show starred Roseanne Barr as Roseanne Conner and John Goodman as Dan Conner. The couple lived in Lanford, Illinois with their three children Becky, Darlene, and D.J. They are a blue-collar, working-class family with both parents working outside of the home. They struggled just to pay the bills and put food on the table, sometimes each working two jobs. It portrayed real life issues such as pre-marital sex and pregnancy, financial struggles, sexuality, infidelity, death, drugs, and much more. In the first of its nine seasons, Roseanne (Barr) works at Wellman Plastics, along with her sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) and friend Crystal (Natalie West). Dan (Goodman) works as a self-employed drywall contractor for his company, Four Aces Construction. Roseanne's parents, Beverly (Estelle Parsons) and Al Harris (John Randolph), drive their two daughters crazy. Teenage Becky (Lecy Goranson) begins dating her first boyfriend Chip (Jared Rushton. Darlene (Sara Gilbert) wonders if she can still play baseball after having her first period. This season also deals with the issue of death, a terrifying tornado, Dan and his father’s relationship struggles, and Roseanne and her friends quitting their job. In season two, Jackie decides to become a police officer and begins a serious relationship with Gary (Brain Kerwin). Roseanne runs through a plethora of jobs, with shampoo woman at the beauty parlor being most influential. Roseanne also deals with issues of attractiveness when Dan's poker buddy Arnie (Tom Arnold) passionately kisses her. She is slightly disappointed when he does the same to Jackie. Crystal and Dan’s father begin a romance. Becky h...
Postman mentioned that to watch television you do not need to have continuity meaning that it is not necessary for someone to watch a show from the beginning to comprehend what is going on. The types of behavior that you execute while watching television can be adapted to your behavior in your everyday life. For example if a kid is put in a situation in which he watches TV every day a show like Sesame street and they get used to the colors, the customs, the songs, and the puppets, by the time they are old enough to be inscribed in to school they are going to feel so uncomfortable and are going to see the environment as different. It is not a different environment then what they are used to and they are going to feel hostile at first. But if instead the kid is taught every day to spend time with his parents while they teach him or her how to read or how to write him or her is going to be better prepared for school because they know how to interact with other people, they have a continuous set of rules and regulations they have to follow, and because you as a parent would be completely sure they are learning instead of pretending they are learning with a
It may be hard to admit, but television has become an intricate part of our everyday lives. People children often find themselves sitting in front of the television screen for a longer period of time than before and this has evolved immensely over the past few years. In this article, “The Trouble with Television,” by the author Marie Winn, mentions that addiction of television is negative effects on children and families. It keeps the families from doing other things and it’s a hidden competitor for all other activities. Television takes place of play and on top of that kids who watch a lot of television grow uncivilized. Also, the author mentioned that televisions are less resourceful for children and have negative effects on children’s school achievement and on physical fitness. Although there are so many other types of addictions but the author Marie Winn’s points of argument of watching television is a serious addiction that our children and families have negative effects.
The question as to whether television is a good way to teach children has always been hotly debated. There has been studies conducted that demonstrate that school age children can benefit from educational programs geared toward their age range. Some elementary schools in the United States have implement educational shows into their daily classes; even high schools and colleges use educational videos as part of their lectures and many say they are beneficial. Yet there is a new trend that seems to be sweeping across America; infant targeted media products. These new shows are now targeting children as young as 12 months, telling parents that it will help their child develop faster and ahead of their peers. It’s an appeal that no parent could pass up because everyone what’s their child to be the next Einstein. The question however is do these products actually work? This is the question DeLoache et al. (2010) and Krcmar, Grela, and Lin (2007) attempt to answer in their research into media and infant learning. Both studies focus on infant related media shows vs patent interaction, which learning style works the best, and if the claims by marketers about the effectiveness of their shows hold some or any validity.
The effect of the media on young children is especially salient. Young children often learn how to act and behave from what they observe at home, from the adults and older peers they come in contact with, and from what they see on television.
Popular media’s representation of youth culture depicts unscrupulous delinquents who despise authority and control, rebelling in a multitude of manners, including style of dress. Moreover, this translates to the public eye through many fictional schools not requiring a dress code, propelling the idea that all teenagers behave maliciously. Additionally, media appropriates non-Americanized religious and ethnic cultures through caricaturization of their practices, painting followers of non-Protestant religions and non-whitewashed ethnicities as extremists who appear and behave vastly different from the “norm”. Finally, over time, the acceleration of childhood became apparent through youth dressing like miniature adults, educational facilities
Moses, Annie M., and Benson McMullen. "What Television Can (And Can't) Do To Promote Early Literacy Development." YC: Young Children 64.2 (2009): 80-89. Education Research Complete. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
Television is something that is easily accessible for any child. I can agree with Postman when he stated that the transformation of childhood was when literacy disappeared, education disappeared, shame disappeared and essentially childhood disappeared. Though, he predicted all of this in the 90’s, I see it happening every day. The culture of our current generation of children has completely changed from when I was a child and the young are more tech-savvy than generations before (Postman, 1994).
There are many ways to define popular culture. Many individuals have grappled with the question what is popular culture? And how to critically analyze and deconstruct the meanings. Looking at the root words of popular culture is where to begin. Raymond Williams states ‘popular’ means: “well liked by many people" or “culture actually made for the people themselves (Storey, p.5). This is part with the word ‘culture’ combine to look at how the two words have been connect by theoretical work within social and historical context. John Storey approaches popular culture in six categories, they are as followed: “Popular culture is simply culture that is widely favoured or well liked by many people”, Popular culture is “the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture”, Popular culture is “mass culture”, “Popular culture is the culture that originates from ‘the people.” and “Popular culture as a site of struggle
There are many facts that show how children are affected by television. The most obvious is the effects that television has on the brain. 'Television interferes with the development of intelligence, thinking skill and imagination.';(LimiTv) A huge element of thinking is taking from what you already know and deciding how it applies in different situation. School makes you do this, but television does not. Michael and Sheila Cole, sociologist, say that 'Children socialized to learn from television had lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts, and tended to read less and perform relatively poorly in school.';(Development of Children 24) Which means that it takes very little effort to follow a television show and kids are raised on television believe that it takes less effort to learn from television rather than books because they have been 'spoon-fed'; information by television. 'Opportunities for a child's imagination to develop are also denied by habitual viewing.'; (Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain) Children need some unstructured time to allow imagination skills to form by thinking about a book or story, a conversation, or an event.
Without a doubt, television is the central and principal form of communication in many people’s lives. This form is most often exposed to a child who instantly becomes accustomed to its presence. Children are televisions largest audience, as Morris shows, “Children aged two to five look at the TV tube on an average of 28.4 hours a week; those between the ages of six and eleven average 23.6 hours a week”. Television has played an important role in many children’s lives and its viewing has been a favorite activity for many of them. The effects of television on children have been disputed. Some people have said that viewing time has a negative impact on children. Other people, however, feel that the early educational television productions for children help tehm learn.
According to Paediatrics & Children’s Health, T.V can teach kids many different things, such as “watching Sesame Street is an example of how toddlers can learn valuable lessons about racial harmony, cooperation, kindness, simple arithmetic, and the alphabet through an educational television format.”(2003) T.V shows can teach very good lessons to children about many important things, that these kids can use in their adult life. Another positive effect of television for kids is that it sort of opens their horizons to different things and people. For example, according to The Raising Children Network, teens and children can benefit from media exposure by developing cultural and political awareness. Television, films, magazines, and social media sites expose teens and children, who might be otherwise be limited to interactions with people from their own cultural and ethnic backgrounds, to an array of different people”. (Mokeyane) Children can really benefit from watching T.V, they can learn many educational things from shows like Sesame Street, Barney, or Caillou. Also, older children can learn about other cultures and political things that might not be talked about at home. Television really helps kids learn more important personal and educational lessons, that the generations,before, never had. Children, nowadays, have a great advantage in learning much more
Children who watch television have psychological effects by having less empathy, which is the same characteristic that bullies have. With the bullies lack of empathy it leads to sadistic behavior among the viewer. Exposure of this activity multiple times makes children less sensitive towards people. Although television viewing is entertaining to the viewer it also causes less empathy. Not just turning off the television but also changing the channel to an educational one can reduce it. What a person watches is just as important as how much time they watch it.
Firstly, we can get a lot of new knowledge through learning. Television can be a powerful teacher. By watching we can learn valuable lessons about racial harmony, cooperation, kindness, simple arithmetic and the alphabet through an educational television format. Some public television programs stimulate visits to the zoo, libraries, bookstores, museums and other active recreational settings, and educational videos can certainly serve as powerful pro social teaching devices. The educational value has been shown to improve the reading and learning skills of its viewers. Reference from Wright JC, Huston; Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas stated some disadvantaged settings, healthy television habits may actually be a beneficial teaching tool. Objectively, it helps to improve the writing, reading and listening skills for young generation and makes interest too. In addition, it may be comes a motivation for youth to overcome their communication probl...