Abstract
It is easy to blame excessive “screen time” for the educational and behavioral difficulties that children face. And with children under the age of 6 watching an average of 2 hours of screen media a day, and older children averaging 4 hours a day, such practices deserve our attention. Children’s television shows in particular often get criticized for their thin content, gross humor, and “passive” viewing. But television shows do teach values and social conventions. And such enculturation need not be looked at as passive. As Haas and Flower write, “‘meaning’ does not exist in a text but in readers and the representations they build.” But how do television shows engage children in this active construction of meaning?
Looking at shows such as Spongebob Squarepants, Lizzie McGuire, and Good Luck Charlie, this study considers how television employs different methods for incorporating values into episodes using methods that require more or less work by the viewer to construct the underlying lesson. Online reviews of these shows vary greatly with some lambasting them as “inappropriate” due to “questionable language choices, violent conduct and vulgar ways.” Others look at the same show and find that it is “one of the best,” teaching “many positive words and lessons.” This study explores the way in which ambiguity in children’s shows not only invites such divergent interpretations, but also functions to encourage the active construction of meaning by viewers, teaching what Gee calls “ways of being in the world” that you “cannot overtly teach.”
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Eric Mason
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-4-2014 1:00 PM
End Date
4-4-2014 5:30 PM
Enculturation through Ambiguity: Morality and Meaning in Children's TV Shows
Alvin Sherman Library
It is easy to blame excessive “screen time” for the educational and behavioral difficulties that children face. And with children under the age of 6 watching an average of 2 hours of screen media a day, and older children averaging 4 hours a day, such practices deserve our attention. Children’s television shows in particular often get criticized for their thin content, gross humor, and “passive” viewing. But television shows do teach values and social conventions. And such enculturation need not be looked at as passive. As Haas and Flower write, “‘meaning’ does not exist in a text but in readers and the representations they build.” But how do television shows engage children in this active construction of meaning?
Looking at shows such as Spongebob Squarepants, Lizzie McGuire, and Good Luck Charlie, this study considers how television employs different methods for incorporating values into episodes using methods that require more or less work by the viewer to construct the underlying lesson. Online reviews of these shows vary greatly with some lambasting them as “inappropriate” due to “questionable language choices, violent conduct and vulgar ways.” Others look at the same show and find that it is “one of the best,” teaching “many positive words and lessons.” This study explores the way in which ambiguity in children’s shows not only invites such divergent interpretations, but also functions to encourage the active construction of meaning by viewers, teaching what Gee calls “ways of being in the world” that you “cannot overtly teach.”
