Kraidy Article Summary

Sesame Street, one of the most popular children’s shows ever, has been educating children for over thirty years. Its multicultural cast is exceptionally contrasting to other media during the 1970s, which is very praiseworthy, according to the Kraidy and his article, “Sunny Days on Sesame Street? Multiculturalism and Resistance Postmodernism”. Kraidy concludes that Sesame Street has multifaceted dialogues that recognizes other races in constructing identity. In other words, Sesame Street promotes “multicultural identification and coexistence” (Kraidy, 2002).

In examining Sesame Street’s validity as a pedagogical tool for teaching children about multiculturalism, Kraidy examines its portrayal of multiculturalism. In doing so, he uses Peter McLaren’s theory of resistance postmodernism, which addresses pedagogy and multiculturalism.

The show was first produced by New York based Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) in 1969. It won 71 Emmys, and broadcasted in 141 countries, including 19 foreign coproductions where different muppets were made to be introduced to these different countries. So popular is the show, it has 11 million viewers in U.S. Sesame Street succeeds to teach children numbers and letters, as well as social commitment. For instance, it educates and promotes awareness to children about multiculturalism in U.S., and cultural and religious tolerance in Israel.

As an educational tool, Sesame Street was found to serve a significant impact on children’s learning. Rice, et al. (1990), studied the relationship between watching television to pass time and learning. They found that Sesame Street was a rich source for developing vocabulary of children ranging from ages three to five. In other studies performed by Salomon, Cook, and Conner, whose studies were similar, they found that Sesame Street is a supplement to children’s education, where best results are detected when exposed to other educational stimuli, age, and support from parents.

Its sociocultural impact also demonstrated positive results. For instance, Children ages four to seven who watched Sesame Street were tested, and results showed that they were more likely to describe others in a more positive way. Moreover, they often resort to prosocial justifications to resolve conflicts. All in all, Sesame Street’s education impact is not only limited to teaching children about numbers and letters, but it also extends to teaching them the important foundation to cultural scaffolding and social interactions.

Postmodernism’s emphasis and acknowledgement of cultural diversity, bringing the emergence of media like Sesame Street which has a multicultural cast. Peter McLaren encourages educators to develop a curriculum that attends to specificity (race/gender/class), but also acknowledges the commonality of all these diverse groups (things they have in common). Resistance Postmodernism encompasses plurality of truth, and “a means of interrogating locality, positionality, and specificity of knowledge” (Kraidy, 2002). Plurality of truth is exemplified in Sesame Street’s episode where a Olivia goes over to Aisha’s house (cross-cultural friendship). Moreover, it is continually re-emphasized throughout the show because all the characters on the show each take part in being a teacher at one point. It also promotes self-esteem by showing that learning and teaching is essential to everybody’s interaction, moreover, it dethrones authority and makes everyone equal. Another episode a narrated by a girl who lives in a small village in China learns stilt dancing from her grandfather offers more insight into foreign culture. These scenes allow children to question their locality, and specificity of knowledge to a culture that is clearly different from theirs such as Chinese.

Educational Television Is Not an Oxymoron – Daniel R. Anderson

Anderson’s “Educational Television Is Not an Oxymoron” talks about the effects
of educational television on child development. He addresses both sides of the
controversial issue of whether it helps or hinders a child’s cognitive and
social development.

The reading uses Sesame Street as the primary example for comparison of whether
or not educational television is beneficial to children. A Children’s
Television Act was put in place for the purpose of creating television in which
it was designed to benefit children by teaching them valuable information and
skills. However, with that being said there were critics who argued that
children programming is not affect.

Critics of children’s television program viewed “educational television” as an
oxymoron claiming that it does not help, but instead hinders a child’s
development. They expressed that educational television produces shortened
attention span, made children intellectually passive, delayed development, and
produces frantic behaviour.

Anderson furthers his analysis by providing examples of some of the cases
against Sesame Street. He mentioned Jane Healy in which she provides one of the
strongest attacks on Sesame Street. She goes as far as saying that language
skills and the ability to follow or produced extended arguments are
deteriorating. She also argues that educational television fails to provide
children with the appropriate experiences they need in order for the brain to
develop properly in the early years of development.

While some say that educational television, such as Sesame Street, causes
shorter attention spans and lack of thought development. There are also others
who oppose to this saying that it is beneficial to children and especially
those in disadvantage circumstances.

Anderson addresses the flaws of some of the claims made by the critics of Sesame
Street. Critics claimed that after watching the child television program
children exhibited shorter attention spans and appeared to have frantic
behaviour where they would count and recite the alphabet. The core claims made
against Sesame Street posed problems because empirical studies fail to support
the claims that were made. For example the claim of how young children’s
attention to Sesame Street is involuntary or due too primarily to the
occurrence of salient features is untrue because the most obvious component of
attention to television is simply looking at the television screen.

Overall, Anderson acknowledges the fact that television probably has no
consistent effects. But he believes that educational television is beneficial
to children resulting in better graces and other positive outcomes in, which he
linked to studies that were done in elementary schools in Sweden and the United
States. Sesame Street is one of the longest running children’s programs. It has
become the basis for which other children’s programs are created.

Television News

• “Nightly News broadcasts in the early days of America took off to a relatively slow start.” – compared to almost any other television genre

• These News programs drew on two major influences from older media:
1. Broadcast radio news – the way americans viewed the Great Depression and Cold War
2. Theatrical Newreels – advertising on radio and admission prices for newsreels

• Television carried over with them a set of conventions that was adopted by Broadcast radio delivered by an announcer
• Authorative voice, read stories from news paper and wire services
• Live on location in the 30s and 40s also became very popular, allowing listeners to listen as the stories were unfolding. (Radio, not television)
• News station relied on licensing film footage

Early News Television

• Most Television Shower were single sponsor programs 1950’s NBC’s nightly news report “The Esse Television Reporter”, “Camwell NewsReal Theater”, wasn’t till the 50’s, where they would create there own news programs, and switch to a multi-sponsored company.

Politically

• The rise of television news after world war II coincided with the beginnings of the cold war. The nightly news was clearly on the side of the capitialists, and the emergence of the consumer society
• Reporting in foreign affairs “Is this country on our side or the enemys side”
• 50’s – the radio and movie industry was continuing to come to a decline but the television news industry kept attracting American viewers giving the viewers knowledge of what was happening around the world
•  Technological Innovation (new cameras) made it easier and more possible

News Televison Strategy

• In the beginning networks kept pouring more and more money into there news divisions, even though they were not receiving any profits
• Also they would entice there viewers to dedicate there evenings to watching one single news station as opposed to numerous.
• Over time news stations would become very profitable
• Viewed major impacts of the day e.g white American violence on African Americans.
• Civil Rights movement with the help of TV awareness.

Televised Vietnam War

• The three major networks would televise the first war that did not end in victory for the U.S informing the Americans at war how the battle was going
• Conservative Americans still blame the media for it’s defeat and argue that the American public could not handle the truth.
• Main Lesson learned by American military must watch out for free flows of information that can upset the army.
• Governments set restrictions for reporters

Chapter 12: Chapter Twelve: Network Domination of U.S Television (1959-1971)

Between 1959 and 1971, we witnessed the Big Three networks shift from a single sponsor system to a multiple sponsor system. This brought a decrease in power upon NBC, CBS, ABC, as these network could no longer take advantage of the veto power they once had over a program. As well, during this time period many networks began to co-produce their own programming, which led to a vertical integration in the media industry. Chairman of the Federal Communications Council, Newton Minnow, criticized the networks for their lackluster programs and ideas. Minnow’s actions led to increased funding for new TV construction,
manufacture production of VHF/UHF, as well an increase in documentaries produced. Due to Minnow’s actions, it allowed for the creation of new genres to be aired, which eventually overtake the very popular genre of westerns. In 1971, the FCC passed the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule. This initialized the destruction of the vertical integration structure of the American Television industry, the creation of many independent companies, and refrained networks from producing and owning programs they aired during primetime. During this time period, American television entertainment was the medium of entertainment around the world. As Hollywood is facing a decline, the consist push for sales of many American produced shows to foreign programming allowed for domination of their airwaves. Since these shows were achieving a profitable return, they could be exported at a very low cost. The success of this strategy ensured that American media would be among the most successful of American exports and entertainment
worldwide.

Summary: Chapter 11 – Advertising

Introduction

Chapter 11 outlines the advertising industry’s relation to television and radio.  In starting off more broadly, the definition of advertising is the business of drawing public attention to goods and services.  However, beyond this simple definition, advertising works on many different levels, one of which is to provide us with a glimpse into a utopian world.  A world that is only able to be achieved through one buying into consumerism.  Advertising presents this world, one based on desire.  We desire happiness and these products and services promise this when we purchase the newest and greatest things.  One may at first assume that advertising is a relatively new thing, but it has actually been around since Roman times.  It is really the advertising industry itself which hadn’t developed until the early 1900s.  It is this industry which has funded radio and television broadcasting and is the focus for this presentation.

Advertiser – Broadcaster Relations

            In looking over the history of the advertising industry, one of the first developments was the first “infomercial” in 1922.  Broadcasted over the radio and television, these types of ads remain to this day.  The earliest infomercials were essentially radio and television commercials running over a long period of time – often 5 minutes or longer.  It is important to outline that the main goal in mind was to sell the product, and that there is little to no entertainment value provided to keep the audience tuned in.  Despite infomercials still being run today, companies learned later on that there was a more effective type of advertising which combined entertainment with advertising.  The idea of developing programming that displays the sponsor’s products front and center.  This became a standard for the radio which was adopted by television in the 1940s.

            The standard of advertising did however change in 1959 with the scandals on various game shows.  One example was in 1956, on the show Twenty-One where a specific contestant was rigged into winning the show. 

As due to these events, in 1960, the United States Congress made various amendments to the Communication Act of 1934, which led networks to change the format of advertising.  Instead of a single sponsor running the whole show, TV networks began selling 60 second ads whereby numerous sponsors could buy time.  This format was shortened to 30 seconds by the 1970s.

            The popularity of this multi sponsor format meant that a system needed to be developed to assign cost to certain timeslots.  The A.C. Neilson Company works to measure the specific audiences for certain shows at different times.  This information in addition to the time of day, time of year, the audience, and network reputation are all computed to determine the cost to be charged for certain advertising time.  It is because of this, that advertising agencies have been set up to provide companies with market research, creative development, and account services in developing their advertisements. 

Advertising, Mass Culture and Mass Production

            Further discussed in chapter 11, are the reasons behind why the advertising industry developed into what it is today, that of an ever-growing industry which is continuously upping itself in overall spending.  The reasons are tied to a number of developments in American society with the rise of modern capitalism and mass production.  Mass production meant that products are being made for consumption on a larger scale.  Corporations required mass advertising to spread messages to these larger numbers of people.  These “mass produced” messages began in the 1920s.  The few large corporations which dominated 1920s America wanted to maintain their dominant positions and at the same time increase their market share.  They needed to be able to convince more consumers to buy their products.  They did so by devoting more money to mass advertising.

            At this time, they also discovered that it was far more effective to appeal to the emotions of consumers rather than only conveying the advantages of the product itself. 

In addition to these reasons, the advertising industry’s development worked in favor for the United States as a country itself.  Advertising and consumerism worked to solve the problems of early capitalism which plagued the United States and also worked to go against other ideologies such as communism and socialism.  By promoting consumerism in advertising, the American Dream was being created.  Advertising promoted this dream that regardless of your background or social standing, one should be able to achieve their goals and be successful if one puts in the required effort.  Advertising promoted this ideal that everyone should aspire to that of home ownership, owning appliances and cars, etc.  This promoted a common bond that everyone in the US could look to despite the diversity that immigration presented within the US. 

Modern Times

            In the modern times, the advertising industry is ever-increasing their overall spending.  In 2000, total spending was calculated at 243 billion dollars.  This value increased to 279 billion in 2007.  These numbers describe an industry that continues to dominate what we see, and what we are exposed to.  The newest development is that of product placement in films and shows.  This is where a product or service is included within a show / film and in doing so, the film company or broadcaster is paid by the product company.  This saturation of advertising essentially means that there is practically no where we can turn without seeing advertising. 

Case Study: American Consumer Culture and America’s Image Abroad

            The case study presented in the chapter discusses the Cold war between the United States and the USSR.  More specifically, the propaganda war between the two superpowers with the US promoting the idea that capitalism is better in offering a higher standard of living and a countless array of consumer goods for its people.  It is important to look at this, as we today assume that consumerism is a normal way of life.  It becomes hard to imagine a life without being able to constantly purchase any items we want.  It is important to make aware that this is a relatively new concept that wasn’t really instilled until after World War 2 when people had rising wages and more goods to choose from.  We should be aware that the advertising industry has had enormous affect on bringing about consumerism into new generations.  We should remind ourselves that consumerism isn’t necessarily a normal way of life, but rather only one viewpoint created as a result of living in a capitalist society.